Cash on delivery 2017 was supposed to be the year of the funeral. Everyone in fintech was betting on mobile wallets, credit cards, and "seamless" digital transactions finally killing off the clunky, risky habit of handing over physical paper bills at the front door. We saw the rise of UPI in India, the massive expansion of AliPay in China, and the persistent push for a "cashless society" globally. But if you actually looked at the data coming out of emerging markets that year, something weird was happening. Cash didn't die. It dug in.
Honestly, it's kinda funny how wrong the experts were.
They thought friction was the enemy. They figured if you made digital payments easy enough, people would naturally stop holding onto their cash. But cash on delivery 2017 proved that the problem wasn't friction—it was trust. People didn't trust the logistics. They didn't trust that the box arriving at their house actually contained a smartphone instead of a brick. So, they held onto their money until they could physically touch the product. It’s a basic human instinct that no app could easily override.
The Post-Demonetization Reality Check
You can't talk about cash on delivery 2017 without talking about India. Just a few months prior, in late 2016, the Indian government pulled 86% of the country's currency out of circulation overnight. It was chaos. The goal was to force everyone into the digital age. By early 2017, companies like Paytm were seeing record numbers.
But then, the "rubber band effect" hit.
As soon as new currency notes started circulating again, shoppers went right back to their old ways. According to reports from the time, including data from RedSeer Consulting, nearly 60% to 70% of e-commerce transactions in India were still being handled via COD in early 2017. Why? Because for the average shopper in a Tier-2 or Tier-3 city, the internet was still a scary place to put a credit card.
Think about the psychology there.
If you're a first-time online shopper, you've heard horror stories. You’ve heard about the guy who ordered a Nikon camera and got a box of stones. If you pay upfront, you're the one chasing the refund. If you use cash on delivery, the merchant is the one chasing the sale. It flips the power dynamic completely in favor of the consumer. In 2017, that power dynamic was the only thing keeping the e-commerce boom alive in Southeast Asia and the Middle East.
The Logistics Nightmare Nobody Saw Coming
Logistics companies absolutely hated this. Shipping a package is hard enough. Shipping a package, collecting a specific amount of cash, keeping that cash safe from theft, and then remitting it back to the seller—while taking a massive risk on "returns at the doorstep"—is a nightmare.
In 2017, the Return to Origin (RTO) rates were staggering.
Imagine you're a small business owner. You ship a dress. The customer chooses COD. When the courier arrives, the customer says, "Actually, I changed my mind," or "I don't have the money today," or they just don't answer the door. Now you’ve paid for shipping both ways, your inventory was stuck in a van for four days, and you made zero dollars. This was the reality of cash on delivery 2017 for thousands of retailers.
Nielsen and other market researchers pointed out that in markets like Vietnam and Indonesia, COD wasn't just a preference; it was a barrier to entry. If a brand didn't offer it, they basically didn't exist for 80% of the population. So, businesses sucked it up. They built "cash management" teams. They hired couriers who were essentially part-time bank tellers.
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The Mid-Year Pivot
By the middle of 2017, we started seeing the "middle ground" solutions. Companies like Ninja Van in Southeast Asia and Aramex in the Middle East started experimenting with "Card on Delivery." The idea was simple: bring a mPOS (mobile Point of Sale) machine to the door.
It sort of worked.
But it still didn't solve the "I want to see it first" problem. 2017 was the year the industry realized that COD wasn't a technology problem. It was a service problem. Merchants started implementing "open-box delivery," where the courier would wait for you to open the package before you handed over the cash. It was incredibly inefficient. It was also exactly what the market demanded.
Why 2017 Was the Turning Point for E-wallets
Even though cash was king, 2017 was the year the "war on cash" got sophisticated. This wasn't just about convenience anymore. It was about incentives. This was the era of the "cashback."
Go-Jek in Indonesia and Grab in Malaysia were aggressively pushing their wallets. They realized that to beat cash on delivery 2017, they had to make digital payments cheaper than cash. If a meal cost $5 in cash but $3.50 via the app, people finally started to reconsider their loyalty to paper money.
We saw a massive shift in the "food delivery" niche first. Because the ticket sizes were smaller, people were more willing to risk a digital payment. It’s one thing to risk $10 on a bowl of noodles; it’s another thing to risk $600 on a laptop. This bifurcated the market. Low-value transactions started moving to digital, while high-value transactions stayed firmly rooted in COD.
The Cost of Doing Business
Let’s be real about the math. COD isn't free. In 2017, most logistics providers charged an extra fee for handling cash. Usually, it was a flat fee or a percentage (around 2-3%). When you add that to the cost of RTOs—which could be as high as 30% in some sectors—cash on delivery 2017 was actually a massive tax on the ecosystem.
Sellers had to bake these losses into their prices.
So, in a weird way, the people paying with cards were subsidizing the people paying with cash. It was an unstable equilibrium. Experts like those at the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) were highlighting that for e-commerce to become truly profitable in emerging markets, this dependency had to break. But breaking it meant excluding the unbanked. And in 2017, the unbanked were still the majority.
Global Variations: Not All Cash is Equal
It’s easy to focus on Asia, but look at Eastern Europe or Latin America in 2017. In countries like Russia, COD (or "payment upon receipt") was the standard for years. Major players like Ozon and Wildberries built their entire infrastructure around fitting rooms at pickup points.
You order five pairs of shoes.
They ship them to a locker or a store.
You try them on.
You pay for the one you like.
You leave the other four.
That is a version of cash on delivery 2017 that actually makes sense for the consumer. It’s the ultimate "try before you buy." It’s basically bringing the mall to your neighborhood.
In Mexico, "OXXO Pay" became a massive deal. It wasn't exactly COD at the door, but it was the same spirit. You order online, get a barcode, walk to the nearest OXXO convenience store, pay cash, and then your order ships. It was a bridge. It acknowledged that people had cash in their pockets but didn't have a bank account tied to a smartphone.
The Legacy of the 2017 Cash Obsession
What did we actually learn from that year?
First, we learned that human behavior is incredibly "sticky." You can't just release a better app and expect people to change 50 years of habits. Second, we learned that logistics is the backbone of trust. If a company can reliably deliver a package and handle a cash transaction at the door, they have won the customer's trust for life.
By the end of 2017, the narrative had shifted. It wasn't about "killing" cash anymore. It was about "co-existence." Smart companies stopped fighting COD and started optimizing it. They used AI (the early versions of it) to predict which customers were likely to reject a COD order and started charging those specific customers a small deposit.
They got smarter.
Actionable Insights for Navigating High-Cash Markets
If you're looking at the history of cash on delivery 2017 to understand how to run a business today, there are some very specific takeaways that still apply, especially in "frontier" markets.
- Trust is a feature, not a feeling. If you're entering a market where COD is prevalent, don't fight it immediately. Use it as a customer acquisition tool. The cost of COD is essentially your marketing cost for building trust.
- Analyze your RTO data ruthlessly. In 2017, the companies that survived were the ones that identified "serial rejectors." If a customer has rejected three COD orders in a row, you stop offering them that option. It sounds harsh, but it’s the only way to protect your margins.
- The "Hybrid" approach wins. Don't just offer "Pay Now" or "Pay Later." Offer "Pay a Small Deposit Now, Balance on Delivery." This qualifies the lead. If someone is willing to pay $5 upfront, they are 90% more likely to show up for the $100 delivery.
- Logistics is your brand. In a COD world, the delivery driver is the only face of your company the customer ever sees. In 2017, companies that treated their drivers like professional representatives—not just gig workers—saw significantly higher successful delivery rates.
- Incentivize the shift. If you want people to move away from cash, don't just tell them it's better. Prove it. Offer "Digital-only" discounts or faster shipping for prepaid orders.
The story of cash on delivery 2017 is a reminder that technology never moves as fast as the "visionaries" claim. It moves at the speed of the most skeptical customer. Understanding that skepticism is the key to winning in any market, whether it's 2017 or 2026. Money is emotional. Cash is physical. Until digital bits feel as "real" as a folded-up bill in a pocket, the ghost of COD will keep haunting the halls of e-commerce.