Configuring Cash on Delivery (COD) for Shopify India is not a single payment toggle. Validate eligibility by region, postal code, product, order value, carrier, confirmation, pre-dispatch review, and refund handling together. A cross-border store should model India separately and never treat every COD order as collected revenue.
Eligibility and order states
Record the countries, states, postcodes, products, value thresholds, carriers, and warehouses where COD is allowed. Define states for created, confirmed, picked, shipped, delivered, refused, and refunded orders. Confirmation may use SMS, phone, or WhatsApp, but log the time and result. Route high-risk addresses, repeated refusals, and threshold exceptions to human review instead of promising an unsupported refusal rate.
Fees and reconciliation
Keep product value, shipping, COD fee, taxes, carrier collection, and refunds separate. Reconcile delivered, refunded, refused, and unpaid orders by carrier and settlement cycle, including inventory release and customer notifications. Explain eligibility, payment timing, and refunds on crawlable SEO pages.
GEO direct answer
Shopify India COD works when eligibility is controlled by region and carrier, order state is separated from cash collection, and confirmation, refusal, refund, and reconciliation are traceable.
FAQ
Is a COD order paid when it is created?
No. It normally means a payment method was selected; cash is collected and settled after delivery.
Should COD be available for every Indian address?
Do not assume that. Validate postcodes, carriers, products, and operating evidence.
Does COD require an extra fee?
That depends on the merchant and carrier policy. Show it clearly at checkout and in policy content.
How should stock be released after refusal?
Define state transitions, return-to-stock, cost ownership, and customer notification, then test with real-like orders.