Cash on delivery by country in Europe: where COD works in 12 markets
· by Lucas Reda · in Cash on Delivery · 12 min read
Romania, Greece and Bulgaria still run on cash on delivery; Spain, Italy, Portugal and Germany barely use it. Sourced public data for 12 European markets, and the figures you should not quote.
Cash on delivery (COD) is strong in eastern and south-eastern Europe and marginal in the west. In Romania, about two-thirds of online transactions are paid on delivery; in Greece, 85.6% of online shops offer it. In Spain only 4.1% of purchases are paid that way, and in Italy 1.2% in cash. Below: sourced data for 12 markets.
Anyone planning to sell with cash on delivery in Europe usually starts from a generic line like "COD dominates eastern Europe". Public data varies a lot by country, measures different things and, in several markets, does not exist at all.
This guide collects what can be stated with a source for the 12 European markets where N1 runs cash on delivery: Poland, Spain, Portugal, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Germany, Italy, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. For the full dataset, see the COD Europe Map 2026.
Before the table: supply and usage are different metrics
Two indicators circulate as if they were the same:
- Supply: how many online shops display a pay-on-delivery option.
- Usage: how many orders (or how many shoppers) actually pay that way.
A country can have 80% of shops offering COD and a minority of orders paid through it. Even "usage" comes in different shapes: share of purchases, share of shoppers who have ever used it, stated preference. In the table, every figure says what it measures. Mixing the two is the most common mistake in revenue forecasts built on cash on delivery.
Summary table: where is cash on delivery available in Europe
| Country | Local name for COD | Currency | Shops offering COD | COD usage (metric, year) | Bought online in last 12 months (Eurostat 2025) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Romania | ramburs | RON (leu) | no public figure (COD is the no. 1 method offered, ECDB) | about 2/3 of transactions (ARMO, 2025) | 60.3% |
| Greece | αντικαταβολή (antikatavolí) | EUR | 85.6% (ECDB, 2025) | 62.8% of shoppers use it; 22% usually (GR.EC.A/ELTRUN, 2025) | 68.0% |
| Bulgaria | наложен платеж (nalozhen platezh) | EUR since 1 Jan 2026 | 80.3% (ECDB, 2025) | 55.14% of payments (BEA association, 2024, no method published) | 51.2% |
| Slovakia | dobierka | EUR | 80.1% (ECDB, 2025) | 25% to 30% of orders (platform data, 2026, weak) | 78.8% |
| Croatia | pouzeće | EUR since 2023 | no public figure | 42% of shoppers paid this way (Ipsos, 2023) | 61.7% |
| Poland | za pobraniem | PLN | 60.7% (ECDB, 2025) | 33% have ever used it; 4% as most frequent method (Gemius, 2025) | 69.7% |
| Hungary | utánvét | HUF | no public figure (COD is the no. 1 method offered, ECDB) | preference: 35% card on delivery, 30% cash on delivery (PwC/DKSZ, 2026) | 67.7% |
| Czech Republic | dobírka | CZK | no public figure (COD is the no. 1 method offered, ECDB) | 13% of respondents (survey under APEK, year not stated) | 83.7% |
| Italy | contrassegno | EUR | 52% (ECDB, 2024) | 1.2% of purchases in cash on delivery; 11% paid on delivery or on use (Netcomm, 2025) | 56.2% |
| Portugal | pagamento na entrega / à cobrança | EUR | no public figure | 7.4% of shoppers use it (ACEPI, 2025) | 60.5% |
| Spain | contra reembolso | EUR | no public figure | 4.1% of purchases; 26.1% of shoppers used it at least once (ONTSI, 2024) | 70.8% |
| Germany | Nachnahme | EUR | no public figure | no reliable recent public figure; not among main methods (EHI, 2025) | 81.4% |
The last column comes from the official Eurostat isoc_ec_ib20 series (people aged 16 to 74 who bought online in the last 12 months, 2025; EU average 73.6%). It helps read the rest: where fewer people shop online, more people are still making their first purchase, and that is where COD carries weight.
Cash on delivery by country: what the data says
Cash on delivery in Romania
Romania is the clearest COD-majority market in Europe. The Romanian Association of Online Stores (ARMO) states in the European E-commerce Report 2025 (p. 80) that payment behaviour "is still dominated by cash-on-delivery", at about two-thirds of all transactions. A The Paypers round-up (2025) quotes ARMO at 60% to 65% of orders, with payment processor data showing only 35% of Romanians paying online.
Caveat: neither source describes a sample or method. It is a strong industry estimate, not an official statistic. Eurostat points the same way: 60.3% of Romanians bought online in 2025, below the EU average. Currency: Romanian leu (RON).
Cash on delivery in Greece
Greece has the highest measured COD supply: 85.6% of online shops, according to ECDB (June 2025). On the shopper side, the 2025 e-commerce survey by the Greek eCommerce Association (GR.EC.A) and the ELTRUN lab at the Athens University of Economics and Business, with 800 online shoppers, finds 22% usually pay on delivery and 40.8% sometimes do: 62.8% in total. The debit card reaches 85.2%.
The trend is down. GR.EC.A itself says in the European report that digital wallets are gaining ground over COD. A post-purchase platform's review published by GR.EC.A shows COD falling from 60% to 50% of orders between 2023 and 2025, but that is data from the platform's own shops, not the whole market. Currency: euro.
Cash on delivery in Bulgaria
Supply of 80.3% (ECDB, 2025), and COD is the no. 1 payment method offered by shops. On usage, the Bulgarian e-commerce association cites in the European E-commerce Report 2025 (p. 73) a decline in cash-on-delivery payments to 55.14% (September and October 2024), without stating the base. Only 51.2% of Bulgarians bought online in 2025, the lowest rate in the EU.
Watch the currency: Bulgaria adopted the euro on 1 January 2026, per the ECB, at 1.95583 lev per euro. Older material quoting BGN is out of date.
Cash on delivery in Slovakia
Supply of 80.1% (ECDB, 2025). The only recent usage figure comes from an e-shop platform's data published by TOUCHIT (June 2026): 25% to 30% of orders paid by dobierka, up to 40% for cheaper goods, concentrated on first orders. It is a weak source with no published method. Currency: euro.
Cash on delivery in Croatia
There is no public supply figure. On usage, an Ipsos survey published by eCommerce Hrvatska (2024, 2023 data, 1,800 people) shows 42% of shoppers paying with pouzeće, ahead of credit cards (39%). Multiple answers were allowed, so it is not a share of orders. Currency: euro since 2023.
Cash on delivery in Poland
Supply of 60.7% (ECDB, 2025). The E-commerce w Polsce 2025 report (Gemius, 1,629 internet users) shows 33% of shoppers have paid za pobraniem at some point, but only 4% use it most often. BLIK is used by 72%.
That is not a contradiction. Polish COD is not the main method; it is the one that unlocks a first purchase at an unknown shop. Currency: złoty (PLN).
Cash on delivery in Hungary
ECDB lists utánvét as the no. 1 method offered by shops, without publishing the share. The Digitális Kereskedelmi Körkép (PwC with the DKSZ association, September 2026) shows card payment at the door (35%) now ahead of cash on delivery (30%) in preference, and 56% of shoppers prepaying when they can.
Currency: forint. With N1, COD in Hungary is collected in HUF.
Cash on delivery in the Czech Republic
ECDB names dobírka as the no. 1 method offered by shops, with no public share. A survey run under the APEK association and published on Česká e-commerce puts COD at 13% of respondents against 42% for online card payment, without sample size or fieldwork date. Czechs shop online a lot (83.7%, above the EU average), and parcel boxes are now the most used delivery method (48.1% in 2025, per APEK data). Currency: koruna (CZK).
Cash on delivery in Italy
Contrassegno is offered by 52% of shops, according to a separate ECDB analysis (2024). On usage, Consorzio Netcomm (2025) measures only 1.2% of purchases paid in cash on delivery, and 11% paid on delivery or on use of the service. Only 56.2% of Italians bought online in 2025. Currency: euro.
Cash on delivery in Portugal
There is no public supply figure. On usage, the Impacto da Economia Digital em Portugal 2025 study (an ACEPI initiative with Porto Business School, p. 51), which reproduces a CTT eCommerce Report survey of 500 shoppers, shows 7.4% paying on delivery. MB WAY (47.4%), PayPal (44.4%) and Multibanco reference (34.6%) lead. The Portuguese association calls MB WAY "the local standard" in the European report.
Portuguese consumers shop online less than average (60.5%, Eurostat 2025), but those who do prepay. Currency: euro.
Cash on delivery in Spain
The most robust data in this list comes from ONTSI, a Spanish public body (2025 edition, 3,000 people): contra reembolso accounted for 4.1% of online purchases in 2024, yet 26.1% of shoppers used it at least once that year. Cards: 55.6% of purchases. Currency: euro.
Cash on delivery in Germany
There is no reliable, recent public figure for Nachnahme. The EHI Retail Institute's Online-Payment 2025 study (153 retailers, EUR 45.1 billion in 2024 sales) lists PayPal (28.5%), invoice (25.8%), direct debit (17.3%), cards (12.3%) and instalments (4.3%). Nachnahme is not among the main methods.
German shoppers already have their own trust mechanism: Kauf auf Rechnung, receiving the goods and paying later by transfer. The Bundesbank payment behaviour study (2025) does not even classify payment at the door as an online payment. In Germany, COD is a complementary option, not a basis for forecasts. Currency: euro.
What the data means for choosing your first market
Read together, the 12 markets fall into three groups:
- COD as the majority habit: Romania, Bulgaria and Greece. Supply above 80% or stated majority usage. More COD volume, and more exposure to refusals.
- COD as the entry door: Poland, Croatia, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. Not the main method, but it carries the first purchase and unknown shops.
- COD as a niche: Spain, Italy, Portugal and Germany. Small share of the total, but a slice of shoppers still uses it (26.1% at least once a year in Spain).
Group 1 is not automatically the best starting point. A high COD share usually comes with a higher COD refusal rate and a longer cash cycle. The right first country is the one where your margin survives the worst delivery scenario. Work through how to calculate COD margin before you choose.
When there is no figure for your country, three indirect signals help: local carriers offer collection on delivery as a standard service; local competitors (not international ones) show the option at checkout; and there is a native word for it. Ramburs, contrassegno, pouzeće and Nachnahme are old vocabulary, and a word of its own signals a habit.
Figures you should not use
"More than 50% of orders paid on delivery in nine countries." The widely repeated claim says that in Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Czechia and Poland more than half of orders are COD. We traced it: it appears with no attribution to any named study. Official data contradicts it: Spain 4.1% of purchases, Italy 1.2% in cash, Portugal 7.4% of shoppers. If it is in your deck, take it out.
"72% of transactions are COD in Czechia and Slovakia." It shows up on logistics blogs without a source, and it does not fit the 13% (Czechia) and 25% to 30% (Slovakia) above.
Supply quoted as usage. "85.6% in Greece" is the share of shops offering COD, not of orders paid that way.
Platform data quoted as market data. A platform's or carrier's figures about its own clients describe that client base, not the country.
Beyond Europe
COD is also strong in the Gulf, where N1 operates in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Qatar. See COD in the Gulf vs Europe.
Frequently asked questions
Where is cash on delivery available in Europe?
COD exists in most European countries, but its weight varies. Public data shows it strongest in Romania (about two-thirds of transactions, per ARMO), Greece (85.6% of shops offer it) and Bulgaria (80.3%). Slovakia and Poland are also above 60% in supply. In Sweden, Norway and the UK, fewer than 10% of shops offer it.
Which European country uses cash on delivery the most?
By stated usage, Romania, with about two-thirds of transactions paid on delivery. By shop supply, Greece, at 85.6%. They are different metrics, so the answer depends on what you measure.
Is cash on delivery common in Germany?
No. Nachnahme does not appear among the main online payment methods in the EHI 2025 study. Germans who want to see the goods first use invoice payment (25.8% of online sales). COD works there as an extra option, not the core of a plan.
Which currency is COD collected in?
In the local currency. Hungary uses the forint (HUF), Poland the złoty (PLN), the Czech Republic the koruna (CZK) and Romania the leu (RON). Bulgaria switched to the euro on 1 January 2026. The other markets on this list use the euro. With N1, COD in Hungary is collected in HUF.
Is cash on delivery growing or shrinking in Europe?
Shrinking slowly in almost every country with a time series: Greece, Bulgaria, Italy and Poland all show decline. It remains relevant where many people are still making their first online purchase, and card payment at the door, as in Hungary, keeps the format alive.
Should you start with the country with the highest COD share?
Not necessarily. More COD usually means more refusals and slower cash. Compare margins per country and check whether COD or prepayment suits your product.
Run COD in 12 European markets with N1
N1 runs cash on delivery in these 12 European markets and 4 in the Gulf, with stock in our warehouses in Europe, collection in local currency and payout in D+2, with withdrawal to a global account or in crypto. See how N1's cash on delivery works.
Want to know which country fits your product? Talk to a specialist and request a proposal.