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Cash on Delivery (COD)

Cash on Delivery (COD) is the dominant payment method in Algerian e-commerce. With COD, the customer pays cash directly to the courier on delivery, and the courier later remits the collected funds to your bank or CCP account.

In DZBuild, COD is enabled by default on every store — no payment gateway, no credentials, no integration to set up. It's the path of least friction for new merchants.

How it works end-to-end​

  1. The customer places an order on your storefront and picks Cash on Delivery.
  2. The order lands in /dashboard/orders as pending.
  3. You confirm the order (call-confirm or process directly) and ship it via your linked courier.
  4. The courier delivers the parcel and collects the cash (item total + shipping) from the customer.
  5. The courier remits the collected money to you on its own schedule (usually weekly), minus the courier's delivery fee.
  6. The order status reflects the courier's tracking flow: shipped → delivered (or returned if the customer refused).

DZBuild does not move the cash itself; the entire money leg is between you and the courier.

Enabling / disabling COD​

COD is the default for every store. To turn it off:

  1. Go to /dashboard/shipping (or wherever your store's payment options are surfaced — see Orders).
  2. Disable the COD option.
  3. Save.

You can also disable COD on specific wilayas by removing them from your shipping rates table — orders to those wilayas can no longer use COD as the courier won't service them.

Reducing fake orders​

COD is great for trust but invites bots and joke orders. Common defenses on DZBuild:

  • The Captcha Protection addon — invisible to humans, blocks bots.
  • The Limit Orders Per IP addon — caps the number of orders a single IP can place in a window.
  • A manual call-confirm step before shipping — catches most fake phone numbers.
  • Filtering wilayas with high return rates if your numbers show a pattern.

Reconciling courier payouts​

Each delivered COD order has:

  • A subtotal (the COD amount the courier collected).
  • A shipping fee (collected by the courier and either kept by them or passed to you, depending on your contract).
  • A courier delivery fee (deducted before payout).

Use the order export from /dashboard/orders to reconcile against the courier's statement when payouts arrive.

Frequently asked​

Q: What happens if the customer refuses to pay on delivery? A: The courier returns the parcel to you, and the order moves to returned (or cancelled if you mark it). You typically pay the round-trip shipping fee to the courier.

Q: Can the customer pay partially? A: No, COD is binary — full payment or refusal.

Q: How fast do I get paid? A: Each courier has its own remittance schedule. Most settle weekly. Check your contract with each courier for the exact cadence.

Q: Can I combine COD with online payment? A: Yes — keep COD enabled and add CIB / Edahabia via SlickPay. Customers self-select at checkout.

See Orders for the order lifecycle in detail and Couriers overview for how the cash leg ties to your linked courier.