How to optimize the Shopify store for COD (Cash on Delivery)

Once you have a Shopify store all set, it's time to optimize it to suit your customers at its best. There are many ways to improve customer journeys, but safety comes first! 

In simple words, potential customers may like your offer but may lack trust in your store and choose not to share their credit card details with you. That's where COD steps in.

COD, or Cash on Delivery, is a payment method that allows customers to pay for their online purchases with cash when the goods are delivered to their doorstep.

COD is particularly beneficial for dropshipping in central, southern, and eastern Europe since the number of digital fraud cases exceeds 249.000 annually. Also, there are cca 13 million people who don't have a bank account but made at least one online purchase.

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Ultimately, COD enables you to

• Increase customer trust and satisfaction
• Reduce the risk of fraudulent transactions
• Diversify payment options and cater to the broader audience
• Expand market reach to areas with limited online payment infrastructure

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Shopify’s COD Built-in Feature

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Of course, Shopify has its solution to provide COD payment option to your customers.

It's good but lengthy because this option requires three steps to complete an order. That may inconvenience your customers since the goal is to provide seamless and fast service. And taking too long to complete an order may cause them to abandon a checkout process.

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Here's how to enable the Shopify COD payment option on your store:

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1. Log in to your Shopify Admin at www.shopify.com.

2. Go to the Payment section by clicking "Settings" at the bottom left corner of the page, then select "Payments."

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3. Scroll to Manual Payment Methods and choose "Cash on Delivery (COD)" from the drop-down menu.

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4. Provide additional details, such as how the COD process works, which will be displayed next to the payment method during checkout.

5. Add payment instructions for customers to follow when paying for their orders. It is recommended to advise customers to prepare the exact amount to assist your delivery personnel.

6. Once everything is set, click the "Activate Cash on Delivery (COD)" button to activate the option.

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7. Now you're ready to receive orders.

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Customers Checkout process

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And here’s how it’ll look in the end:

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1. On the Shopify checkout page, a customer has to enter contact and shipping data.

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2. If you offer more shipping methods, differentiated by the price or some other factor, they’d be listed in this step.

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3. The third step includes choosing the payment method, where a customer decides between provided options, and in this case, it chooses COD.

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Shopify apps - shorten the customer checkout process

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Another option is to use Shopify apps. There are many apps, and besides COD, they usually have a more comprehensive offer. We won't go into details about pricing plans since they vary for each, as expected. 

So, check them out and decide according to your needs.

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And here’s how:

The first step is to search for the best match. And for that, click "Apps" and then "Apps and Channel Settings."

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You'll land here and then open "Shopify App Store."

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Then search for “COD” and filter your results by your preferences, whether you want to see the newest, most popular, or best-matching results. We kept the best matching, and based on reviews (rating and the number of downloads) and the pricing plan, we chose to install Releasit COD Form & Upsell.

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Step-by-step instructions on how to integrate COD on Shopify using an app

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To configure the app for the first time, follow the steps on the welcome card on the app dashboard.

First, open your theme, wait for the theme editor in Shopify to load, and then click on the save button on the top right to activate the app on your theme. 

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If the step is completed correctly, it will become green in the app. If you have any issues with this step, contact their support team. 

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Now your cash-on-delivery form is active. In your store, you can then customize your form style and layout on the form designer page, where you can find your form fields and blocks and a live preview of your form.

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To hide or show a field click on the eye icon, and to edit a field, click on the pencil icon. To move a field, click on the arrow icons, and finally, you can add a custom field by clicking on the green “+” button.

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Then you can 

• Customize your buy button 
• Change your text icon, color dimensions, and borders in the app

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By reloading the product page, we can already see the changes on the store. 

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Now if you have any tracking pixels, you can add them to the app. For example, you can add your Facebook, Tik Tok, and Snapchat pixel, and if you already added those pixels to your Shopify store, you don't have to add them to the app.

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You can also:

• Add shipping rates to your form
• Change the shipping rate price and title 
• Add conditions to your rates based on your needs 

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On the visibility settings of the app, you can decide where you want to enable the app. For example, you can select only product pages if you want the form to be enabled only on your product pages.

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You can also hide your add-to-cart and buy-now buttons. If you enable the option to hide the add-to-cart button, you will only see the cash-on-delivery button on our product pages.

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Upsells and quantity offers 

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You can add one-click upsells that will appear in a pop-up before or after your customers order on the form with options to 

• Customize all your texts and colors
• Add a discount
• Add one-tick upsells that will appear directly inside your form to increase your average order value
• Add quantity offers to your form to incentivize orders with more than one item with discounts 

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Landing Page Builder

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If you use landing pages, you can also integrate the form with Pagefly, Gempages, and Zipify by following the tutorials on the integration settings of the app.

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Google Sheet

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If you need to export your orders automatically to Google Sheets, you can do it from the Google Sheets page.

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Final result - One-click order form

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When building your COD form using an app, you make it easier for your customers to complete an order. Unlike Shopify's built-in COD option, this one is much more convenient and easier.

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Why should online store owners care about COD?

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Optimizing your Shopify store for Cash on Delivery (COD) brings several advantages. By offering COD as a payment option, you provide a secure and convenient method for customers to purchase goods online, especially for those hesitant to share their credit card information.

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Implementing COD also helps to eliminate the risks associated with fraudulent transactions. Accepting cash payments upon delivery reduces the likelihood of unauthorized purchases and chargebacks. This safeguards both your business and your customers from potential financial losses.

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Furthermore, optimizing your Shopify store for COD allows you to tap into a broader audience. Many individuals prefer cash transactions, especially in regions with limited online payment infrastructure. By accommodating these customers through COD, you can expand your market reach and increase sales opportunities in untapped markets.

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In summary, optimizing your Shopify store for COD enhances customer trust and satisfaction, minimizes the risk of fraud, and widens your customer base.

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