Setting up delivery

Prepaid, COD, pickup — the three delivery modes, how to set zones and fees, and why getting this right matters more than you'd think.

Delivery decides whether buyers click Buy

A buyer is on your product page, ready to spend money. They tap Add to cart. The next thing they see is the delivery options.

If your delivery is:

• Clear and reasonable — they finish checkout.
• Confusing or expensive — they bounce, even if they loved the product.

This guide walks through the three delivery modes, when to use each, and the small details that decide whether your checkout flows or stalls.

The three delivery modes

1. Prepaid (recommended for most shops)

Buyer pays for the item + the delivery fee in escrow during checkout. After delivery is confirmed, you get both.

• Buyer experience: clean. They pay once, on the app, and the rider delivers.
• Your job: you arrange a rider yourself, or use a logistics service. You pay the rider out of the delivery fee KampalaSnap remits to you.
• Risk to you: low. The buyer can't refuse to pay the rider because the rider is already paid.

This is what most successful shops use.

2. COD — Cash on Delivery

Buyer pays for the item in escrow, but pays the delivery fee in cash to the rider when the item arrives.

• Buyer experience: useful when delivery fees are unpredictable (e.g. distant rural area). They know they'll settle the rider on arrival.
• Your job: arrange the rider, brief them on what cash to collect.
• Risk: the buyer might not have cash on hand. The rider might refuse to deliver. Use COD only for buyers you've talked to first.

COD is a fallback for cases where prepaid doesn't fit. Don't use it as the default.

3. Pickup

Buyer comes to a physical location you set and picks up the item themselves. No rider, no delivery fee.

• Buyer experience: cheaper than delivery (no delivery fee at all), but they have to come to you.
• Your job: be at the pickup point during the hours you advertise.
• Risk: buyers don't always show up. The escrow money stays held until they collect.

Useful if you have a physical shop or storefront. Works well as one option alongside prepaid (let buyers choose at checkout).

Setting your shop default

Seller Hub → Edit → Delivery → Default delivery mode.

Pick the mode that fits 80% of your orders. You can override per product later, and you can offer multiple modes per product.

If most of your orders are local Kampala deliveries, pick Prepaid. If you have a physical shop in Bukoto and most buyers come collect, pick Pickup. If you're not sure, Prepaid is the safest default.

Setting delivery zones (for Prepaid + COD)

A zone is a geographic area you deliver to, with a fee attached.

Why zones matter: if you charge 5,000 UGX to deliver to anywhere, you'll either lose money on far-away deliveries or rip off close ones. Zone-based pricing matches the fee to the real cost.

Adding zones

Edit → Delivery → Add zone. For each zone:

• A name ("Within Kampala," "Wakiso," "Bus park nationwide").
• The areas it covers (pick from district / town dropdown).
• The fee in UGX.
• Optional free-delivery threshold ("Free over 100,000 UGX").

Add as many zones as you need. Example for a Kampala shop:

Buyers see only the zone that matches their delivery address. They don't see your whole table — just the fee that applies to them.

Free-delivery thresholds

Setting "free over X" is a common upsell move. A buyer with 60,000 UGX worth of items might add another small item to push past 80,000 and get free delivery — and you make an extra sale.

Don't make the threshold too high (no one adds items to push past 500,000 UGX). 1.5-2× your average order value is a good rule.

Setting up pickup locations

If you use Pickup mode (either as default or as an option), tell buyers where to come.

Edit → Delivery → Add pickup location. For each location:

• Label ("Main shop," "Bukoto branch").
• Address or landmark (precise enough that the buyer can find it with Google Maps).
• Hours when you're open.
• A photo of the storefront (helps buyers recognize it on arrival).

If you have multiple locations, buyers pick the closest one at checkout.

Per-product delivery overrides

Sometimes a specific product has different delivery rules — say, it's a bulky item that can't fit on a boda, or it's a fragile thing you don't want a rider to drop.

To override:

1. Open the product.
2. Tap Edit → Delivery options.
3. Toggle Override default.
4. Pick the mode and zones that apply just to this product.

Saved. The product's checkout flow now uses these settings instead of your shop default.

Use sparingly. Buyers get confused if every product has different rules.

Pricing your delivery

A few principles for setting fees:

Don't subsidize delivery to look cheaper

Some sellers charge a low item price + a low delivery fee, ending up losing money on every order. The buyer doesn't reward you for being the cheapest — they reward you for being reliable. Price your delivery to cover the actual cost.

Don't pad delivery to hide a price hike

Other sellers list the item at 50,000 UGX with a 25,000 UGX delivery fee — they're trying to hide the real price. Buyers see the total at checkout and will hate it.

A clean structure: item price reflects the value of the item; delivery fee reflects the cost of delivery. Both visible, both honest.

Bus park / nationwide delivery is trickier

If you advertise "nationwide bus park delivery," be ready for the edge cases:

• A bus park drop in Mbale costs more time than one in Jinja.
• Some buyers ask you to drop at a specific bus station with a specific cabbie.
• Lost packages are more common (buses are chaotic).

For nationwide, charge a flat 10,000-15,000 UGX and be very clear in your description: "Buyer picks up from [bus park name]. Buyer contacts driver/cabbie. KampalaSnap doesn't track buses."

The seller-side delivery checklist

Before you publish your first product, run through this:

• [ ] Default delivery mode is set (Prepaid for most shops).
• [ ] At least one delivery zone exists with a sensible fee.
• [ ] If you're using Pickup, at least one pickup location is set with clear address and hours.
• [ ] The fees match the actual cost of getting things to buyers.
• [ ] Free-delivery threshold makes sense (1.5-2× average order).
• [ ] You've tested the buyer experience — open your own product in a friend's account and see what they see at checkout.

If all six are green, you're ready for orders.

Common questions

A buyer is at an address that's not in any of my zones. What now?

The checkout will show them "Delivery not available to your area." They'll either change the address or contact you on WhatsApp.

If you want to deliver outside your normal zones one-off, message the buyer with a custom fee, then add their zone temporarily (or add the address to one of your existing zones).

For frequent out-of-zone requests, just add a new zone.

What if I don't want to deliver at all and only do pickup?

That's fine. Set default mode to Pickup, add your pickup location(s), and don't add delivery zones. Buyers at checkout see "Pickup only — come collect from [location]." Some won't buy because they can't come; the ones who do are committed.

Can I delete a delivery zone if I stop covering an area?

Yes. Edit → Delivery → tap the zone → Delete. Existing orders to that zone continue normally. New orders to that area become "not available."

How fast should deliveries be?

It depends on your business. Buyer expectations in Kampala:

• Same-day — premium, especially for food.
• Next-day — standard for most physical goods.
• 2-3 days — acceptable if clearly stated in the description.
• Over 5 days — buyers start to dispute. Don't advertise faster than you can actually deliver.

Underpromise, overdeliver. Saying "delivery in 3-5 days" and showing up in 2 builds reputation; saying "same day" and arriving on day 3 loses you reviews.

What if a rider doesn't return the PIN?

That's between you and the rider — KampalaSnap isn't part of that loop. The buyer is the one with the PIN; if the rider didn't bring it back, message the buyer on WhatsApp and ask them to either give the PIN to you directly or enter it themselves in the app.

Use riders you trust. For new riders, do a test delivery with a small order first.

Can I include the delivery fee inside the item price (free delivery)?

Yes — set the delivery fee to 0 in your zones. Some shops do this for the "free shipping" psychology bump. You're effectively building the delivery cost into the product price.

This works fine as long as you actually budget for it. Don't accidentally undercharge.

What's next

• The path to verification — the last guide in the seller path.
• When orders come in — back to the order side, now that delivery is set up.