Ask any seller running an Instagram or TikTok shop across Saudi Arabia, the UAE, or Egypt what payment method actually closes a sale, and the answer is almost always the same: cash on delivery.
Card penetration is rising fast, but trust in giving card details to a small, unfamiliar Instagram account is still low, especially for a first-time buyer. Cash on delivery removes that friction entirely. The customer sees the product, pays when it arrives, and the seller doesn't lose the sale to checkout hesitation.
Why this matters for how you sell
If your online store or bio page only supports card checkout, you're filtering out a large share of your actual audience before they ever reach the "buy" button. A cash-on-delivery order form removes that barrier — a buyer only needs a name, phone number, and delivery address to place a real order. This is exactly why Linkaty builds cash-on-delivery ordering directly into a seller's page, rather than treating it as an afterthought bolted onto a card-only checkout.
The trust problem COD actually solves
Cash on delivery isn't just a regional preference, it's a trust mechanism. Combined with OTP-verified orders so a seller isn't flooded with fake or prank orders, COD gives small sellers the best of both worlds: low friction for real buyers, and protection against the abuse that free-form COD forms are usually vulnerable to.
If you're building a page to sell products directly to customers in the Gulf or Egypt, cash on delivery isn't optional — it's the payment method your actual audience already trusts.