How NDR (Non-Delivery Report) cases actually get resolved — the difference between a failed delivery attempt and a lost sale, and how IndiaKart Express structures re-attempts and customer contact.
An NDR — Non-Delivery Report — is raised every time a delivery attempt fails, for any reason. It's one of the most misunderstood parts of ecommerce logistics, because a failed attempt and a lost sale are not the same thing, and treating every NDR as an automatic return is what actually creates most avoidable RTOs. The common NDR reasons, and what each one actually needs: customer not available at the address (needs a re-attempt at a different time, not a return), incomplete or wrong address (needs a customer callback to confirm the correct address before the next attempt), customer requested reschedule (needs the delivery window changed, not cancelled), and customer refused the order (this is the one case where a return genuinely is the right next step). A sound NDR process separates these instead of returning everything after one failed attempt. IndiaKart Express handles NDR in three stages: first, an automatic SMS/call to the customer within a few hours of a failed attempt, asking for a preferred delivery window; second, a second delivery attempt scheduled against that window, typically within 24-48 hours; and third, if the second attempt also fails, a final contact attempt before the shipment is marked for return. Sellers can see the specific NDR reason and attempt history for every shipment in real time rather than a single "undelivered" status. For sellers running their own customer support, the highest-leverage thing you can do is respond fast when an NDR case needs seller input — for example when the courier can't reach the customer and needs an alternate number. Cases where the seller responds within a few hours have meaningfully higher final-delivery rates than cases left unattended for a day or more, because the delivery window for a re-attempt is time-sensitive. Getting NDR handling right typically recovers a meaningful share of shipments that would otherwise become RTOs — which is why it's worth treating as an active process with clear ownership, not a passive status that resolves itself.