With cash on delivery (COD), an order only counts as sold once it's paid for at the door. Every refusal costs a round trip, sometimes a return fee, wasted packaging and stock tied up. And COD is still the rule in Morocco: 84.1% of online buyers used it in 2024, according to the telecoms regulator (ANRT). The good news: most refusals can be prevented before shipping. Here's how to measure your delivery rate, why parcels come back, and twelve ways to deliver more of them.
In this guide9
01First, measure your delivery rate
Delivery rate = parcels delivered and paid ÷ parcels shipped.
Track it every week, and break it down: by city, by product, by order source (Instagram ad, word of mouth, WhatsApp) and by reason for failure. An overall rate often hides a single problem: a poorly served city, a disappointing product, a campaign that attracts browsers.
There's no official return-rate figure for Morocco. At the Logismed 2026 trade show, one logistics player estimated that 30 to 40% of deliveries need another attempt. Your own number matters more than any average.
02Why parcels come back
- The impulse order: one tap under a video, forgotten two days later.
- The price surprise: delivery fees discovered at the door.
- The delay: the longer the parcel takes, the more likely the customer changes their mind or buys elsewhere.
- The vague address: the courier drives around, the customer stops answering.
- The customer is out, or has no cash when the courier arrives.
- The product: different from the photo, wrong size, disappointing quality.
- The fake order: a fake name, a prank, sometimes a competitor.
03Before shipping: six methods
- Before shipping6 methods: confirm, state the price, pin down the address
- During delivery3 methods: notify, call ahead, try again
- After a failure3 methods: call back, keep a list, fix the cause
- Confirm every order in writing, and ship only after the customer replies: product, size, total price, address, time slot. For a valuable order, call as well. A message template is in our guide to organising deliveries for an Instagram or WhatsApp shop.
- Give one total price, delivery included, in the listing and in the confirmation. Morocco's consumer law (31-08) requires you to state delivery costs anyway.
- Ask for a landmark and a shared location: neighbourhood, street, building, floor, and a well-known place nearby.
- Ship fast: an order confirmed in the morning that leaves the same day gives doubt less time.
- Show the real product: real photos, precise sizes, the material. A customer disappointed when opening the box is a return.
- Ask for a deposit on made-to-measure items or high-value orders.
04During delivery: three methods
- Tell the customerthe day, the time slot, the courier's name, and the delivery code to give at the door.
- The courier calls before arrivingthat's when the customer comes down, or says they're out.
- Plan a second attempta customer who's out today may be in tomorrow. Agree on a new time rather than sending the parcel straight back.
05After a failure: three methods
- Call back every refusal, politely, to find out why. A money or timing problem can often be fixed with a new date.
- Keep your own list of risky numbers, the ones that have refused before for no reason. That's personal data, protected by law 09-08: don't publish it, don't share it.
- Fix what the numbers show: a city, a product or an order source that fails more than the others.
06What a refusal really costs
A refusal means the outbound delivery (often charged), sometimes the return, the packaging, stock blocked for days and the time spent putting it back on the shelf. Out of 100 parcels shipped with 20 refusals, your cost can climb from 35 to more than 41 DH per delivered parcel. The full calculation is in our guide to delivery prices in Morocco.
- 80 parcels delivered and paid
- 20 parcels refused, coming back
The worked example from our prices guide: 35 DH per delivered parcel, 10 DH per return, 3 DH of packaging.
Carriers' policies differ, and they matter in your choice. In September 2026, Sendit advertised free cancellations and refusals, Forcelog and Olivraison returns at 0 DH (with a 10 DH cancellation fee at Olivraison), and Cathedis free returns up to 10% or 20% of parcels depending on the plan.
07Refusal at the door vs withdrawal: don't mix them up
- A refusalthe customer doesn't pay at the door, the parcel comes back, the sale never happened.
- A withdrawalthe customer received the parcel and paid, then changed their mind. Law 31-08 gives them 7 days from receipt to withdraw with no reason (30 days if the written order confirmation was missing), other than any return costs, and you must refund them within 15 days.
A clear written confirmation protects you in both cases.
Delivery Center
With Delivery Center
On Delivery Center, every failure has a name, and you see which one:
- the courier records whether the recipient refused to pay or didn't answer. The parcel stays with them: they can try again, or bring it back to you;
- neither case counts against the courier. But a return they choose themselves does count against them: they have every reason to really attempt the delivery;
- the delivery code you send your customer confirms the delivery at the door, and without it the courier calls you or delivers with a photo;
- the cash collected comes back to you hand to hand, and every handover is confirmed: our guide to handing collected cash back explains how.
To see all of this in context, read our guide to e-commerce delivery in Morocco, and to protect yourself from fake orders, our guide to parcel scams.
09Frequently asked questions
What's a good cash-on-delivery delivery rate?
There's no official benchmark in Morocco. A good rate is yours, improving: measure it every week and compare it with itself, by city and by product.
Can a customer refuse a parcel at the door?
In practice, yes: nobody can force them to pay on the doorstep. That's why a written confirmation before shipping matters so much.
Should a customer who refused pay the delivery fee?
You can't collect it at the door if they refuse. For a customer who has refused before for no reason, ask for a deposit or the delivery fee upfront before shipping their next order.
Should I always call the customer before shipping?
For small orders, a written message with a reply is often enough. For a valuable order, a first order or a vague address, an extra call is well worth the time.
Sources
- ICT survey 2024-2025 — ANRT (in French) (October 2025)
- Logismed 2026: re-deliveries and returns — Consonews (in French) (14/05/2026)
- Sendit — services (in French) (read 25/09/2026)
- Cathedis — rates (in French) (read 25/09/2026)
- Forcelog — parcel rates (in French) (read 25/09/2026)
- Olivraison — rates by city (in French) (read 25/09/2026)
- Law 31-08 on consumer protection — text (WIPO, in French)
- Law 09-08 on personal data protection — CNDP (in French)
