The weekly letter · Issue 001
RTO is a marketing problem.
Sample issue. This page shows the format of the weekly letter. The sources, brands and news items below are placeholders, not real reporting.
Most founders hand RTO to the ops team. But the order that comes back was bought by an ad, sold by a product page and promised by a checkout. This week is about fixing it where it starts.
What to read
How India pays online, and the COD gap
The real issue links one report or video worth your time, with the single chart or line that matters. Here it would be the share of online orders still paid in cash, by city tier.
Across the Indian D2C brands we work with, ₹23 of every ₹100 booked came back as RTO. Every point of COD you move to prepaid shrinks that number.
Indian D2C news
A skincare brand raises a new round
Sample item. The real issue covers funding, IPOs and the stories founders argue about, in plain numbers and with the source linked. No gossip, no put-downs.
What we’d look at here: how much of the new money goes to ads, and whether the brand talks about margin or only about growth.
Campaign of the week
Prepaid as the festive gift
Sample item. A fashion brand runs its festive offer only on prepaid orders: a free gift box for paying online, nothing taken away from COD buyers.
Why it works: the buyer feels a gain, not a fee. The brand gets cash upfront and fewer parcels on the road back.
Tie your next offer to the payment mode, not the cart value. Then watch prepaid share and RTO together for two weeks.
That’s it for this week. Reply to this email with your RTO rate and I’ll tell you what I’d try first.— Dwarkesh
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