For years, Cash on Delivery (COD) has been the complex, costly, and unavoidable reality of Indian e-commerce. For companies dreaming of reaching the country’s heartland, “solving for COD” isn’t just a business goal—it’s the holy grail. It represents a monumental shift in user behavior, from the familiar comfort of cash to the new world of digital trust.
We believe the key to cracking the COD conundrum isn’t just about discounts; it’s about architecting a digital payment experience that is simple, reliable, and trustworthy that it becomes the natural choice.
To understand this vision, we sat down with Aditya Vikram, Senior Director of Product at Meesho, to discuss how they are tackling this challenge head-on.
Aditya, thank you for your time. Let’s start with the big one: Cash on Delivery. It’s a huge operational challenge in India. What is Meesho’s long-term vision for solving the COD puzzle, especially for your core user base in Bharat?
Aditya Vikram: Our belief that the experience of an online paid product is fundamentally different and better—for the user and for the entire ecosystem. The long-term goal is to make the digital payment experience so seamless and superior that it becomes the preferred option. For our users in Bharat, this isn’t about forcing a change, but about winning them over by offering something demonstrably better than the status quo of cash.
To shift users away from the comfort of COD, you need immense trust. You’ve said that a “failed payment is a big trust break.” Could you elaborate on why payment reliability is the absolute foundation for this vision?
Aditya Vikram: It’s the entire foundation. For a first-time user, making an online transaction is always a high-anxiety moment. We’ve learned that a failed payment is worse than a sold-out item. A sold-out item is a disappointment, but a failed payment shatters the fragile trust you’re trying to build. If you want a user to prepay for an order, you have to guarantee that their money is safe and the process is effortless. You simply cannot build a prepaid ecosystem on a foundation of unreliable payments.
Building this trust in Bharat comes with its own unique hurdles. What are the specific challenges your users face that make them hesitant about digital payments?
Aditya Vikram: Our users outside of Tier 1 India face a unique set of constraints. They might be dealing with low internet connectivity or have limited experience with digital financial tools. These factors increase the anxiety around online payments. A complex, multi-step process is a non-starter. The solution has to be simple and resilient to these on-the-ground realities.
Given those challenges, a standard payment flow clearly isn’t enough. What was the specific technological solution you implemented to build this seamless user experience?
Aditya Vikram: Exactly. We needed a solution that felt native to our app and eliminated all possible friction. That’s why we partnered with Razorpay to implement Turbo UPI. It’s powered by the BHIM Vega tech stack from NPCI, which was critical for us. This allows us to offer an inbuilt, one-click UPI experience directly within the Meesho app—no redirects, no app-switching. By connecting directly to the core UPI infrastructure, it’s not just faster, we believe that it’s incredibly reliable. This isn’t just a feature; it’s our strategic tool to make digital payments more convenient and trustworthy than COD.
And is this strategy working? How is this new payment experience actually changing user behavior and helping in the mission to solve for COD?
Aditya Vikram: The results are very promising. We’re seeing that when the prepaid experience is smooth, users adopt it and stick with it. This is creating two shifts in user behaviour:
- Increased User Stickiness: New users who have a positive first transaction—with both the checkout and any potential refunds being smooth—develop a preference for paying online next time.
- Higher Repeat Rate: Onboarded users are more likely to make future purchases. The convenience of a one-click, in-app checkout is a strong driver for loyalty and repeat business.
Finally, what’s the road ahead? What does success look like for Meesho in a few years when it comes to the COD vs. prepaid mix?
Aditya Vikram: Success is a future where every user on our platform has a financial instrument they can use with absolute confidence. It’s about bringing them to a point where paying digitally is an afterthought because the trust and convenience are a given. The UPI Plugin is a step in that direction, and we’re excited to see how much of our user base adopts this seamless user experience. That, for us, is the path to solving for COD.
