Data

Cash on delivery in Europe 2026: COD offer and usage by country

By Lucas Reda · Updated on September 28, 2026

Where both metrics exist, cash on delivery is offered far more than it is used. In Italy, 52% of online stores offer COD and 11% of online purchases are paid on delivery. In Poland, 60.7% offer it and only 4% of shoppers use it as their main method. In Bulgaria and Slovakia, the offer rate exceeds 80%.

This map brings together the public data on cash on delivery (COD) in European e-commerce. It covers the eight markets where N1 runs cash on delivery in Europe plus eight other countries with relevant public data. There are no internal N1 figures here: everything comes from public sources, linked and checked on 28 September 2026.

The map exists for one reason. Most of what circulates about COD mixes two different questions: how many stores offer payment on delivery, and how many purchases are actually paid that way. The first answer is usually high. The second is almost always much lower. We explain the difference in COD by country in Europe; here it becomes a table.

Methodology

What is included. For each country we looked for two indicators: the share of online stores that offer COD, and some measure of usage (share of purchases, orders or shoppers that paid on delivery). The table covers the eight markets where N1 runs COD (Italy, Bulgaria, Hungary, Slovakia, Poland, Croatia, Czech Republic and Spain) and other European countries with at least one verifiable public figure.

Offer vs. usage. Offer is what the store puts at checkout. The source that is comparable across countries is ECDB, an e-commerce data company, which measures the share of stores in each market that accept payment on delivery. Usage is what the shopper does. There is no single source for usage: each country has its own survey, with a different question, sample and year. That is why the usage column always states which metric the figure measures. "Has ever used" is not "share of orders", and neither is "preference".

Source strength. Each figure was graded:

• Primary: an official body, or a national association or institute publishing its own study with a methodology (sample, period, question).
• Secondary: a data company or media outlet publishing or reproducing an identified survey, without a full methodology on the page.
• Weak: a figure with no published methodology, such as a platform's data about its own merchants or an association statement with no study described.

Year. We use the fieldwork year when the source gives it; otherwise the publication year.

An empty cell is a finding. Where the table says "no verifiable public data", we searched and found no figure that could be opened and checked. That is a result in itself: for most European countries, the share of orders paid on delivery is simply not public.

Main table

All figures were checked on 28/09/2026.

What the data says

1. A high offer rate does not mean high usage. The three countries where both metrics can be compared show the same pattern. In Italy, 52% of stores offer COD, and 1.2% of purchases are paid in cash on delivery. In Slovakia, 80.1% of stores offer it, and the (weak) usage estimate is 25% to 30% of orders. In Poland, 60.7% offer it, 33% of shoppers have used it and only 4% use COD as their main method. Stores keep the option because it unlocks purchases that cards do not, not because most shoppers pay that way.

2. N1's eight markets fall into three groups. In Bulgaria, Slovakia and Croatia, COD is still a mass habit: over 80% offer in the first two, and 42% of Croatian online shoppers paying on delivery. In Hungary and the Czech Republic, it is the method stores offer most, but shoppers are moving to cards (including card at the door, in Hungary). In Italy, Poland and Spain, it is a minority in usage: 4.1% of Spanish purchases, 4% of Polish shoppers as their main method.

3. Hungary shows that COD does not mean cash. In the PwC survey with the Hungarian digital commerce association, utánvét paid by card on delivery (35%) is already more popular than utánvét paid in cash (30%). In Poland, the Gemius question also covers card or cash "on receipt". For an operation, this changes reconciliation, not the logic: the shopper still pays only on receipt.

4. The strongest usage data comes from Spain and Italy. Both come from studies with a published methodology (ONTSI, a body linked to the Spanish government, and Netcomm, the Italian e-commerce consortium). And they are precisely the two with the lowest COD usage. Where COD is strong (Bulgaria, Romania), the usage evidence is the weakest. Whoever publishes a high COD figure without citing a study is usually repeating an estimate.

5. The split between countries does not follow the euro. Bulgaria and Croatia adopted the euro recently and still have strong COD; Hungary, outside the euro, has COD moving to cards. The dividing line is habit and payment infrastructure, not currency.

Where sources disagree

Croatia: Ipsos vs. MasterIndex. The Ipsos BRANDpuls survey (second half of 2023, 1,800 people aged 16 to 64) says 42% of online shoppers paid with pouzeće in the previous six months, ahead of credit cards (39%). MasterIndex, run by the agency Improve for Mastercard in April 2023 with 1,022 bank customers aged 18 to 55, states in a sponsored article on Telegram.hr that payment on delivery "is no longer the first choice". The 2025 MasterIndex, reported by Financije.hr, says 93% pay for online purchases by card. Both can be true at once: the Mastercard sample is bank customers only, and both questions allow more than one answer. We use the Ipsos figure in the table because it samples the general population, but the disagreement is on record.

Poland: three figures, three questions. Gemius measures 33% (ever used) and 4% (use most often). e-Izba, the Polish Chamber of Digital Economy, said in the European E-commerce Report 2025 (p. 60) that COD is "now used by only 9% of e-customers", without detailing the question. They do not contradict each other, but they cannot be swapped. The table keeps the Gemius figures, which have a published methodology.

Spain: ONTSI contradicts itself in one breakdown. The report text says contra reembolso reaches 27.3% among 55 to 64 year-olds and 24.7% among 65 to 74; table 8 of the same report shows 22.3% and 21.1%. The figures in the text match the "PayPal linked to card" row of the same table, which suggests a labelling error. We use only the total (26.1%), which matches in text and table.

Romania: consistent, but no study. ARMO's two statements (60% to 65% of orders; "about two-thirds" of transactions) point the same way and fit PayU's statement, quoted by The Paypers, that only 35% of Romanians pay online. None of them describes a sample. That is why the strength is weak, even though Romania is the strongest COD country on the list. Romania is not an N1 market.

Figures that circulate without a source (and why we do not use them)

• "Over 50% of orders are COD in nine European countries." It appears with no named study and mixes offer with usage. We cover it in COD by country in Europe. No verifiable source supports it for Italy or Spain, where measured usage is 1.2% to 11% and 4.1%.
• "72% of transactions in Czechia and Slovakia are COD." It comes from logistics operators' blogs, with no source, and is incompatible with the 13% of the Czech survey and the 25% to 30% for Slovakia.
• "54% of transactions in Hungary are COD." Same kind of origin (a supplier blog), no study.
• "29% of Czechs paid by dobírka" (attributed to Ipsos for the Czech central bank). The central bank's release on that survey does not contain the figure.
• "8% to 10% of purchases in Spain, according to ONTSI." No edition cited, and contradicted by ONTSI itself (4.1%).
• "7% of purchases in Italy" (attributed to J.P. Morgan by third parties). We could not open the original report; the primary Italian source gives 11% and 1.2%.
• "43% of orders by dobierka in Slovakia" (Shoptet) and "38% prefer COD in Croatia" (TGM Research). The first did not load with the figure; the second requires registration. Not verified.
• "59% of orders paid on delivery in Hungary in 2024." It appears in summaries of a 2024 survey whose original report we did not open; PwC's 2026 data replaces it.

If any of these figures is in your deck or media plan, replace it with the one in the table or remove it.

Context: how many people shop online

To size each market, the comparable primary figure is Eurostat's: people aged 16 to 74 whose last online purchase was in the previous 12 months, in 2025 (Eurostat, isoc_ec_ib20, updated 17/04/2026).

There is no simple link between the two. Bulgaria, Italy and Romania have the fewest online shoppers on the list; COD usage is low in Italy and high in Bulgaria and Romania. One possible reading: where e-commerce is still winning shoppers over, paying on delivery helps overcome first-purchase distrust, but each country's payment habits matter too.

How to cite this map

Suggested citation:

N1 Global, Cash on delivery in Europe 2026 (COD map), https://n1global.app/en/data/cod-europe-map-2026, accessed <date>.

When citing a specific figure, also cite the original source shown in the table. The map organises and grades third-party data; it does not produce data of its own.

License and next update

The content of this map (tables, source grading and text) is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0): you may copy, adapt and republish it, including for commercial use, as long as you credit N1 Global and link to this page. Each source's data remains under its publisher's terms.

The next update is planned for June 2027. If you have a public survey with a methodology on COD usage in a European country, it will be considered for the next edition.

Frequently asked questions

Which European countries have the most online stores offering cash on delivery?

According to ECDB (2025): Greece (85.6% of stores), Bulgaria (80.3%), Slovakia (80.1%), Serbia (69.2%), Lithuania (64.9%) and Poland (60.7%). In Sweden, Norway and the UK, fewer than 10% of stores offer it. These figures measure offer, not how many purchases are paid that way.

What is the difference between COD offer and COD usage?

Offer is the share of stores that accept payment on delivery at checkout. Usage is the share of purchases, orders or shoppers that actually paid that way. In Italy, for example, 52% of stores offer COD, but only 1.2% of online purchases are paid in cash on delivery, according to Netcomm.

Why do several countries have no usage data?

Because we found no public survey that could be opened and checked. For most European countries, the share of orders paid on delivery is not published. We prefer to record the gap rather than repeat figures that circulate with no study behind them.

Can I use this data in an article or presentation?

Yes. The content is licensed under CC BY 4.0. Cite it as: N1 Global, Cash on delivery in Europe 2026 (COD map), with the page link and access date. When using a specific figure, also cite the original source shown in the table.

When will the map be updated?

The next edition is planned for June 2027. Every figure in this edition was checked against its source on 28 September 2026.

Sources

• Cash on Delivery Is Most Used in Middle and Central European eCommerce — ECDB
• European eCommerce Market Size 2024: Top Countries, Revenue, Growth & Payments — ECDB
• E-Commerce Industry in Hungary (sample data) — ECDB
• E-Commerce Industry in Czechia (sample data) — ECDB
• L'eCommerce B2c in Italia supererà i 62 miliardi di € nel 2025 (+6%), con 35,2 milioni di Consumatori Online — Consorzio Netcomm
• Már a szolgáltatási szint és a vásárlói élmény a legfontosabb versenytényező az e-kereskedelemben (Digitális Kereskedelmi Körkép) — PwC Magyarország e Digitális Kereskedelmi Szövetség
• Dobierka na Slovensku prežíva aj v ére okamžitých platieb — TOUCHIT (dados da Upgates)
• E-commerce w Polsce 2025 — Gemius, Polskie Badania Internetu, IAB Polska e Akademia Leona Koźmińskiego
• Pouzeće raste iz godine u godinu, a kartice ostaju na istom — eCommerce Hrvatska (dados Ipsos BRANDpuls)
• Svaka četvrta osoba kupuje online više puta tjedno, a plaćanje pouzećem više nije prvi izbor u zemlji — Telegram.hr (conteúdo de parceiro, dados MasterIndex/Improve para Mastercard)
• Plaćanje na rate postaje sve važnije kao i online kupovina — Financije.hr (dados MasterIndex 2025)
• Stav české e-commerce — Česká e-commerce (APEK, Heureka, Zboží.cz)
• Compras online en España. Edición 2025 — ONTSI, Red.es
• European E-commerce Report 2025 (Light Version, corrigendum) — Ecommerce Europe e EuroCommerce
• Romania 2025: analysis of payments and ecommerce trends — The Paypers
• Internet purchases by individuals (2020 onwards) [isoc_ec_ib20] — Eurostat

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