Pay on delivery

Pay on delivery is the one method that needs nothing from you: no bank account, no provider, no keys. The customer orders, you deliver, and they pay the person who hands over the goods. It is on every plan.

It suits a store that delivers locally with its own rider or driver. It does not suit one shipping across the country to strangers, because an order nobody pays for is an order you have already dispatched.

Switch it on

Go to Settings → Payments → Payment Methods. Pay on Delivery is the second card under Direct payments.

Its switch asks only for confirmation.

Choose Enable and it is on. The card reads Active and customers can choose it at their next checkout. Nothing else is configured: there is no minimum, no per area rule and no deposit.

What the customer sees

The method changes its name to match how the order reaches them, because a collection is not a delivery:

• Delivery: Pay on Delivery, described as paying cash when the order arrives.
• Collection: Pay when you pick up, described as paying at the counter.

That switch happens on its own when the customer changes between delivery and pickup at checkout, so a customer collecting from your shop is never promised a delivery you did not agree to make.

Getting paid

The order arrives unpaid and stays that way until you say otherwise. It shows Pay on delivery, or Pay on pickup for a collection. When the cash is in your hand, open the order and choose Mark as paid.

Stock is committed the moment the order is placed, exactly as it is for a paid order, so a pay on delivery order does hold goods back from other customers while it is open. Cancelling the order releases them again.

The reservation timeout under Settings → Fulfillment does not apply here. It releases stock held by someone who was sent to a card page and never came back, and it deliberately never touches a pay on delivery order, because such an order is unpaid for its whole life by design.

Turning it off

Use the same switch. The confirmation tells you the method will be hidden from your checkout, and warns you if it is the only one you have on, because a store with nothing switched on tells customers it is not accepting online orders.

If it does not work

• Customers cannot choose it: it is switched off, or it is the only method and something else is wrong with checkout. Check the card reads Active.
• It says Pay when you pick up and you do not offer collection: that wording only appears once the customer has chosen a pickup location, which means you have at least one active one under Shipping.
• The order still reads unpaid after you took the cash: Mark as paid lives on the order.
• You want a deposit instead of full payment on delivery: there is no part payment. Take the deposit another way, or use a gateway for the full amount.

Email support@shoponent.com with your store name if anything here does not match what you see. We read and answer every message.