COD (Cash on Delivery)

Concept

Cash on delivery is a payment method where the customer pays the courier at the doorstep rather than online at checkout, so the order carries no payment until delivery succeeds.

Layman Explanation & Analogy

The customer says "yes, send it, I will pay when it arrives." Nothing is charged at checkout. Until the parcel is handed over and the cash collected, you have a promise rather than a sale — and promises get refused.

Worked real-world example

A D2C brand in India takes 60% of orders as COD. Those orders show up in the ad platform as conversions worth their full basket value on the day they are placed, but the cash arrives 4–9 days later, and only for the ones that are actually delivered.

What people get wrong & common traps

Treating a COD order as revenue at order time is the single largest source of inflated ROAS in Indian e-commerce. COD orders also settle late — the courier remits collected cash on a weekly or fortnightly cycle — so a business can be profitable on paper and short of cash at the same time.

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