Cash on delivery share is a difficult ecommerce metric because many sources measure whether stores offer CoD rather than the value of orders paid by CoD. This page gives practical CoD benchmarks and explains how to avoid comparing incompatible data.
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This page belongs to the Payments & Risk silo. For the full payment-method context, compare it with
payment methods share,
digital wallets share,
BNPL share,
payment failure benchmarks
and chargeback benchmarks.
Scope: European CoD benchmarks and methodology notes
Updated: 2026-05-31
Category: Payments & risk
Benchmarks
Cash on delivery benchmarks
Many public datasets report CoD availability by online stores, not transaction share. Treat these as market-context benchmarks, not direct payment-volume shares.
85.6%
ECDB reports that 85.6% of online stores in Greece offer cash on delivery.
60.7%
ECDB reports CoD penetration of 60.7% among online stores in Poland.
<10%
ECDB reports that Scandinavian and Western/Northern European markets often have CoD availability below 10%.
| Market | CoD reference point | Interpretation |
|---|---|---|
| Greece | 85.6% of online stores offer CoD | CoD remains a mainstream checkout and delivery expectation in this market context. |
| Bulgaria | 80.3% of online stores offer CoD | High CoD availability signals that merchants may need cash handling and courier settlement processes. |
| Slovakia | 80.1% of online stores offer CoD | CoD should be treated as a real operational payment method, not only a legacy option. |
| Serbia | 69.2% of online stores offer CoD | Cash payment at delivery can remain important where consumer trust and delivery habits support it. |
| Lithuania | 64.9% of online stores offer CoD | CoD availability is still significant in parts of Central and Eastern Europe. |
| Poland | 60.7% of online stores offer CoD | Even digital-payment-heavy markets may keep CoD as a fallback or trust-building option. |
| Scandinavia / Western-Northern Europe | Often below 10% availability | In highly digital checkout markets, CoD is usually less relevant and may add unnecessary operational friction. |
Market context
Where cash on delivery still matters
Cash on delivery is strongest where shoppers value paying only after the parcel arrives, where card or wallet trust is lower, or where courier networks already support cash collection. ECDB’s 2025 analysis shows a clear divide inside Europe: CoD is much more common in parts of Eastern and Middle Europe, while Scandinavia and Western/Northern Europe show very low availability.
For merchants, CoD should not be judged only by conversion lift. It can also change return behavior, failed delivery rates, cash handling, courier reconciliation and customer-service workload. A checkout can convert better with CoD while still hurting net profit if refusal and non-pickup rates are high.
Risk
Cash on delivery changes ecommerce risk
| Risk area | How CoD affects it | Metric to monitor |
|---|---|---|
| Failed delivery | Customers can refuse or miss the parcel before payment is collected. | Failed delivery rate and courier return cost. |
| Returns | The shopper has less payment commitment before delivery. | Return rate and non-pickup rate by payment method. |
| Cash handling | Courier collection and settlement create reconciliation work. | Cash settlement delay, shortage disputes and manual support tickets. |
| Fraud / abuse | Fake orders and repeated refusals can create logistics loss. | Blocked repeat offenders, phone verification rate and address-risk flags. |
| Customer trust | CoD can reduce perceived risk for first-time buyers. | New customer conversion rate and repeat purchase rate after first CoD order. |
Methodology
Methodology note
This page distinguishes CoD availability from CoD transaction share. A market where many online stores offer CoD is not necessarily a market where most orders are paid by CoD. Availability indicates whether merchants commonly support the method; transaction share requires payment-volume data.
The ECB also defines some online-order scenarios paid at pickup or to the courier as POS payments in its consumer-payment methodology. This is one reason CoD can be difficult to compare against standard online payment-method datasets.
Sources
Sources used for this dataset
Citation
Cite this page
E-commerce Cash on Delivery Share. Best For Ecommerce. Updated 2026-05-31. https://bestforecommerce.com/ecommerce-statistics/payments-risk/cash-on-delivery-share/