Footwear D2C
See the profit per delivered pair, not the ROAS Meta books.
Footwear is the single most-returned category online. A 3–4× ROAS on booked orders routinely lands at break-even or worse once 30%+ returns, 60–80% COD and its RTO drag hit — so founders scale to a vanity ROAS and grow straight into losses.
- Footwear is the most-returned category online — ~31% of pairs come back.
- 60–80% COD, and each refused pair torches ₹180–350 before you ever see it.
- Width, not length, drives the returns — but you only see a blended rate.
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Typical Indian footwear benchmarks — your real numbers will differ.
The gap
Order ROAS says win. Delivered ROAS says loss.
Meta and Shopify book the order the second it's placed — not when the pair is delivered, kept and paid for. Footwear's ~31% returns, COD RTO and reverse-logistics costs land days-to-weeks later, spread across five courier statements, so profit-per-delivered-pair is never assembled in one place.
Profit truth
Profit truth: the ROAS on a delivered pair, not a booked order
A 4× ROAS shoe can be break-even after returns and COD
Footwear is the most-returned category online, yet Meta and Shopify book the sale the moment the order is placed. On 30%+ returns plus 60–80% COD and its RTO drag, a 3–4× order ROAS routinely lands at break-even or worse — and 'profitable on paper' still leaves the bank flat. Margifi recomputes ROAS on courier-confirmed delivered revenue and runs it through the profit waterfall, per campaign, so you scale profit-per-delivered-pair instead of a vanity number.
- Delivered ROAS + the order-vs-delivered gap, marked against your true break-even ROAS
- Profit waterfall: revenue → after COGS → after shipping+returns → after ad spend → net margin after every RTO, per order/SKU/campaign
- Delivered CAC vs order CAC — your real cost per kept, paid customer once a third of first orders bounce
Returns & RTO
Returns & RTO: the most-returned category, made visible
~31% of footwear comes back — see which orders you can still save
Shoes are the highest-returning category online at ~31%, and RTO doesn't spread evenly — it clusters in specific pincodes, Tier-2 towns and courier lanes (including couriers marking fake 'attempted'). Margifi surfaces the in-flight COD orders worth rescuing today, then maps where RTO actually concentrates so you can tighten COD or switch couriers in the zones that bleed your delivered margin.
- NDR + Out-for-Delivery calling worklist — the exact orders to call or WhatsApp-confirm inside the 24–72h window, ranked by rescue value & pincode risk Live
- RTO/NDR by region & pincode heat map + courier-wise delivery% — gate COD or push prepaid in the worst zones, route around bad couriers
- Reverse-shipping and return loss charged back to the exact ad and SKU that generated it
COD reliability
COD reliability: stop paying to acquire orders that never deliver
60–80% COD, and every refused pair torches ₹180–350
Indian footwear runs heavily on COD, where a buyer refuses at the door for free — so COD RTO runs 2–3× prepaid and, on bulky shoes, the per-return bleed is worse than apparel. Founders feel the cash drain but can't see which numbers, pincodes or campaigns generate it. Margifi scores COD reliability per phone so you risk-score the order, not the whole town, and shows the prepaid-conversion upside.
- COD reliability score per phone (RTO Shield) — flag the risky numbers before you ship the pair
- COD → prepaid conversion upside, with delivered CAC vs order CAC per campaign
- Gate COD or force prepaid in the pincodes and courier lanes where RTO concentrates
Products & catalogue
Products & catalogue: cut the models that come back
One model 'runs narrow' and bleeds returns — a blended number hides it
Most footwear returns are fit, and the dominant miss is width, not length — and width varies model by model. A single blended return rate hides the one style dragging your whole catalog's delivered margin down, while size × width × colour multiplies odd sizes into dead stock. Margifi ranks every SKU on delivered profit with Scale/Keep/Stop verdicts, exposes the dead sizes, and pushes that truth back into your Meta catalogue feed.
- Catalogue / DPA product-level profit — spend, delivered ROAS, RTO and delivered profit per product_id, so you cut loss-making models out of the feed Live
- Per-SKU delivered margin with Scale/Keep/Stop verdicts + RTO/return rate by SKU — see the style that 'runs narrow'
- Dead-stock value & days-of-cover across size × width × colour — free the cash trapped in odd sizes
My hero sneaker showed a 4× ROAS all quarter, so I kept scaling it. Once Margifi netted out the 30% returns and COD RTO, that pair was running at break-even — I'd been paying to grow a loss.
Footwear founder — illustrative
Illustrative — a category benchmark, not a single brand's numbers.
Questions
Margifi for footwear — FAQ
Meta and Shopify count a shoe as revenue the second the order is placed — not when the pair is delivered and paid for. Footwear is the most-returned category online (~31%), and 60–80% COD adds RTO on top. Margifi recomputes ROAS on courier-confirmed delivered revenue and runs it through a profit waterfall, so a 3–4× booked ROAS shows its real break-even (or worse) delivered number, per campaign.
See your real delivered profit, footwear.
Connect Shopify and Meta and watch order ROAS become delivered ROAS — net of every RTO.
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