D2C Guide, Guidelines

Correcting these 5 common mistakes can 2x your D2C revenue

Posted on - 15 min read
Contributors
Anup Kumar
CTO - NexGi

Struggling to boost your D2C revenue? These 5 mistakes might be holding you back—and fixing them can double your sales!

By the end of this blog, you’ll learn:

  1. How to optimize your store for higher conversions by implementing 5 powerful systems.
  2. The secrets to playing with customer perceptions to nudge them toward buying.
  3. Proven strategies to build trust instantly with your audience.
  4. How to create urgency and scarcity that drives action.
  5. And how to reduce revenue leakage caused by RTO issues.

But here’s the best part—I won’t just tell you the reasons behind these mistakes. I’ll handhold you through actionable steps so you can implement these strategies yourself and so you can drive the results.

If you’re ready to make your D2C store more profitable, let’s dive in.

1. A+ Content: Connect with Your Customers

Let’s start with A+ content. It’s not just about listing product details—it’s about creating an emotional connection and showing value that your product can add to your customers.

For better understanding I’m going to give example two web pages:

  1. First brand is just focusing on the visuals of their product.
  2. Second brand showcasing the features through one video & images.

Which one do you think is more appealing?

You are smart, I don’t need to answer this basic one.

See, nobody has time to read the text except search engines, so you have to focus on showcasing your product in 5-6 minimum slides and generating such kinds of videos & images can 2x your conversions and doing it is very time taking & require lots of marketing research about your product but if you are serious about selling like crazy you have to do it. That’s why if you see any brand they increase their SKU very slowly.

They pick a few products, write amazing copies, work closely with graphics designers creating amazing infographics, send products to influencers, get video reviews put on their product page and show authentic and valuable images.

Now the question comes in – what’s the easiest way to get started?

So frankly speaking, it’s not very easy, but to get started I’ve added a detailed video which is based on how to write “A+ content idea for better marketing using AI”. Where I’ll be using examples of a few industries and giving you prompts. And you have to simply copy paste and get started.

2. Wrong Offer Placement: Make Your Offers Impossible to Miss

“Second is Wrong offer placement. It is quite obvious that you run offers. But more than 80% of users don’t even know about your offer. Why?? Because most brands make the mistake of placing their offers on the homepage. But here’s the thing—ad traffic usually lands directly on product pages.

  • The right approach is to move your offers to the single product page. Use banners, pop-ups, or sticky sections to showcase discounts right where customers are ready to decide.
  • Let me show you data of a brand of 1 month after moving coupon code on single product page:
    • Abundant cart has been reduced to 30% to 25%
    • Order has been increased to 15% more
    • Use of coupon code has been increased from 10% to 25%
    • Registration of new users has been increased to 5% to 15% as we have restricted 1 coupon per user.

As I promised you I’ll teach you how to do it: So I’ve created a copy paste solution for these three kind of offers that you can add on your store:

  1. Single coupon code as image
  2. 3 coupon codes in single row
  3. Text based coupon code with copy functionality.

I’ve covered it for both WooCommerce & Shopify. But If I explain it here it will be a long video. So I‘ve added both links in the description.

👉 Increase your shopify orders by 10% orders in 30 min
👉 Increase your WooCommerce orders by 10% orders in 30 min

3. Pre-Validation: Build Trust Instantly

Third is most D2C brand owners don’t work on pre-validation. See shoppers need assurance before they click ‘Buy Now.’ Adding pre-validation elements like:

  • Customer reviews and star ratings.
  • User-generated content, especially video testimonials.
  • Badges for trust, like ‘100% satisfaction guaranteed.’
  • Easy Return policies

These signals tell your audience that others trust your brand, and they should too.”

Let’s see some examples:

See this brand, they are adding UGC content, how pretty they have shown. But collecting such 6-7 UGC videos can cost 50-60 thousand + 1 month of time. But once you have done it. Your sales will go crazy.

Another example see this brand: if you see they have done amazing work on reviews. And if you see how authentic they are looking in terms of pre-validation.

4. The Power of FOMO: Create Urgency to Act

The 4th is FOMO—Fear of Missing Out—is a powerful motivator. Here’s how you can use it effectively:

  • Add labels like ‘Only 2 left in stock!’ or ‘Hurry, offer ends soon!’
  • Show live visitor counters or recent purchases.
  • Highlight products that are trending or low in stock.
  • Run countdown timers for any particular offer.

These customers create a fear of acting before it’s too late.

5. RTO Leakage: Stop Losing Money on Returns 

Our 5th point is RTO leakage.

Let’s break down RTO—it stands for Return to Origin.

But before going in depth you should understand how shipping companies make profit:

  1. Shipping Charges: They charge for delivering the order from your warehouse to the customer’s address.
  2. Return Costs: If the customer rejects the order, it’s sent back to your warehouse, and you’re charged again for the return shipping.
  3. Cash Handling Fees: For COD (Cash on Delivery) orders, they charge 1.99–2.5% of the total order value.

Now, here’s the hard truth: 20–30% of eCommerce orders fail because of RTO issues. And to resolve it you need to know top reasons behind it:

  1. Fake Orders:
    Some customers enter random details and place fake orders. You can minimise this by:
    • Implementing mobile OTP verification at checkout.
    • If you’re just starting, manually confirm orders via phone call.
  2. Customer Mood Swings:
    This is especially common with COD orders. Since the customer hasn’t paid anything, they might lose interest and ignore calls when the delivery is near.
    • Use OTP verification at checkout.
    • Track customers with repeated order rejections and flag them for COD restrictions on future orders.
  3. Delivery Scams:
    Some delivery personnel may abuse the RTO system, marking genuine orders as undelivered to earn extra from return shipments.
    • Always confirm deliveries directly with customers if a pattern of RTO emerges.
  4. Genuine Delivery Failures:
    Sometimes, customers genuinely can’t receive their orders due to unforeseen circumstances. While you can’t prevent this, you can:
    • Offer re-attempts for pre-paid orders.
    • Follow up with customers to reschedule deliveries.

How to Tackle RTO Like a Pro:

  1. Mobile Verification at Checkout: Add OTP verification to eliminate fake orders.
  2. Encourage Prepaid Orders: Offer an additional 5% discount to customers choosing prepaid payments.
  3. Disable COD for Problematic Customers: If a customer frequently rejects orders, restrict COD for their account.
  4. Target RTO-Prone Areas:
    • Disable COD for pincodes with high RTO rates.
    • Use our curated list of pincodes to identify risky zones — download it now to tackle RTO effectively!

By implementing these strategies, you’ll minimize RTO-related losses and maximize your profitability.

And all these strategies are mentioned on our website. You have to simply go on resources then D2C Guide. You will get Step by Step learning material.

Closing:

I hope you got a better understanding of how these 5 systems are proven to boost conversions and revenue. Start implementing them today, and you’ll see the difference!

Hi, I’m Anup, CEO of NexGi. I’ve spent over 10 years helping businesses grow online. As data last year we onboarded total of 73 brands and only 3 brands were profitable.  And out of those 73 we have made 50+ profitable within 4 months of working with us by implementing our inhouse framework that is constantly delivering the result.

If you want to know more about that framework and how can we help you? Use this link to get started.

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