A COD order isn't a sale until cash changes hands. That's the fundamental problem with benchmarking cash-on-delivery markets — the number most merchants track (orders placed) is 20-30% higher than the number that matters (orders delivered and paid for). In India alone, roughly one in four COD orders returns to the seller undelivered. Understanding the COD conversion rate by country is the difference between entering a profitable market and burning cash on failed deliveries.

If you're evaluating which COD markets to enter, or wondering whether your own store's numbers are normal, you need country-level benchmarks. Not generic ecommerce conversion rates — COD-specific ones that account for the gap between "ordered" and "actually paid."

Why Standard Conversion Rates Don't Work for COD

Global ecommerce conversion rate averages sit around 1.8% as of late 2025. Germany leads at 2.22%, the US at 1.96%, the UK at 1.88%. These numbers assume the transaction is complete at checkout.

COD breaks that assumption. A customer placing a COD order hasn't committed money — they've committed intent. The real conversion happens at the doorstep, and a significant percentage of those doorstep moments fail. To get the true COD conversion rate, you need to multiply your checkout conversion by your delivery success rate.

A store converting 3% of traffic into COD orders with a 25% RTO rate has an effective conversion rate of 2.25%. That same store with prepaid orders and a 5% return rate would effectively convert at 2.85%. The gap compounds fast at scale.

South Asia: High Volume, High RTO

India is the region's defining market. Digital payments through UPI have reshaped the landscape — COD's share has dropped significantly since 2020. But sheer volume means even a reduced COD share represents millions of monthly orders, especially in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities where cash habits persist.

India's COD RTO rate sits at 25-30%, compared to 4-8% for prepaid orders. The breakdown by order value is revealing: orders between ₹500 and ₹1,000 ($6-$12) have the highest RTO at 28%, orders under ₹500 sit at 25%, and orders above ₹1,000 drop to 24%. Higher-value orders tend to come from more intentional buyers.

Pakistan remains arguably the world's most COD-dependent major ecommerce market. The vast majority of online orders are still paid in cash at delivery. First-attempt delivery failure rates run between 15% and 30% depending on the courier and region. Address accuracy is a persistent problem — many areas lack standardized street addresses, which inflates failed delivery rates beyond what buyer intent alone would cause. For a deeper look at reducing these failures, see our guide on how to cut return-to-origin rates.

Bangladesh sits between India and Pakistan. Mobile money (bKash) is growing fast, but COD still dominates outside Dhaka. RTO rates are comparable to Pakistan's range.

MENA: The Fastest-Shifting Region

The Middle East and North Africa is where COD benchmarks change the fastest. Across the region, COD preference has halved from 41% to roughly 20% in just 48 months. But that average hides massive variation.

Saudi Arabia still shows significant COD usage, particularly for fashion and electronics categories. But STC Pay, Apple Pay, and Tamara (BNPL) are pulling younger shoppers away from cash. Courier partners report first-attempt failure rates of 15-30% for COD shipments. The trend is clear: COD conversion is declining not because delivery fails more often, but because fewer customers choose COD in the first place.

Egypt keeps COD preference around 51% of online transactions — higher than the regional average because banking penetration remains lower. Failed delivery rates mirror the broader MENA range of 15-30%, with Cairo performing better than rural governorates where address infrastructure is weaker.

Morocco is North Africa's strongest COD market, with cash-on-delivery accounting for 54-80% of all online transactions depending on the source and product category. This is one of the last markets where COD preference is still increasing alongside ecommerce growth, rather than declining as digital payments catch up. Our Morocco market entry guide covers the logistics setup in detail.

UAE tells a different story. Despite advanced digital infrastructure, some shoppers still prefer COD for certain product categories. But the overall trend has pushed COD well below the MENA average, making it one of the few emerging markets where COD is genuinely becoming a secondary payment method.

Southeast Asia: COD Is Dropping Faster Than You Think

Southeast Asia's COD story is one of rapid decline. COD represented 52% of all ecommerce payments in the region in 2019. By 2024, that number dropped to 31%. Projections put it below 10% by 2028. E-wallets (GCash, GrabPay, ShopeePay) and bank transfers are replacing cash across every major market.

The country-level picture in 2025:

Vietnam: COD accounts for roughly 16-18% of ecommerce spending — down sharply from previous years as MoMo and ZaloPay gain traction.
Philippines: COD share sits around 15% of ecommerce transactions, though failed delivery rates remain close to 15% in areas with poor last-mile infrastructure.
Indonesia: COD represents approximately 11% of ecommerce payments, with GoPay and OVO pulling share rapidly.
Thailand and Malaysia: COD is minimal and declining, with both markets shifting heavily toward QR payments and bank transfers.

For merchants entering Southeast Asian markets today, the COD opportunity window is narrowing. High COD preference used to be the entry strategy — now it's a transitional payment method you offer alongside digital options.

Latin America: Cash Culture Meets Digital Wallets

Mexico is Latin America's second-largest ecommerce market, and COD (contraentrega) still accounts for roughly 15-25% of online purchases depending on the category and seller. CoDi and QR-based wallets are growing, but cash habits run deep outside Mexico City and Monterrey. The RTO challenge in Mexico is less about buyer fraud and more about address confusion — many deliveries fail because the address system in smaller cities doesn't match what couriers need.

Colombia shows COD at approximately 16% of ecommerce transactions. Contraentrega is especially common for first-time online buyers and purchases from unfamiliar sellers. The pattern is consistent across Latin America: COD serves as a trust mechanism more than a financial necessity. Once a customer has a successful first purchase, they're significantly more likely to prepay next time.

How to Read COD Conversion Rate by Country for Market Entry

Raw COD preference rates don't tell you whether a market is worth entering. You need to weigh three factors together:

COD preference rate — how many customers want to pay at delivery. Higher means more addressable volume, but also more operational complexity.
RTO/failed delivery rate — how many of those COD orders actually convert to cash. This is your real margin killer. A market with 80% COD preference and 30% RTO is dramatically less profitable than one with 50% COD preference and 10% RTO.
COD-to-prepaid shift velocity — how fast the market is moving away from COD. A market where COD is declining 5-10% per year (like Southeast Asia) means your COD infrastructure investment has a shorter payback window.

The sweet spot for market entry is high COD preference combined with low-to-moderate RTO and slow shift velocity. Morocco fits this profile. Pakistan has the volume but the RTO risk is high. Southeast Asia's window is closing fast.

Improving Your COD Conversion Rate in Any Market

Regardless of which market you're in, the levers for improving COD conversion are the same:

Order verification before shipping. OTP confirmation via SMS or WhatsApp catches impulse orders and fake phone numbers before you spend money on fulfillment. Merchants who add verification typically see RTO drop by 15-25%.
Partial prepayment. Collecting even a small deposit (10-20% of order value) at checkout filters out low-intent buyers. The deposit creates commitment — customers who've already paid something are far more likely to accept delivery.
Delivery speed. The longer the gap between order and delivery, the higher the RTO. Same-day or next-day delivery in urban areas consistently shows lower failed delivery rates than 5-7 day shipping windows.
Phone number and address validation. Blocking known fake numbers and validating addresses at the order form level prevents shipments that were never going to arrive.

If you're running a COD store on Shopify, EasySell handles several of these — OTP verification, partial payments, phone blocklists, and order limits — directly in the order form before the shipment is created.

The merchants who win in COD markets aren't the ones with the highest traffic. They're the ones who close the gap between orders placed and orders delivered. Pick your market based on the benchmarks, then build the verification and payment stack that turns COD orders into actual revenue. For a ranked list of the biggest COD opportunities, see our top 10 COD ecommerce countries for 2026.