Merchants Eye — Payments & Ecommerce News

FICO Awards Tech Mahindra for AI Solution Solving India’s $120k Monthly E-Commerce Returns Crisis

By Lauren Towner · 27 July 2026

Press Release: FICO Awards Tech Mahindra for AI Solution Solving India’s $120k Monthly E-Commerce Returns Crisis | Featured Image by FF News

Quick Summary

Tech Mahindra has developed an intelligent decisioning solution on the FICO Platform to combat India's e-commerce returns crisis. By analyzing 70+ risk signals, the tool reduces Return-to-Origin (RTO) rates by up to 9%, saving retailers approximately $120,000 in monthly losses per million orders.

How Does Tech Mahindra Solve the E-Commerce Returns Crisis?

Intelligent decisioning technology is the core of Tech Mahindra's strategy to mitigate the financial impact of Cash-on-Delivery (COD) returns in India. While standard COD orders see Return-to-Origin (RTO) rates as high as 30%, this new solution evaluates 70+ risk signals in real-time to determine payment eligibility and logistics routing. By shifting from simple transaction processing to predictive risk modeling, retailers can proactively identify high-risk orders before they leave the warehouse.

  • 6-9% reduction in RTO rates projected for high-volume retailers.
  • ₹1 crore ($120,000 USD) in potential monthly savings based on 1 million orders.
  • Real-time optimization of delivery partners and dark store routing.

What Results Has FICO Platform Technology Delivered?

The FICO Platform integration allows Tech Mahindra to offer transparent and explainable decisioning that is audit-ready for enterprise governance. This data-driven innovation addresses the massive disparity between prepaid returns (2-3%) and COD returns (25-30%) by incentivizing prepaid payments for high-risk customer profiles. The solution ensures that enterprise-scale deployment is possible, managing complex variables across the entire cart-to-payment journey without sacrificing the seamless customer experience.

How Does This Impact Global Retail Logistics?

Scalable digital solutions like this demonstrate how AI can solve localized economic friction, such as India's unique reliance on COD. By optimizing payment strategies and fulfillment logistics simultaneously, Tech Mahindra provides a blueprint for long-term business resilience in emerging markets. The ability to strengthen corporate governance through transparent AI decisions makes this a critical tool for global system integrators looking to modernize retail infrastructure.

FF NEWS TAKE:

This announcement moves the needle by proving that intelligent decisioning isn't just for credit scoring—it's a vital tool for retail operational efficiency. Tech Mahindra’s ability to turn a "cost of doing business" like COD returns into a measurable ROI of $120k monthly savings is a masterclass in applying predictive analytics to logistics. This partnership highlights FICO's successful pivot into a broader enterprise platform provider beyond traditional finance.

Companies in this story: Tech Mahindra, FICO

People in this story: Anil Venuturupalli, Jason Andrew

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