Cash on Delivery Fees at Saudi Stores: What It Costs

Cash on delivery looks like the safest option: you pay nothing until the parcel is in your hands. But at many Saudi stores it is not free — a fee added to the bill, a condition on the order value, or a difference that shows up later, when you return the product and the money does not come back to you as cash.

We collected what the stores state about cash on delivery on their own pages into two tables: the first for what it costs you when you order, the second for what happens to the money if you return. Every row is read from the store's own page, with its link and the date we read it.

Table one: what cash on delivery costs you

Stores do not state the fee the same way: some give a fixed figure, some only say fees "may apply", and some mention no fee at all and simply list it among the payment methods. We quote each row as the page puts it, without filling in what it does not say:

Three things the fee does not show

• It can cost you free delivery. Goldenscent offers free delivery on "prepaid orders" only — so choosing cash on delivery there can add the full delivery fee, not just the cash-on-delivery charge.
• It can require a minimum order. Mamas & Papas offers it only on orders above SAR 500, with a SAR 50 fee.
• Its figure can differ within the same store. Noon's delivery-fee table says SAR 19 for cash on delivery, and its cash-on-delivery page says SAR 18. The amount you will pay is the one shown at checkout before you confirm.

Table two: if you return an order you paid for on delivery

This is the difference that does not show at checkout: when you return a product you paid for in cash on delivery, at a number of these stores the money does not come back as cash but as credit in your account on the site, or as a voucher — money you can only spend there. And at some of them the cash-on-delivery fee itself is deducted from the refund.

And the way you return can change the outcome within the same store: Max Fashion lets someone who paid cash ask for cash if they return at one of its stores with the invoice, and puts it into their account balance if they return online.

When cash on delivery is worth it, and when it is not

Worth it

• When you are ordering from a store for the first time and would rather not pay before the parcel arrives.
• When the fee is small relative to the order value, and a return is unlikely.

Not worth it

• When it costs you free delivery — count the delivery fee together with the charge, not the charge alone. The thresholds themselves are in our comparison of free-shipping thresholds.
• When a return is likely: your refund may come back as credit or a voucher rather than cash, as in table two. The windows themselves are in our comparison of return windows.
• On a small order with a discount code: a fixed fee can eat a large part of what the code saves. 10% off a SAR 150 order saves SAR 15, and a SAR 25 fee wipes it out and more.

Before you choose cash on delivery

1. Read the fee on the checkout page itself before you confirm — that is the figure you will pay.
2. Check that free delivery still applies after you choose cash on delivery.
3. Know what happens to the money if you return — table two sums it up for each store.
4. Ask whether the courier takes cards: Doctor Nutrition, for example, states that its cash on delivery can be paid "cash or by card".
5. And if you have a discount code, make sure the discount still shows in the total after you choose the payment method — the steps for entering it are in our guide to using a discount code at checkout.

Both tables are built from our records of the stores' pages, not typed by hand: when a store changes its fee, its row changes when we next read its page.