COD e-commerce in Algeria: carriers, rules, confirmation

Selling online in Algeria almost always means selling cash on delivery. The customer orders from an ad or a page, waits for the courier and pays only when the parcel is in their hands. That reassures the buyer and moves every risk onto the seller: a refusal at the door, a phone that never answers, an address nobody can find, and cash that the carrier collects today and pays out later. This guide covers what a COD seller in Algeria needs to know: why cash still rules, what the law requires, how to choose a carrier, how to stop parcels getting lost between wilayas and communes, and how to confirm orders before they leave your stockroom.

Why cash on delivery dominates in Algeria

Electronic payment statistics only tell part of the story. As TSA puts it, cash on delivery is how most online sales are settled, which is exactly why Algerian e-commerce is so hard to measure. The audience is there, though. DataReportal counts 37.8 million internet users at the end of 2025, a penetration rate of 79.5%, 55.6 million cellular mobile connections, equivalent to 117% of the population, and 27.5 million social media user identities, 57.7% of the population. Most orders start on those networks, and on a phone.

Cards are catching up. According to the GIE Monétique, quoted by Algérie Eco, there were about 23 million payment cards in circulation at the end of August 2026, including some 19 million Edahabia cards from Algérie Poste and more than 4 million interbank CIB cards, and more than 62% of them are active. But they are mainly used to take cash out. Card transactions used to be 90% withdrawals and 10% payments; today payments exceed 20%. The number of active web merchants rose from 644 in December 2025 to 1,034 in August 2026, mostly in ticketing, utility bills and insurance. Asked what holds payments back, the GIE’s representative was blunt about buyers: consumers do not trust paying electronically.

For a seller of physical goods who finds customers through social media ads, the practical conclusion is simple: build the business around cash on delivery, and treat card payment as an option that will grow, not as the default.

What law 18-05 asks of an online seller

E-commerce is governed by law 18-05, in force since 7 June 2018 after its publication in the Official Journal. It applies whenever one party is Algerian or lives in Algeria, or the contract is made or performed there. For a COD seller, the main obligations are these:

• Register. The activity requires registration in the trade register or the crafts register, and a website or web page hosted in Algeria with a .com.dz extension. A national file of e-suppliers is kept at the National Trade Register Centre.
• Publish a complete offer. It must show the tax identification number, the physical and e-mail addresses and the phone number of the seller, the trade register number, the product’s characteristics and its price including all taxes, and the delivery terms, fees and lead times.
• Payment on delivery is provided for. The bill presented to the APN stated that payment is made either remotely or on delivery of the product, by authorised means; electronic payment goes through platforms run by approved banks or Algérie Poste.
• Issue an invoice. Every online sale gives rise to an invoice handed to the customer.
• Never charge for what was not ordered. A seller who delivers something the customer did not order cannot demand its price or its delivery fee.
• Keep your delivery promises. If the deadline is missed, the customer may send the product back within four working days of actual delivery, and the refund is due within 15 days of receiving the product back.
• Respect the banned list. Online sales exclude, among others, alcoholic drinks, tobacco and pharmaceutical products, gambling and goods that infringe intellectual property.

These rules bite in day-to-day COD work: the lead time on your page is a commitment, and the price you quote on the phone must match the invoice. This summary does not replace reading the text in the Official Journal or advice from a lawyer, especially when choosing between the trade register and another status.

Customer data: law 18-07

A COD business handles names, phone numbers and addresses all day. In Algeria that processing falls under law 18-07 and the national data protection authority, the ANPDP. Three points shape how a store works:

• Marketing needs consent. Law 18-07 prohibits direct marketing using the contact details of anyone who has not given prior consent. Calling a customer to confirm the order they just placed is part of fulfilling it; sending them promotions afterwards is not.
• Processing must be declared. Any processing of personal data requires prior notification to the ANPDP, and the riskiest processing needs an authorisation.
• Transfers abroad are restricted. The law subjects transfers of personal data abroad to the ANPDP’s prior authorisation, with a few exceptions. If your tools keep customer files outside Algeria, check where you stand before you launch.

Choosing a COD carrier in Algeria

E-commerce delivery in Algeria is built around express courier companies that deliver to the door or to a pickup office, collect the order amount and pay it back to the seller. A few examples, based on what the companies say about themselves:

• Yalidine, in the market since 2013, offers e-commerce parcel delivery and cash-on-delivery collection; its site says it collects and delivers in 55 wilayas.
• Maystro Delivery states that 75% of orders are delivered in less than 24 hours and lists cash collection and a call center among its services.
• Other names that often come up in sellers’ comparisons include ZR Express, Guepex and Nord et Ouest.

A carrier’s headline figures are sales arguments. The only test that counts is yours: a few dozen parcels spread across nearby and remote wilayas, then a comparison of delivery rate, real lead time and payout date. Ask these questions before you sign:

Many sellers run two carriers: a main one for the large northern cities and a second for the wilayas the first serves poorly. It means more follow-up, but fewer lost parcels.

Wilayas, communes and addresses: stop parcels getting lost

The administrative map has just changed. Algeria had 58 wilayas until then; creating 11 new wilayas in the High Plateaus and the South takes the total to 69 wilayas and 1,541 communes, with powers handed over gradually and the process to be completed by 31 December 2026. During the transition, the wilaya lists used by carriers, by order forms and by customers will not always match: a customer in Bou Saâda may give the new wilaya while your carrier still files the address under M’Sila.

A few rules prevent most of the errors:

• A two-step form: wilaya first, then commune, both picked from lists rather than typed. Keep a mapping between the new map and each carrier’s own list.
• A landmark: a mosque, a school, a well-known shop. In many neighbourhoods that is what gets the courier to the right door.
• Home or office chosen on the form, with the price of each option. Customers far from the city often prefer to collect from the nearest office.
• A second phone number: it rescues deliveries when the first one stops answering.

Confirm every order before it ships

With cash on delivery, a buyer who refuses the parcel loses nothing; the seller pays the outbound trip and often the return. That makes confirmation the most profitable step in the whole chain: an order cancelled on the phone costs a minute, a refused parcel costs a delivery and a week of stock stuck in transit.

A good confirmation call checks, in order:

1. The person: did they place the order, and will they be the one receiving it?
2. The exact product: model, size, colour, quantity.
3. The total amount, delivery included, for home or office delivery. Say it clearly: many refusals come from customers surprised by what the courier asks for.
4. The wilaya, the commune and the landmark, read back aloud.
5. The lead time the carrier gives for that area, and when the customer will be reachable.

Speak the customer’s language: Algerian Arabic, French or Tamazight depending on the region. Call quickly, while the wish to buy is still fresh, and never after the parcel has been packed. Set a rule for unreachable customers, for example several attempts at different times of day with a written message in between, then cancellation. A WhatsApp recap leaves a record of the product, the price and the address that the customer can read again.

Fake orders show simple signs: an incomplete number, an absurd name, identical orders in a row from the same number. Our guide to fake COD orders covers the countermeasures. And remember law 18-07: a confirmation call is not permission to send promotions afterwards.

Count the real cost of a delivered order

In COD, the number that matters is not the cost per order received but the margin per order delivered and paid for. To work it out, start from the selling price, subtract the product cost, the delivery fees you absorb and your share of return fees on refused parcels, then divide your ad spend by the orders actually delivered, not by the orders received. A campaign that brings plenty of orders but few deliveries often loses money.

Add the payout delay: while the carrier holds the cash it collected, that money is not paying for your next batch of stock. The COD calculator lets you test your assumptions about confirmation and delivery rates before you raise the ad budget.

What Cashod can take on

Cashod is a COD order management tool. It includes a call center where agents confirm COD orders by phone, and it can confirm orders over WhatsApp, including with an AI agent. One Cashod account can manage several stores.

Cashod also tracks returned parcels, and each carrier’s delivery and return fees are set per city. Any other carrier can be added to Cashod manually, without automatic shipment creation or tracking.

Checklist before you launch

• Registration in the right register, and a site or page that meets law 18-05, with a complete offer and the delivery fees shown.
• Data processing declared, and consent collected before any promotional message.
• One or two carriers tested on a small batch of parcels across several wilayas.
• An order form that follows the new wilaya map, with communes, a landmark and the home-or-office choice.
• A written confirmation method: what to check, when to call back, when to cancel.
• Margin worked out per delivered order, not per order received.