Cash on Delivery Is Declining in Middle East E-commerce

A new Mordor Intelligence report on Middle East and Africa e-commerce puts a number on something we've been watching for a while: cash-on-delivery preference has dropped 51% across the region. Buy-now-pay-later is filling the gap fast, growing at a 14.2% CAGR, with BNPL penetration already at 42% in Saudi Arabia and 39% in the UAE. Digital wallets now handle a third of all checkouts region-wide.

Why this matters for anyone selling into Türkiye or the Gulf: your checkout stack is now a competitive variable, not a back-office detail. A seller still built around cash-on-delivery or single-card checkout is quietly losing conversion to competitors offering Tabby, Tamara or wallet options.

A few questions worth testing before you launch or expand:

• Does your payment partner actually support the BNPL providers shoppers expect locally?
• Have you priced in the merchant fees that come with installment and wallet options?
• Is your fraud and returns policy built for a market where cash-on-delivery is shrinking but not gone?

We'd treat this as a market-entry checklist item, not a launch-day afterthought. What's your experience — has payment localization moved the needle more than product localization in your markets?