Selling online with cash on delivery

Cash on delivery (COD) means the customer orders online and pays the courier in cash when the parcel arrives; the delivery company then passes the money on to you. It wins the trust of people who will not pay a store they do not know yet, but it costs you in refused deliveries and in the time it takes for the cash to reach you. Confirming orders before you ship, showing every cost up front and checking every payment the courier sends you keep both under control.

This guide explains how COD works from order to cash, how it compares with other payment methods, and the habits that make it work for a small store.

How cash on delivery works

A COD order goes through the same steps every time:

1. The customer places the order and chooses cash on delivery at checkout. Nothing is paid yet.
2. You confirm the order — ideally with a quick call or message — and prepare the parcel.
3. You hand it to the courier with the amount to collect written on the delivery note.
4. The courier delivers and collects the cash. If the customer is out or refuses the parcel, it comes back to you.
5. The delivery company pays you what it collected, usually in batches (weekly, for example), minus its delivery fees.
6. You record the order as paid once that money has reached you.

The order is only finished at step 6, often days after the customer received the parcel. Until then the money is with the courier, not with you, and your books should say so.

Why customers choose it

• Trust. A new customer does not have to believe your store is real before they get something in their hands.
• No card needed. Many people do not have a card, or do not use it online.
• They see the product first. Some customers like to check the parcel before they pay.

If many of your customers are buying from you for the first time, offering COD will usually win more orders than it loses.

What it costs you

The hidden cost of COD is the refused order: you have paid to send the parcel and often to have it brought back, and the product was out of stock for days. A store with many refusals can lose money on orders that looked profitable.

How to reduce refused orders

Most refusals come from a few causes: the customer ordered on impulse, forgot, was surprised by the total, or the courier could not reach them. Each has a fix.

Confirm before you ship

Call or message every new customer to confirm the order, the address and the total before the parcel leaves. It takes a minute and filters out most impulse and fake orders. Ask for a phone number at checkout so you always have a way to reach the customer.

Repeat customers who have paid before can skip this — that is a good reason to keep customer notes and tags.

Show the full price before checkout

The amount the courier asks for must be exactly what the customer expects. Show the delivery fee on the product page or in a banner, show the total before the order is placed, and repeat it in the confirmation email. A customer who is surprised at the door often says no.

Make the product page answer the questions

Customers refuse parcels that are not what they imagined: the wrong size, a different colour, a smaller item. Clear photos, measurements and a size guide prevent this before the order is placed. See what a good product page needs.

Ship fast and say when it will arrive

The longer the wait, the more likely the customer has changed their mind or bought elsewhere. Ship as soon as the order is confirmed, say on the product page and in the confirmation how long delivery takes, and send the tracking or the courier's contact when it leaves.

Watch your refusals

Note why each parcel came back. If refusals cluster around one product, one area or one kind of order (very large ones, for example), act on that: improve the product page, change delivery terms for that area, or ask for a bank transfer on very large orders.

Keeping track of the cash

With COD, a delivered order and a paid order are not the same thing. Keep them apart:

• Mark an order as paid only when the money has reached you, not when the courier says it was delivered.
• Check every payment from the delivery company against your orders. Each payout should list the orders it covers; any delivered order that is missing from the payouts needs a follow-up.
• Agree when the courier pays you and keep to a routine — for example, check payouts against orders every week.
• Keep refused and returned parcels on the order so your stock count and your numbers stay right.

On Soooks, an order paid by cash on delivery stays "payment pending" until you mark it as paid, and delivery is tracked separately from payment, so a parcel can be delivered while its payment is still pending. Cash on delivery and bank transfer orders carry no platform fee on any plan.

Setting up cash on delivery on Soooks

1. Switch on cash on delivery in your payment settings, and give it a label your customers recognise.
2. Make the phone number required at checkout so you can confirm orders.
3. Set up your delivery areas and rates so the total at checkout is the total at the door.
4. Edit the order confirmation email to repeat the amount to pay on delivery and when to expect the parcel.
5. When the courier pays you, mark the orders paid — your reports then show the money you actually received.

In short

Offer cash on delivery if your customers expect it — it is often the difference between a sale and no sale. Then make it work: confirm every new order, show the full price up front, describe products well enough that nothing surprises the customer, ship quickly, and check every payment from your courier against your orders.