COD delivery and acceptance rates by country in Europe
How common cash on delivery is in each European country, and the buyout and delivery rates that COD providers publish. Every figure is sourced and dated, ranges are kept as published, and provider figures are labelled as such.
- Cash on delivery is still about half of online orders or deliveries in Greece (50% of orders, 2025) and Romania (50.2% of deliveries, Q1 2024).
- More than 80% of online shops offer it in Greece, Bulgaria and Slovakia, and fewer than 10% across Western and Northern Europe.
- Two COD providers publish buyout or delivery rates of roughly 76–97% depending on country and product. These are their figures, not market averages.
Four rates that often get mixed up.
Sources use different words for different things. This page keeps them apart, so a share of shops is never compared with a share of parcels.
- Share of shops offering COD
- The percentage of online shops in a country that offer cash on delivery at checkout. It tells you how normal COD is there, not how often it is used.
- COD share of orders
- The percentage of online orders, deliveries or payments made by cash on delivery. Each source measures a slightly different base; the table says which.
- Buyout or acceptance rate
- Of the COD parcels shipped, the percentage the customer accepts and pays for. Providers call it buyout; I call it acceptance. Some use “successful delivery rate” for the same idea.
- Return or refusal rate
- Of the COD parcels shipped, the percentage that come back: refused at the door, customer unreachable, wrong address. Roughly 100% minus the buyout rate.
How common cash on delivery is, by country.
The share of shops offering COD comes from one study (ECDB, June 2025), so those figures compare cleanly. The share of orders comes from a different national source for each country, with its own base and year.
| Country | Shops offering COD | COD share of orders, deliveries or payments | Trend and notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Greece | 85.6% | 50% of orders in 2025AfterSalesPro, 800 e-shops, 3M+ orders | Down from 60% in 2023 and 55.4% in 2024. A draft bill (October 2026) would require COD to be paid electronically; the ministry is reconsidering it. |
| Romania | Not in ECDB’s published list | 50.2% of deliveries, Q1 2024Innoship E-Commerce Index | Down from 52.5% a year earlier. |
| Bulgaria | 80.3% | No public figure found | — |
| Slovakia | 80.1% | No public figure found | — |
| Serbia | 69.2% | No public figure found | — |
| Lithuania | 64.9% | No public figure found | — |
| Poland | 60.7% | No public figure found | Prepaid methods lead: 72% of surveyed shoppers use BLIK and 64% use fast bank transfers (Gemius, 2025). |
| Hungary | Not in ECDB’s published list | Not given as one sharePwC Hungary, September 2026 | COD is still common, but card payment on delivery is now more popular than cash (35% vs 30%). 56% of online shoppers prepay when they can. |
| Italy | Not in ECDB’s published list | 1.2% of online paymentsNetRetail 2025, via PagamentiDigitali.it | Described as falling sharply. |
| Western & Northern Europe | Below 10% | No public figure found | ECDB gives no per-country figure for these markets. |
Scroll the table sideways to see every column →
“No public figure found” means I found no recent public source I could open and check, not that COD is absent. Full source links and dates are listed in the method section.
What COD providers publish, country by country.
Two logistics providers that ship cash-on-delivery parcels publish rates on their own websites. They describe the parcels each provider handles, for its own clients’ products, and neither publishes its method. Read them as one provider’s view of its own traffic, not as market averages.
| Country | Buyout rate · WAPI | Successful delivery rate · BigArena |
|---|---|---|
| Romania | 85% | 90–95% supplements · 86–92% fashion · 80–88% electronics over €200 |
| Slovakia | 84% | 85–92%grouped with Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Serbia |
| Spain | 83% | Not published |
| Hungary | 82% | 85–92%grouped |
| Poland | 81% | 85–92%grouped |
| Italy | 79% | Not published |
| Portugal | 79% | Not published |
| Germany | 78% | Not published |
| Austria | 77% | Not published |
| Lithuania | 76% | Not published |
| Bulgaria | Not published | 92–97% supplements, cosmetics, food · 88–94% fashion |
| Greece | Not published | 88–93% all categories |
| Czechia | Not published | 85–92%grouped |
| Serbia | Not published | 85–92%grouped |
Scroll the table sideways to see every column →
WAPI calls its figures “typical” and “indicative”, gives 75–85% as the typical buyout in its strongest markets, and says the rate depends on vertical, offer quality, call-centre recovery and season. BigArena’s page is dated 14 June 2026; WAPI’s page carries no date and was read on 28 October 2026.
COD return rate. Neither provider publishes a return or refusal rate. Taking 100% minus the published rates (my arithmetic, not theirs), between about 15% and 24% of parcels are not bought out on WAPI’s figures, and between about 3% and 20% are not delivered on BigArena’s, depending on country and product.
Acceptance before and after order confirmation.
I build and run the back office for cash-on-delivery operators. Their country-by-country figures belong to them and stay private, so I only publish the totals.
Before confirmation, those operations sat below the 75–85% range WAPI publishes for its strongest markets; after it, they sat inside it. Definitions differ from one provider to the next, so treat this as a rough comparison. The full case study is on the portfolio page, and the software that runs the confirmation and tracking is COD Manager.
What drives COD refusals.
Only what the sources above say, and what the operations I work on measured.
- Unconfirmed and fake orders. BigArena lists fake or unconfirmed orders among the causes of refusal, and says confirmation calls before dispatch add 4–7 points of delivery success on supplement campaigns. WAPI says call-centre recovery moves the buyout rate by 10–15%. In the operations I work on, automated confirmation moved acceptance from 65–70% to 75–80%.
- Wrong addresses and unreachable customers. WAPI flags four delivery problems for follow-up: failed first attempt, customer unreachable, address mismatch and refused at the door. BigArena adds customers who are not at home or don’t have the cash ready.
- Slow delivery. AfterSalesPro’s 2025 Greek review links shipping speed and the last mile to return rates. In Greece, deliveries to the islands took 114 hours on average in 2025 against 65 hours on the mainland, and 14.09% of shipments were late. It also says parcel lockers, chosen by 24.6% of shoppers when offered, reduce failed deliveries.
- The product and the buyer. BigArena cites customers changing their mind, size problems in fashion and reluctance to pay for expensive electronics. Its own ranges show it: in Romania, 90–95% for supplements against 80–88% for electronics over €200.
How this page was built.
What is measured. Three different things, never mixed in one column: the share of online shops offering COD, the share of orders, deliveries or payments made by COD, and the buyout or delivery rate of COD parcels shipped by a provider.
How. I opened every source on 27 and 28 October 2026, read each figure in its original context and noted its base and date. Figures I could not open and check were left out. Nothing is averaged or estimated: ranges stay as published, and provider figures are labelled as such. The only calculation on the page is the return rate, shown as 100% minus the published rates and marked as mine.
My own data. Totals only (acceptance before and after confirmation, order volume, number of countries), from cash-on-delivery operations run with my clients over 12 months. No per-country split is published, by agreement with those clients.
Limits. Sources cover different years (2024 to 2026) and different bases. Provider rates describe each provider’s own parcels. Data as of 28 October 2026.
- ECDB, share of online stores offering cash on delivery in Europe, published 3 June 2025. ecdb.com
- Innoship, E-Commerce Index Q1 2024 (Romania), published 22 April 2024. innoship.com
- AfterSalesPro, Greek e-commerce review 2025 (PDF, 800 e-shops, more than 3,000,000 orders). aftersalespro.gr
- To Vima, on the draft rule requiring electronic payment of COD in Greece, published 23 October 2026. tovima.com
- PwC Hungary and the Hungarian Digital Commerce Association, Digitális Kereskedelmi Körkép 2026/I, published 24 September 2026. pwc.com
- PagamentiDigitali.it, B2C e-commerce in Italy in 2025 (payment data from NetRetail 2025), published 17 April 2025. pagamentidigitali.it
- Przelewy24, on Gemius “E-commerce in Poland 2025” (August 2025), published 26 September 2025. przelewy24.pl
- WAPI, cash-on-delivery page (provider figures), undated, read 28 October 2026. wapi.com
- BigArena, cash on delivery in Europe guide (provider figures), published 14 June 2026. bigarena.net
COD rates in Europe, answered.
What is a good COD buyout rate in Europe?
WAPI publishes 75–85% as the typical buyout in its strongest markets. In the operations I work on, acceptance was 65–70% before automated order confirmation and 75–80% after it. Product matters: BigArena publishes 90–95% for supplements in Romania against 80–88% for electronics over €200.
What is the COD return rate by country?
No source above publishes return rates directly. Taking 100% minus the published rates, about 15–24% of parcels are not bought out on WAPI’s figures (from 15% in Romania to 24% in Lithuania), and about 3–20% are not delivered on BigArena’s, depending on country and product.
Which European countries use cash on delivery the most?
Greece, Bulgaria and Slovakia have the highest share of online shops offering COD (85.6%, 80.3% and 80.1%, ECDB 2025). In Greece and Romania, about half of online orders or deliveries are still paid by COD.
Is cash on delivery declining in Europe?
Slowly, in its strongest markets. In Greece the COD share of orders fell from 60% in 2023 to 50% in 2025, in Romania from 52.5% to 50.2% of deliveries between Q1 2023 and Q1 2024, and in Hungary card payment on delivery has overtaken cash. In Italy it is down to 1.2% of online payments.
Why don’t you publish your clients’ figures by country?
They belong to my clients and are covered by confidentiality agreements. I publish only the totals: acceptance before and after confirmation, about 100,000 orders over 12 months, 10 countries.
See your acceptance rate by country, carrier and product.
I build the back office that confirms COD orders, tracks every parcel and shows where yours are refused. Tell me about your stores and I’ll quote it after a short call.
I reply within one business day.