A courier fails the first delivery. The courier offers a second attempt, and a third. Each one has a cost, and each one is easy to approve without asking whether it will work. How many re-attempts a store should pay for is not a fixed number. It depends on what the order is worth, what the courier charges, and whether the customer has said anything.
A re-attempt is a bet on the customer
The question is not how many attempts to allow, but what you know after the last one failed. If the customer replied and confirmed the address, another attempt is a reasonable bet. If nobody has heard from them, it is a bet with nothing behind it. The earlier note on failed deliveries needing a customer answer makes the same case.
A simple way to decide
Suppose Saanvi Studio’s illustrative order #1042 failed once. Compare the courier fee for another try with the order value you would recover, and weigh it by what you learned. Customer replied with a time or a landmark: re-attempt. No reply after your question: hold, or offer a pickup point or cancellation. The store sets its own thresholds, because it knows its margins and its courier rates. The address-check message and asking within the first hour are how you get that information.
Keep a record of why
When a re-attempt is approved, note the reason against the order: a reply, a new landmark, a time window. When it is declined, note that too. After a few weeks the notes show which couriers and areas waste attempts, without anyone guessing.
What Hextor builds behind the decision
Hextor Labs’ failed delivery flow messages the customer on WhatsApp when a courier marks an order undelivered. The answer is timestamped and filed against the order, so a re-attempt is raised from what the customer said and not from the courier status alone. It runs in the store’s own accounts, with a handoff to a person.
To see how it could work with your couriers, tap the “Ask anything” WhatsApp button and describe how failed orders are handled today. You can also book the free 30-minute audit.
Sources and scope: Hextor Labs flow overview and Meta’s WhatsApp opt-in guidance. Saanvi Studio, Priya and the order details are illustrative, not a client result or Hextor offer. Customer WhatsApp outreach requires appropriate opt-in.
