Cash on delivery in Bangladesh

1. 01

   You order without paying for the product

   At checkout you give a name, phone number and address. No card, no wallet. On most sites, including Menlab, the delivery charge is shown before you confirm.

2. 02

   The seller confirms

   Serious sellers confirm by phone, SMS or WhatsApp before packing, because an unconfirmed COD order often turns into a refused parcel.

3. 03

   A courier collects and delivers

   The parcel is handed to a courier (Menlab uses Steadfast). Inside Dhaka City that is usually 1 to 2 days; elsewhere in Bangladesh 2 to 4 days.

4. 04

   You pay the rider

   You pay the product price in cash when the parcel is in your hand. The courier settles with the seller later.

PCMI estimates that cash on delivery accounts for about three quarters of Bangladesh's e-commerce volume, with digital wallets, credit cards and debit cards sharing the rest [1]. Card-based e-commerce payments are growing quickly, up 23.6% year on year to about Tk 20.35 billion in February 2025, but the same reporting notes that cash on delivery still dominates [2].

That is not because people lack digital money. Bangladesh Bank data shows mobile financial services moving an average of about Tk 5,883 crore a day in 2025, bKash alone counting 4.20 crore active users and Nagad 2.82 crore [3], and bKash reporting over 84 million verified customers by 2026 [4]. People have the wallets. They choose not to use them for online shopping, and the reason is trust.

~75%

of e-commerce volume paid by cash on delivery (PCMI estimate)[1]

Tk 5,883 cr

moved through mobile financial services on an average day in 2025[3]

84m+

verified bKash customers, so wallets are not the constraint[4]

In 2023 the consumer protection directorate still had 19,623 complaints pending against 50 e-commerce companies, involving about Tk 600 crore, most of it advance payments taken by platforms that never delivered [5]. Every shopper in Bangladesh knows someone who paid in advance and got nothing. Cash on delivery is the rational response: the product has to physically arrive before any money changes hands.

This shapes how a new brand has to behave. Asking for prepayment, or even a large advance, tells a first-time customer that the risk is theirs. Offering COD tells them the risk is yours.

• Refused parcels. A customer can change their mind at the door. The seller pays the courier both ways and the product comes back handled.
• Fake orders. Anyone can type an address. Confirmation calls exist to filter these out.
• Cash cycle. The courier holds the money until settlement, so the seller finances stock and delivery in the meantime.
• Courier charges. The courier's fee is a real cost. Passing it on transparently is fairer than hiding it in the price, which is why Menlab shows it at checkout and adds no markup.

Menlab has taken the product price at the door since its first order. A few things became obvious quickly.

• The delivery charge is the question. The most common message our support assistant receives, in Bangla, English and Banglish, is some version of "delivery charge koto?". So the checkout shows the exact charge the moment a division is picked, before the order button. Surprises at the last step are what empty carts.
• Free shipping over a threshold works. Standard delivery is free on orders over ৳3,000. It nudges a single tee into a pair and it removes the charge conversation entirely for larger baskets.
• Confirmation is not optional. An order confirmed on WhatsApp is an order that gets accepted at the door. An order that goes straight to the courier is a coin toss.
• Tracking reduces refusals. When a customer can see the parcel moving on the track page or in an SMS, they are home when it arrives.
• COD and returns go together. A 7-day return window matters more when the customer paid cash and has no chargeback to fall back on.

There are cases where paying ahead is fair to both sides. Custom-printed pieces are made for one person and cannot be resold. Bulk orders book production, so an advance secures the slot. And the delivery charge itself is money the seller has already spent the moment a rider picks the parcel up, whoever ends up accepting it.

Menlab settles that middle ground at checkout: pay the delivery charge by bKash and the product price in cash at your door, or pay the whole thing up front and pay nothing on arrival. The product is still paid for on delivery unless you choose otherwise, which is the part that matters.

For everyday clothing, prepayment mostly benefits the seller. If a store insists on it and you have no history with them, the trust checklist is worth a read first.