🌏 This content is for Shippit customers located in Singapore, Malaysia, and elsewhere throughout Southeast Asia.
Cash on delivery (COD) is a payment method where customers pay for their orders in cash when they receive them. This is a popular payment method in Southeast Asia, as it allows customers who do not have access to credit cards or bank accounts to make online purchases.
Accepting COD orders
COD services are available for merchants with store addresses in Singapore and Malaysia, for these carriers:
When you have activated a COD-supported carrier, and provided us with your bank account details, you can start offering it as a payment option to your customers. COD orders use this process:
The customer places an order on your website and selects COD as their payment method.
Pack and ship the order as usual. The manifest document for the carrier includes the collectible COD amount.
The carrier delivers the order to the customer and collects cash payment.
The carrier remits the cash payment to Shippit. Depending on the carrier, this can take between 7-30 days.
Shippit deducts the COD fees, and deposits the cash payment into your bank account.
COD fees and invoicing
Shippit charges a small fee for COD orders. This fee varies depending on the country where the order is picked up from:
Pick up country | Fee |
Singapore | SGD6.30 or 3.5% of COD amount, whichever is higher |
Malaysia | MYR18.00 or 3.5% of COD amount, whichever is higher |
COD invoices are processed two weeks after the end of each calendar month, for all amounts collected by and received from carriers for COD orders. The invoice only includes transactions where the money has been collected from the carrier.
COD fees are deducted before the collected COD amounts are credited to your account. You must provide your bank account details to us before you can start booking COD orders.
Integrating COD orders
You can send COD orders to Shippit in a range of different ways, depending on your integration.
Shopify integration
If you use Shopify, you can accept orders through your Shopify store. For more information about setting up Shopify to accept COD orders, see the Shopify integration article.
CSV or FTP upload
If you upload orders to Shippit using CSV or FTP, you can include COD orders in your uploaded file. You can download this example CSV file to help you create your CSV or FTP upload. For more information about uploading orders using CSV, see the CSV and FTP integration article.
API integration
If you use your own custom API integration, there are several parameters you can set to handle COD orders. For more information about COD orders in the Shippit API, see the Shippit developer centre.
Things to keep in mind when offering COD
There are a few things to keep in mind when offering COD as a payment option for your customers:
COD is not available for all orders. It depends on the carrier, the country you are shipping from and to, and the delivery address.
Shipping goods as COD can incur more merchant fees than other payment methods, such as credit cards.
It takes longer to receive payments for COD orders, as they are paid for after they are sent, rather than before. This also poses some risk of non-payment for the goods.
If an order is booked as COD, any authority to leave (ATL) request is ignored. Someone must be present at the delivery address to pay for the delivery.