Libya Ecommerce: COD Market Entry for Shopify (2026)

EasySell
2026-04-15T17:25:24+01:00

Libya ecommerce is a COD market with 87 Shopify stores. For context, neighboring Tunisia has over 400 and Egypt has more than 2,000. Libya has 7.4 million people, 88.5% internet penetration, and almost no international ecommerce competition. If you're already selling COD in North Africa, Libya is the gap in your coverage.

But "small market with no competition" can mean two things: untapped opportunity or a market that's small for a reason. Libya is a bit of both. The infrastructure is real but fragmented, logistics split between two economic centers, and digital payments are growing fast enough to change the COD equation within a couple of years. Entering now means building while the market is still cheap. Waiting means competing with everyone who read the same data you're reading right now.

Why Libya Ecommerce Still Runs on Cash on Delivery

Libya's banking system works, but trust in online payments is still catching up. The Central Bank of Libya reported 4.29 million e-payment app users and 313.6 billion dinars in electronic transactions in 2025 — a record year. That sounds impressive until you realize most of those transactions are bill payments and peer-to-peer transfers, not ecommerce purchases.

For online shopping, COD remains the default. Libyan consumers are comfortable ordering through Facebook pages and Instagram accounts, but they want to see the product before handing over cash. Credit card penetration is low, and while 5.5 million bank cards are active in the country, most are debit cards used at ATMs and POS terminals — not for online checkout.

This is the same pattern across North Africa. Morocco, Egypt, Algeria, and Tunisia all went through the same COD-first phase. Libya is a few years behind its neighbors on the payment transition curve.

The Market Is Tiny but the Math Can Work

Libya's total population is 7.4 million — smaller than Cairo alone. Don't enter expecting massive volume. The opportunity here is margins, not scale.

With only 87 Shopify stores and roughly 160 WooCommerce stores in the entire country, competition for online attention is minimal. Most local ecommerce still happens on Facebook and WhatsApp. A merchant with a proper Shopify store, localized in Arabic, running Facebook ads to a Libyan audience will stand out simply by having a professional buying experience.

The customers are online. DataReportal puts Libya's social media users at 6.7 million — 89.6% of the population. There are 14.9 million active mobile lines in a country of 7.4 million people. The demand side is there. The supply side (organized ecommerce stores with reliable fulfillment) barely exists.

Tripoli and Benghazi Are Two Separate Markets

Libya's ecommerce infrastructure splits along the same line as its political geography. Tripoli in the west and Benghazi in the east function as separate commercial hubs with different courier networks, different supplier bases, and sometimes different pricing.

Of Libya's 87 Shopify stores, 47 are based in Tripoli and only 4 in Benghazi. That tells you where the existing ecommerce activity concentrates — and where the biggest gap is.

If you're entering from outside Libya, start with Tripoli. The logistics infrastructure is more developed, the population density is higher, and you'll find more courier options for last-mile delivery. Expand to Benghazi once your Tripoli operations are stable. Trying to serve both cities from day one doubles your logistics complexity without doubling your revenue.

Logistics: What Actually Delivers in Libya

This is where Libya gets difficult. There's no single national courier with reliable COD collection across the entire country. The logistics market is fragmented across local operators, and the international carriers (DHL, FedEx) focus on import/export freight — not last-mile COD delivery.

Your options for domestic COD fulfillment:

Local courier companies — operators like HudHud Logistics and Tarabulus Shipping handle domestic deliveries in major cities. Coverage outside Tripoli and Benghazi is inconsistent, so confirm delivery zones before committing.

Facebook-native delivery networks — many Libyan ecommerce sellers use informal delivery arrangements coordinated through WhatsApp. These work for low volume but don't scale.

Regional logistics partners — companies like Shipa (which covers MENA) offer ecommerce logistics solutions that include Libya, though coverage may be limited to major urban areas.

Before you list a single product, contact two or three local couriers. Ask specific questions: Do you collect COD cash? What cities do you cover? What's the remittance cycle? A courier that delivers but takes 30 days to remit your cash will destroy your working capital.

Payment Infrastructure Is Changing Fast

Don't assume Libya will stay COD-dominant forever. The Central Bank of Libya has been pushing digital payments aggressively. POS terminals grew from 150,205 to 165,313 in a single year. E-payment app users hit 4.29 million — more than half the population.

In March 2026, Libya expanded e-wallet access to foreign residents. The government wants digital payments to become the norm. The trajectory mirrors Egypt with Fawry and Saudi Arabia with STC Pay — once infrastructure reaches critical mass, the shift from cash to digital accelerates fast.

For Shopify merchants entering now, this means two things:

1. Build for COD today. It's still how most Libyans prefer to pay for online purchases. Your order form needs to handle cash-on-delivery smoothly.

2. Prepare for the transition. Within two to three years, a meaningful percentage of your Libyan customers will want to pay digitally. Set up your store to accept local payment methods as they become available through Shopify's payment gateway integrations.

Setting Up Your Shopify Store for Libya

A few specifics that matter when configuring Shopify for the Libyan market:

Language: Arabic is mandatory. Your product pages, order form, checkout flow, and confirmation messages all need to be in Arabic. Libyan Arabic has its own dialect, but Modern Standard Arabic works for ecommerce. Use Shopify's built-in translation tools or a translation app to localize your store.

Currency: The Libyan Dinar (LYD). Shopify Markets supports multi-currency, so you can display prices in LYD while settling in your base currency. Make sure your prices feel natural in dinars — don't just convert from USD and leave odd numbers.

Shipping zones: Create separate shipping zones for Tripoli, Benghazi, and "rest of Libya." Pricing and delivery times differ significantly between these regions. Be transparent about delivery timelines — Libyan customers are used to slow delivery, but they're not used to being lied to about it.

COD order form: Your default Shopify checkout isn't optimized for COD markets. You need a form that collects phone numbers (required for delivery coordination), validates addresses, and ideally includes some form of order verification to reduce fake orders. EasySell handles this with a COD-optimized order form that includes phone verification, order limits, and Arabic language support — useful for any North African market, not just Libya.

Fraud prevention: COD fake orders are a real problem in every North African market. Libya is no different. Collect phone numbers, verify them, and consider requiring a small deposit (partial payment) to filter out non-serious orders. Even a 10% deposit drops fake order rates dramatically.

Facebook Is Your Primary Sales Channel

With 6.7 million social media users in a country of 7.4 million, Facebook is where Libyan consumers discover products. Instagram is growing but Facebook remains dominant for commerce.

Most local sellers don't have websites. They post product photos on Facebook, take orders through Messenger or WhatsApp, and arrange delivery manually. Your advantage as a Shopify merchant is that you can run Facebook ads that send traffic to a real product page with a real order form — a structured buying experience that converts better than a DM conversation.

Start with a small daily ad budget ($10–20/day) targeting Tripoli. Test product interest before scaling. CPMs in Libya are significantly lower than in the Gulf or Europe, so your ad spend goes further. Just make sure your landing pages are fully Arabic and mobile-optimized — 84% of Libyan internet users access the web via mobile devices with 4G connectivity.

Should You Enter Libya's COD Ecommerce Market or Skip It?

Enter Libya if you're already selling COD in Morocco, Egypt, Algeria, or Tunisia. The marginal effort to add Libya is small when you already have Arabic-language stores, COD fulfillment processes, and MENA ad accounts. Adding one more country to an existing operation is a different calculation than starting from scratch.

Skip Libya if this would be your first COD market. Start with Egypt or Morocco instead — they have larger populations, more established logistics, and more forgiving economics for learning the COD model. Libya rewards merchants who already know how COD fulfillment works and can adapt quickly to a market with limited infrastructure.

The window is real but narrow. Digital payments are growing fast enough that Libya's COD advantage — the thing that keeps international competition away — won't last forever. Merchants who build a customer base now, while COD is still dominant, will have a head start when the market inevitably shifts to mixed payment methods. The 87 Shopify stores already there figured this out. The question is whether you'll be store 88 or store 888.