Cash on delivery in Saudi Arabia: a guide for Shopify stores

On Shopify, cash on delivery is a manual payment method in Saudi Arabia just as it is anywhere else. Three things are different for Saudi orders. Shopify's Saudi address form doesn't ask for a region, so location rules have to use city names. The Saudi press has reported that, from January 2026, parcel companies may not accept or carry shipments without a National Address. And Shopify Payments isn't available in Saudi Arabia, so online payment (including mada) goes through a third-party provider.

What does Shopify's Saudi checkout ask for?

Shopify's address data for Saudi Arabia uses these fields: name, company, address, a second address line, city, postal code and phone. The postal code is five digits and Shopify marks it as optional.

What's missing matters for COD:

• No region or province field. Shopify keeps no list of Saudi regions, so a Saudi order never carries a region code.
• No district field and no National Address field. The shopper writes the district, building number and street in the address lines, in whatever order they like.

Shopify's own example Saudi address is written in Arabic, with the city as «الرياض». Expect city names in Arabic as well as English.

Should COD rules use cities or regions in Saudi Arabia?

Use cities. A rule that checks the region code can never match a Saudi order, because Shopify's checkout doesn't record one. A city rule checks what the shopper typed in the city field.

Because the city is typed, one place can arrive under several names. Build your list from real orders:

1. In your Shopify admin, go to Orders and click Export to download your orders as a CSV file.
2. Filter the Shipping Country column to Saudi Arabia, then look at the Shipping City column. Note every spelling of the cities you care about.
3. Add each spelling to your city rule, in English and in Arabic.

Khaleeji COD matches city names exactly, in English or Arabic, without caring about upper or lower case. "riyadh" and "Riyadh" match each other, but "Ar Riyadh" is a separate entry. For more on spelling variants, see how to limit COD by emirate, region or city.

City rules are only one option. Rules that don't depend on the address work the same in every country: hiding COD above a cart total, on large first orders, for tagged customers who refused before, and for tagged products.

Why does the National Address matter for COD orders?

The Saudi newspaper Al Eqtisadiah reported in April 2025 that the Transport General Authority had decided that, from the start of January 2026, parcel transport companies may not accept or carry a shipment without a National Address. The stated aims were better customer experience, faster deliveries and fewer calls between couriers and recipients.

For a COD store, this means your courier should refuse a parcel that has no National Address. Get the address before you hand the parcel over, either at checkout or in your order confirmation message.

The National Address has a short form of four letters and four numbers that shoppers can look up in government apps. How to ask for it, and how to check it, is covered in Saudi National Address and fewer failed deliveries.

What can Saudi shoppers pay with online?

When you hide COD on a risky order, the shopper needs an online option they already use:

• mada cards. In 2018 the Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) allowed all banks to switch on mada cards for online payments. Shoppers can pay with a mada card at online stores whose payment provider supports it.
• Credit cards.
• Apple Pay. Apple lists Saudi Arabia as a country that supports Apple Pay.
• Buy now, pay later, if your payment provider offers it.

Saudi Arabia isn't on Shopify's list of countries where Shopify Payments is available, so you need a third-party payment provider. When you choose one, check that it supports mada. A checkout that accepts only credit cards leaves out shoppers whose only card is a mada card.

How do you make the checkout work in Arabic?

Arabic isn't one of the 33 languages Shopify's checkout comes pre-translated in, so you have to provide the Arabic checkout translations yourself, for example with Shopify's Translate & Adapt app. Shopify's address data lists both Arabic and English as languages of Saudi Arabia, so plan for both. The steps are in how to offer an Arabic checkout on Shopify.

The COD option needs an Arabic name too. In Arabic, cash on delivery is usually written «الدفع عند الاستلام» ("payment on receipt"). A payment customization can show the Arabic name only to shoppers on your Arabic checkout and keep the English name for everyone else. Khaleeji COD does this when its rename is switched on, and you can edit both names. For other wordings, see what to call Cash on Delivery in Arabic.

A starting checklist for Saudi COD

• Turn on COD in your payment settings and give it a clear Arabic name.
• Offer at least one online option that accepts mada.
• Collect the National Address before you ship.
• Hide COD above a cart total and on large first orders, using amounts from your own refusal history.
• Tag customers who refused COD before, and hide COD for them.
• Add city rules only for cities where your own data shows a problem, with every spelling you found.