Cash on delivery (COD), sometimes called collect on delivery, is the sale of goods by e-mail order where payment is made on delivery rather than in advance. If the goods are not paid for, then they are returned to the retailer. COD allows the purchaser to pay at the time of delivery instead of having to pay upfront. Payment is made to the shipping company, and the shipping company then relays the payment back to the seller. Some of the advantages of COD are that the buyer does not need to own a credit card to purchase goods from an online store, thus preventing and minimizing the risk of fraud coming from Internet scams. This indeed increased the trust factor between the customers and the businesses. Another advantage for COD is the 'Quality Improvement'; where customers pay only when they receive the product and are satisfied with its quality. They have the right to refuse poor quality products. This has ensured that online stores need to sell high quality products to the customers resulting in better quality and customer satisfaction. In short, Cash on Delivery has changed the dynamics of the eCommerce industry and helped online stores in penetrating deeper into the market. It revolutionized eCommerce drastically and increased sales for the businesses by many folds. Today, both the customers and the businesses have been benefited immensely from sticking to this concept model.
P.S: I want to offer my clients the choice to pay with COD because PayPal is not supported in our country, and second of all, even it was supported, I don't want to integrate with it because people are not used to shop comfortably using their credit cards, and thus still prefer the COD way as a method of payment as it brings them confidence, peace of mind, and loyalty.
