Honor System?

Since this is my first time setting up an electronic storefront, I am venturing into what seems like a new territory to me. So, I have lots of basic questions. Here is one. What is preventing a customer from claiming that he never got what he ordered, when he really did, and simply asking for another shipment again, thus cheating me?

 

It's a fact of life if you want to earn a living online, you have to suck it up and factor it into your running costs. I used to create and sell scripts mainly as a hobby and to earn beer money but the thieves destroyed any enjoyment I got from it so I sold all the rights and gave up with it.

 

There nothing that you can do to enforce honesty. Either your customers are honest or they are not. If you are having a problem with dishonest customers you may want to rethink your target audience.

I don't directly sell online, but a majority of my customers find me online via my website. I don't accept credit cards, debit cards, paypal, and so on, so most people pay me via personal checks. In 14 years I have NEVER had a bad personal check, and I have accepted thousands of them without ever doing any due diligence whatsoever. As soon as I receive the check, I ship the item. I don't even wait for the check to clear. Sooner or later I expect to get bit, but it is simply not worth the cost nor time to verify anything. Why? I strongly suspect it is because I target a clientele that has money and expects to pay a premium to get what they want.

So, if you have a problem with customer honesty, maybe it is time to evaluate whether you even want to sell to those customers. Change your target audience and let others have the dishonest customers.

I have found that the easiest way to weed out bad eggs is to simply PRICE THEM OUT OF THE MARKET. That means several things. First, I have some the highest prices in my industry. Second, I sell fewer items, but have a larger markup so I make more money overall. Third, my costs are less since I don't need to babysit bad eggs. Fourth, my competitors send me prospects because those competitors know I won't be undercutting their prices. Fifth, I can afford to spend more time per customer making sure he is getting the correct item the FIRST time. Sixth, many customers know what they want, but don't know that they may also need other items, so I am sometimes able to upsell for the same order.

Will that work for everyone? No. But if you are the only frog in YOUR frog pond, it WILL work for you.

 

As others have already pointed out:

a) You can "outsource" the problem by using a logistic partner that will provide tracking numbers and proof of delivery. This is 2021 and not 1984 after all

b) You can sweat about the x% that will try to defraud you. If you use solid payment systems and delivery methods the number will be small. Just increase your prices accordingly and move on.

c) Instead of wasting time thinking about a problem that you don't even have (yet) and might never have - better invest the time in thinking about how you will drive traffic and business to your website. Making money is more important than saving money. You can always optimize an existing business where money is leaking left and right. A business where no money flows can not be optimized.

Good Luck!