How to limit COD by emirate, region or city

You can limit COD by place in two ways. Where Shopify's checkout asks shoppers to pick a region, block region codes. In the GCC that means the UAE (emirates) and Kuwait (governorates). Everywhere else, and for places smaller than a region, block city names. Region codes are exact, because shoppers pick the region from a list. The city is a free-text field, so the same place can arrive spelled several ways, and you need to list each spelling, in English and in Arabic.

Which GCC countries have regions in Shopify's address form?

Shopify publishes the address data its checkout uses. For the six GCC countries it shows:

If you sell to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain or Oman, a region rule can't match, because those addresses have no region in them. Use cities there.

What are the region codes for the UAE emirates?

Shopify stores each emirate as a two-letter code. A payment rule reads that code, together with the country code, from the shipping address. Written with the country in front, which is the format Khaleeji COD uses, the codes look like this:

For more on COD in the UAE, see cash on delivery in the UAE.

What are the region codes for Kuwait?

How can you see which code Shopify saved on an order?

Export a few orders (from Orders, click Export) and open the CSV:

• Shipping Province holds the region code, and Shipping Province Name holds its name.
• Shipping City shows the city exactly as it was saved on the order, so it gives you the spellings your shoppers really use.

To see which regions your cancelled orders went to, filter Orders by Order status (Canceled) and Destination (a specific state or province). Your own history is a better guide than a hunch about a place.

When should you use a city instead of a region?

Use a region when the whole emirate or governorate is a problem for you, for example when your courier charges more to deliver there, or your cancelled orders show more refusals there.

Use a city when the problem is one part of a region. An emirate can be large. Al Ain, for example, is in the Abu Dhabi emirate, so blocking AE-AZ would also block Abu Dhabi city. Blocking the city "Al Ain" keeps COD for the rest of the emirate.

How do city names match?

A city rule compares the city on the shipping address with your list. In Khaleeji COD, the match is exact but ignores capital letters, and you can list names in English or Arabic. So "al ain" matches the entry "Al Ain", but "Alain", "Al-Ain" and «العين» each need their own entry.

Which spellings should you add?

Start from the Shipping City column of your export, then add the variants you expect. Some examples to check against your own orders:

Arabic spellings vary in small ways that an exact match will notice:

• «أ» with a hamza or a plain «ا» at the start of a word: «أبو ظبي» or «ابو ظبي».
• «ة» or «ه» at the end of a word: «جدة» or «جده».
• A space or no space between words: «أبو ظبي» or «أبوظبي».
• Extra words, such as «مدينة العين» ("Al Ain city").

A city list can also block more than you meant. If two places share a name, or shoppers often type a district instead of their city, look at a sample of real orders before you switch the rule on.

How do you test a region or city rule?

Create a draft order for a test customer whose shipping address is in the blocked emirate or city, open the draft's checkout link, and go to the payment step. COD should be gone. Change the address to a place you haven't blocked and COD should come back, unless another rule hides it. The steps are in how to test checkout payment rules with draft orders.

If you sell to more than one GCC country, see one Shopify store, six GCC countries for how region and city rules differ per market.