Cash on delivery best practices for Romanian stores

Why cash on delivery is still here

Cash on delivery (ramburs) is still one of the most common ways Romanians pay for online orders, especially with shops they don't know yet. The reasons are practical: shoppers want to see the parcel before paying, some don't have a card or don't want to type card details on a new site, and couriers have built wide networks that handle cash collection every day.

For a new store, switching COD off usually loses more orders than it saves. The better goal is to keep COD and control its main cost: parcels refused at the door.

What a refused parcel really costs

A refusal is not just a lost sale. You pay to ship the parcel out, you usually pay to get it back, and the money you spent to win the order is gone. Here is an illustrative example for a 200 lei order. Replace the numbers with your own courier rates and margins.

Now take a store that ships 300 COD orders a month and earns 60 lei gross margin on a delivered order, or 40 lei after 20 lei of shipping.

• 12% refused: 264 delivered × 40 lei = 10,560 lei, minus 36 refusals × 75 lei = 2,700 lei. Result: 7,860 lei.
• 6% refused: 282 delivered × 40 lei = 11,280 lei, minus 18 refusals × 75 lei = 1,350 lei. Result: 9,930 lei.

Halving refusals adds about 2,070 lei a month without a single extra visitor. Returned stock also sits in transit for days and sometimes comes back damaged, which this example doesn't count.

Track "refused" as its own status

You can't fix what you don't measure. Many stores mark refused parcels as "cancelled", which mixes them with orders the customer cancelled before shipping and hides the real problem.

Your real delivered rate is delivered parcels divided by shipped parcels. Omniterra has a "refused at delivery" status, separate from "delivered" and from cancellations, so the number is there in your orders list. Look at it by product, traffic source, county, and new versus returning customers. A single ad campaign or product often drives most refusals.

Confirm orders before shipping

A short call or message before the parcel leaves catches wrong addresses, duplicate orders and customers who ordered on impulse. You don't need to call everyone. Focus on:

• first orders from new customers;
• orders above your usual basket value;
• orders with incomplete addresses or odd phone numbers.

Keep the call short: confirm the name, address, product, the total to pay at the door including any COD fee, and the expected delivery day. Call within an hour of the order, while the customer still remembers it. If nobody answers after two tries, hold the order and send a message. With the Omniterra automation builder (trigger, conditions, actions) you can tag orders that need a call, for example first COD orders above a set value.

Set clear COD rules

COD doesn't have to be available for every order. In Omniterra you can enable or disable COD with rules and add a COD fee. Useful rules:

• Maximum order value. Above a limit, for example 1,000 lei, ask for card payment. Refusing an expensive parcel costs the customer nothing and costs you a lot.
• Repeat refusers. A customer who refused two parcels should not get COD again. Offer card payment instead.
• Product exclusions. Made-to-order or personalised items shouldn't ship on COD.
• A COD fee. A small fee, close to what your courier charges you for collecting cash, makes the real cost visible and nudges some buyers to card. Show it before the order is placed. GEO 34/2014 requires you to state the total price with all additional charges before the customer is bound by the order.

Use a risk score

Some orders are simply riskier. Common signals:

• the phone number has refused parcels before, or the format is invalid;
• several orders from the same phone or address in a short time;
• an unusually high quantity of one product;
• a name, address or email that looks fake or incomplete;
• a first order with a value well above your average.

The COD fraud-protection add-on in Omniterra gives each COD order a risk score and keeps a phone blacklist. Treat the score as a triage tool: low risk ships as normal, medium risk gets a confirmation call, high risk gets asked to pay by card or is cancelled.

A blacklist of phone numbers is personal data under the GDPR. Keep only what you need, mention the practice in your privacy policy, and set a retention period. Check the details with your data protection adviser.

Make delivery information hard to miss

Many refusals start with a surprise: the parcel took longer than expected, the total at the door was higher than remembered, or nobody was home. Put the key facts on every product page, near the buy button:

• estimated delivery time and the courier you use;
• shipping cost and any COD fee;
• a short line on returns, with a link to the full returns page.

Repeat the total to pay at the door in the order confirmation email. A customer who knows exactly what to expect is far less likely to wave the courier away.

Send the AWB tracking link

Once the parcel ships, record the AWB number and courier on the order. Omniterra supports Sameday, FAN Courier, Cargus, DPD, GLS and Poșta Română and sends the customer a tracking link. Customers who can follow the parcel plan to be home, have cash ready, and call you less often to ask where the order is.

Nudge customers toward card, gently

Every order paid by card is an order that can't be refused at the door. A small incentive moves some buyers without scaring away the rest:

• a small discount for paying by card;
• free shipping for card orders above a threshold;
• no COD fee when paying online.

Frame it as a reward for card payment, not a penalty. EU payment rules (Directive 2015/2366) generally prevent surcharges on consumer card payments, so the incentive belongs on the card side. In Omniterra, card payments go through your own Stripe account, and Stripe charges its own processing fees. Compare that with your courier's COD fee plus your refusal cost; for many stores, card is the cheaper channel.

A monthly routine

1. Check the real delivered rate for COD orders.
2. List the top five products and campaigns by refusals.
3. Add repeat refusers to the blacklist.
4. Review the COD value limit and COD fee.
5. Test one change, such as calling all first orders, and compare next month.

If you're just starting, read how to start an online store in Romania for the legal setup, and e-commerce platform costs explained to budget fees. COD rules and the refused status are available on every plan, and Omniterra takes 0% commission on sales. Compare plans and pricing, or start free and set up your COD rules before your first order.