How to Choose a COD Delivery Company in Morocco
When you compare two delivery companies, you look at the rate first: 25 MAD here, 30 MAD there. It is the easiest number to get, and it is rarely the one that decides your margin.
With cash on delivery, a parcel that comes back earns nothing and still costs money. So the right shipping company is not the cheapest per parcel: it is the one that delivers the most of your orders, quickly, and pays your money back on time.
This guide gives you the seven criteria for comparing COD delivery companies in Morocco, the questions to ask before you sign, and the method to measure your own delivery rate and return rate for each shipping company.
Why the listed rate is not enough
Take a made-up example, only to show the calculation. You ship 100 parcels. Each delivered order leaves you 120 MAD once the product is paid for, before delivery fees.
Company A | Company B | |
|---|---|---|
Rate per delivered parcel | 25 MAD | 30 MAD |
Fee per returned parcel | 10 MAD | 10 MAD |
Parcels delivered out of 100 | 70 | 82 |
Delivery and return fees | 2,050 MAD | 2,640 MAD |
What you keep | 6,350 MAD | 7,200 MAD |
Company B costs 5 MAD more per parcel and leaves you 850 MAD more on 100 parcels, because it delivers twelve more orders. The rate matters, but it comes after the delivery rate.
Run this calculation with your own numbers: our return rate impact calculator and our shipping cost optimizer do it for you.
The seven criteria to compare
1. The delivery rate in your cities
A shipping company is not good or bad everywhere. It can deliver very well in Casablanca and less well in a small town where it relies on a subcontractor. Always ask how the cities where you sell the most are delivered, and judge the shipping company on those.
2. The delivery time
The longer a parcel takes to arrive, the more time the customer has to change their mind, buy elsewhere or forget the order. Look at the real time between pickup and delivery, city by city, and not only the promised time.
3. How returns are handled
A return that takes three weeks to come back is stock you cannot sell again. Check three points: how long the parcel takes to come back to you, in what condition, and how much the return is billed.
4. The COD payout
The shipping company collects your money before you do. How often it pays you (every day, every week, on request) weighs directly on your cash flow. Ask for a detailed statement parcel by parcel too: without it, you cannot check that every delivery was paid.
5. The full price
The price per parcel is only one line. Have the rest spelled out:
return and refusal fees;
the surcharge for remote cities;
the price by parcel weight and size;
pickup, packaging or storage fees, if any;
fees for an address change or a new delivery attempt.
6. Tracking and delivery attempts
Good tracking tells you where the parcel is, and above all why it was not delivered: customer unreachable, address not found, delivery postponed, refusal. Ask how many times the courier attempts delivery and whether they call the customer before coming. Without a failure reason, your team cannot save the order.
7. Pickup and day-to-day service
Until what time can you request a same-day pickup? Do you have a contact who answers when a parcel is stuck? Does the shipping company connect to your tools, so parcels are created and statuses tracked without retyping? These details make the difference as soon as volume grows.
Questions to ask before you sign
Which cities do you deliver with your own couriers, and which go through a partner?
What is your usual delivery time for my top five cities?
How many delivery attempts do you make before declaring a return?
Does the courier call the customer before coming?
How long does a returned parcel take to come back to me?
How often do you pay out the COD, and by what means?
Do I get a parcel-by-parcel statement with each payout?
Which fees come on top of the rate per parcel?
What happens if a parcel is lost or damaged?
How to test a shipping company
Sales answers do not replace a trial. To keep it fair:
Compare like with like. The same products, the same cities, the same period. A shipping company tested during a sales week cannot be compared with another tested in a quiet period.
Send enough parcels. On twenty parcels, three returns more or fewer change the whole result. Wait until you have enough volume before you conclude.
Let the parcels reach the end. A parcel still out for delivery is neither delivered nor returned. Judge a period only when almost all its parcels have a final status.
Look city by city. The overall average hides the gaps: a shipping company can win in one region and lose in another.
Measure your own numbers
You may be looking for a ranking of delivery companies by return rate. There is no reliable one, and for a good reason: the return rate depends on you as much as on the shipping company. The product, the price, the cities, the quality of the confirmation and the time between the order and the shipment all weigh on the result. The same shipping company can give very good numbers to one merchant and poor ones to another.
The only comparison that counts is yours. Four numbers are enough, calculated for each shipping company:
Delivery rate: delivered parcels ÷ shipped parcels.
Return rate: returned parcels ÷ shipped parcels.
Average delivery time: number of days between shipment and delivery.
Cost per delivered parcel: all the shipping company's fees, returns included, ÷ delivered parcels.
Before you blame the shipping company, also check what depends on you. A poorly confirmed order comes back, whoever delivers it: see our six strategies to reduce your return rate.
Working with several shipping companies
Nothing forces you to give everything to the same one. You can keep two shipping companies: each gets the cities where it delivers best, and if one is overloaded or down, the other takes over. It is also the best way to compare, since you have both results in front of you all the time.
The limit is practical: two portals, two export formats, two ways of naming statuses. Without a shared tool, the comparison is done by hand in a spreadsheet.
Compare your shipping companies in Sendocki
Sendocki brings your shipping companies together in the same dashboard. You connect the accounts you already have, with your contracts and your rates, and you choose the shipping company when you ship each order.
In Analytics, the Deliveries tab does the comparison for you:
by shipping company: volume shipped, delivery rate, average delivery time and average shipping cost;
by city: volume, delivery rate, return rate and delivery times.
The numbers come from your own orders, with the same statuses whatever the shipping company.
Ten shipping companies are connected: Sendit, Ameex, Cathedis, Livo, Ozon Express, Forcelog, Digylog, Olivraison, Express Relais and DHL. The shipping company keeps billing you directly, and the integrations are included in Sendocki. For the setup, see how to connect your store to your shipping company.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best COD delivery company in Morocco?
There is no single best one for everybody. The best is the one that delivers your products best in your cities. You find it by testing, not by reading a ranking.
Should I choose the cheapest shipping company?
Only when the delivery rate is equal. A few dirhams of difference per parcel weigh less than a few more delivered orders.
What is a good return rate?
There is no standard that holds for every product. Compare yourself with yourself: month after month, city by city, company by company.
Can I work with two shipping companies at once?
Yes, and it is often useful: each gets the areas where it is strongest, and you keep a backup.
Is changing shipping companies complicated?
The longest part is opening the account with the new shipping company. In Sendocki, you then add its access keys and it is offered when you ship, next to the old one.
Key takeaways
Do not choose a delivery company on its rate. Compare the delivery rate in your cities, the delivery time, returns, the COD payout and the full cost. Test on enough volume, measure city by city, and keep the shipping company that leaves you the most money once everything is paid.
