Pricing for Cash on Delivery: The Formula That Keeps You Profitable

In cash on delivery, the price on your store is not your revenue — it is the start of a subtraction. The sellers who last are the ones who price with the full equation, not the "market price".

The formula

Selling price − product cost − delivery − ad cost per delivered order − expected return cost = profit per delivered order. If that number is negative or tiny, no volume saves you.

The number everyone forgets: returns

Some confirmed parcels will come back. Take a realistic return rate (start with 15–25% when you have no data), multiply it by your shipping cost, and spread it across delivered orders. A 20% return rate on 600 DZD shipping adds about 120 DZD of cost to every delivered order.

A worked example

• Product cost: 1,200 DZD; selling price: 2,900 DZD.
• Delivery average: 600 DZD; ads: 500 DZD per delivered order; returns add ~150 DZD.
• Profit per delivered order ≈ 2,900 − 1,200 − 600 − 500 − 150 = 450 DZD.

Change any number and the margin moves. If ads cost 700 instead of 500, you are at 250 DZD — still alive. At 900, you are losing.

The rules that hold

• Never price from a competitor's page — price from your own numbers.
• Fix the biggest cost first: the product source, the carrier choice, or the ad.
• Test price points on real traffic, not in your head.

DzStore shows delivered orders, carrier results and return reasons in one dashboard, so the equation gets real numbers instead of guesses. Open your free store and price with data from your first five orders.