Cash on delivery: what every Pakistani seller should knowکیش آن ڈیلیوری: ہر پاکستانی سیلر کو کیا جاننا چاہیے

Ask any Pakistani shop owner who sells online how customers pay, and the answer is usually the same: cash on delivery. Customers want to see the parcel before they part with money, and many prefer not to pay online.

COD builds trust with customers. For sellers, it brings three challenges that are easy to underestimate.

1. The cash takes time to reach you

With a card payment, the money moves immediately. With COD, it travels. The rider collects cash at the door, it's deposited with the courier, reconciled against thousands of other parcels, and only then paid out.

That gap between delivery and money in your account is your working capital problem. If you restock based on sales, slow remittance means slower restocking.

What to look for: a published remittance schedule. On AdeelSab, the COD remittance and payout timeline is listed on the payouts page.

2. Some parcels come back

COD makes it easy for a customer to refuse at the door. The parcel is returned to you (RTO, return to origin), and there's usually a charge for the return trip.

RTO is the biggest hidden cost of COD. A seller who doesn't account for it can have a strong sales month and still lose money.

What to look for: RTO charges stated upfront, before you sign. Ours are on the delivery page. And read our practical guide to reducing RTO.

3. Every seller becomes a logistics manager

Selling with COD on your own usually means opening courier accounts, printing labels, booking pickups, tracking parcels, chasing remittances and reconciling what came back. It's a second job on top of running a shop.

How AdeelSab handles COD

We built AdeelSab so sellers don't have to run that second job:

• One place for every order. We route each order to AdeelSab Couriers, our own fleet, for same-city delivery, or to TCS, PostEx or TRAX nationwide.
• We collect the cash. COD is available everywhere our fleet and partners deliver.
• You're paid on a schedule. Remittance and payout timings are published.
• Every cost in writing. Commission, shipping, COD and RTO charges are on our pricing page. If it's not listed, we don't charge it.

Making COD work for you

• Price for reality. Include a buffer for returns in your margins.
• Dispatch fast. Same-day dispatch reduces refusals.
• Describe honestly. Most doorstep refusals come from a product that doesn't match expectations.
• Track your RTO rate by product and city every month.

COD isn't going away. With the right partner and clear numbers, it can become your advantage instead of your biggest cost.