subject: Cod Delivery Options? [print this page] COD is a way of delivering goods that used to be much more common than it is today. COD stands for collect on delivery, although many people take it to mean cash on delivery instead. Interestingly enough, that term is extremely inaccurate, because not only is it incorrect, but most often a courier won't accept cash at all as the payment at the point of pickup. Typically the only types of payment that are accepted on a COD delivery are payments which are classified as "good as cash". This includes things like certified checks and money orders, although you may be able to find an IL messenger service that will also have means of accepting credit or debit payments when they make a COD delivery for you.
When you're shipping something on a collect on a delivery basis, it means that your client or customer doesn't have to pay for their order beforehand and will instead pay the courier when they deliver the product to their doorstep. This was something that was done very often in the early days of shipping from things like magazine ads or television commercials, as most payments were done in cash in those days. However, now, with cash no longer being accepted in most of these situations and with the increase in fraud that went on with COD deliveries, most couriers are no longer willing to handle these types of transactions.
Despite the way that they have fallen out of fashion in the last few years, there is still a place in the business world for COD orders. Research shows that one of the longest lasting effects of the recession is going to be the effect that it has on consumer confidence. This in turn reduces the amount of money that they spend with many companies. One way to combat that is by shipping COD.
The popularity of COD shipping many years ago was because of how it worked on the concept of mutual trust. The shipping company is expressing trust to the customer that they are going to honor their promise to pay, which in turn makes the customer trust the company enough to pay for their product, thinking that it might be as good as the company has promised. Exchanged trust is something uncommon in today's business world, as most people are skeptics and require proof. COD shipping is a good option if you're a young company looking to build some trust.
