Category: Digital Transformation

Morocco's e‑commerce market is not becoming cashless; it is becoming more operationally complex. Digital discovery, online ordering, cards and mobile wallets are expanding, but cash on delivery (COD) remains embedded in the customer journey. The winners will be companies that optimize the entire payment‑and‑fulfillment system—not simply those that add another payment button.

This briefing sets out the strategic implications for C‑suite leaders and payment executives: why Morocco's "hybrid" model matters, how the Centre Monétique Interbancaire (CMI) transition reshapes the market, what COD really costs, and how merchants and providers should respond.

1. Morocco's hybrid commerce model

Digital growth without a cash exit

Official data confirms substantial growth in Morocco's payment infrastructure. In 2024, Bank Al‑Maghrib reported:

• 192.5 million card‑payment operations worth MAD 63 billion.
• 38.5 million online card‑payment transactions worth approximately MAD 11 billion.
• 13.7 million mobile wallets and 19.7 million mobile‑payment transactions worth MAD 3.9 billion.

Yet registered wallets should not be confused with active everyday users. Data reported in 2025 indicated that approximately 3.81 million payment accounts had performed at least one transaction in the final quarter of 2024, compared with 13.8 million open accounts. The commercial challenge is therefore not simply account creation; it is sustained use at the point of sale and in e‑commerce.

Consumers may discover products through digital channels and place orders online while continuing to prefer cash at delivery, particularly where trust, refunds, delivery reliability or card access remain concerns. This produces a hybrid commerce model in which:

• Digital discovery and ordering coexist with cash‑based settlement.
• Cards and wallets grow, but COD remains a major share of fulfilled orders.
• Payment choice is directly connected to logistics, working capital and risk.

Market size: what we can and cannot infer

Commercial estimates place Morocco's 2025 e‑commerce market between approximately US$1.7 billion and US$3.2 billion, depending on whether sources include only online retail, broader B2C e‑commerce, services or other digital categories. These figures should not be presented as interchangeable or as official national accounts.

The available evidence supports three conclusions:

1. Digital payment infrastructure is expanding rapidly.
2. Active usage lags behind account registration.
3. COD remains a dominant settlement method for a large share of online orders.

2. Why the CMI transition matters

From mono‑acquirer to multi‑acquirer architecture

For more than two decades, CMI played a central role in Morocco's electronic‑payment system. Its historical position combined technical processing with commercial merchant acquiring, creating a structure in which infrastructure and merchant access were closely connected.

Competition Council Decision No. 152/D/2024, adopted on 31 October 2024, addressed competition concerns in the electronic card‑payment market. CMI agreed to:

• Transfer merchant membership contracts to authorized payment institutions or acquiring‑focused bank subsidiaries.
• Stop soliciting new merchant clients for the relevant activities.
• Transform into a technical processing platform providing access on fair, transparent and non‑discriminatory terms.
• Preserve service continuity and implement a competition‑law compliance program.

Authorized payment institutions and acquiring‑focused bank subsidiaries could begin operating and marketing services from 1 May 2025. By July 2026, Bank Al‑Maghrib and the Competition Council stated that the transition to a multi‑acquirer structure had been completed under the applicable timetable.

The same communication confirmed that the domestic card‑payment interchange ceiling would fall from 0.65% to 0.50%, effective 1 October 2026, with a 0.15% ceiling for specified government and neighborhood‑commerce payments.

What the transition changes for merchants

The move from a concentrated acquiring model to a competitive, technically distributed ecosystem changes how merchants should think about payments:

• Provider choice: Merchants can select acquirers and gateways based on performance, not just price.
• Differentiation: Competition will shift toward onboarding speed, authorization rates, settlement visibility, fraud controls, reconciliation, analytics and support for recurring or tokenized payments.
• Resilience: Multi‑acquirer and payment‑orchestration strategies become feasible, reducing single‑point‑of‑failure risk.
• Transparency: Pricing, service levels and reporting should become more comparable across providers.

3. The operational economics of COD

COD as a financing and risk mechanism

COD is often described as a consumer payment preference. Operationally, it is also a financing and risk mechanism. COD affects:

• Inventory allocation and delivery costs.
• Return‑to‑origin losses and customer‑service workload.
• Cash reconciliation, settlement timing and revenue predictability.
• Fraud exposure and working‑capital requirements.

Commercial estimates place COD usage in Morocco within a broad range, approximately 55% to 85%, depending on sector, customer segment and methodology. Survey reporting associated with ANRT has been cited as showing that approximately 84% of online buyers use payment at delivery. These figures should not be treated as a single authoritative national transaction share.

COD behavior may vary according to customer tenure, city, delivery zone, product category, order value, acquisition channel, address quality, courier performance and confirmation method. Merchants should therefore avoid relying on one national COD rate.

Illustrative cost of refused COD orders

A refused order can create approximately MAD 80 in direct logistics and handling costs without generating revenue. At a 25% refusal rate, the expected refusal‑related cost is approximately MAD 20 per shipped order before advertising, customer‑service labor and inventory carrying costs are included. This is an illustration, not a national benchmark, but it shows why COD must be managed as an operating discipline, not just a payment option.

4. What merchants and payment providers should do next

Build a payment‑method profit‑and‑loss view

The first priority is to build a complete payment‑method P&L. A useful dashboard should connect:

• Payment‑method mix and checkout conversion.
• Authorization success and COD confirmation rates.
• Delivery success, refusal and return‑to‑origin rates.
• Settlement time, refunds, fraud losses and customer‑service cost.
• Net contribution margin by payment method.

This view allows executives to see which payment methods are truly profitable after all operating costs, not just which generate the most transactions.

Manage COD as an operating system

Merchants should avoid sending unverified COD orders into the delivery network. Confirmation workflows may use SMS, WhatsApp, voice calls or other channels to validate:

• Customer intent and phone number.
• Delivery address and availability.
• Product, amount due and preferred timing.

Verification should be risk‑based. A repeat customer with several successful deliveries should not necessarily face the same process as a first‑time buyer placing a high‑value order with an incomplete address.

Customers are more likely to prepay when the benefit is immediate and visible. Potential incentives include:

• Free or priority delivery.
• Small card or wallet discounts.
• Loyalty points and payment‑linked promotions.
• Partial deposits and exclusive prepaid bundles.

Design a resilient Moroccan checkout

A resilient Moroccan checkout should support:

• Domestic and international cards where appropriate.
• Mobile wallets and payment links.
• COD, selected bank transfers and cash‑to‑digital options.
• Partial deposits and post‑order payment recovery.

Payment providers should assess wallets using:

• Active‑user rate and merchant acceptance.
• Transaction success and interoperability.
• QR and payment‑link capability, refunds and settlement speed.
• Support, fraud handling and integration cost.

Evaluate providers on total cost per successful order

Acquirers will compete on more than price. Differentiation is likely to emerge through onboarding, settlement visibility, payment reliability, fraud management, merchant analytics and support for recurring or tokenized payments.

Merchants can use a structured evaluation framework:

Evaluation Area	Questions for Merchants
Commercial terms	What is the total cost per successful settled order?
Activation	How long does onboarding and production launch take?
Reliability	What are authorization, uptime and timeout rates?
Settlement	When are funds settled, and how transparent is reporting?
Risk	How are fraud, reserves, disputes and chargebacks managed?
Integration	Are APIs, documentation, sandbox tools and webhooks adequate?
Reconciliation	Can card, wallet and COD orders be reconciled in one workflow?
Customer experience	Are retries, refunds, tokenization and recurring payments supported?
Resilience	Can the merchant route through more than one provider?
Support	What escalation and service‑level arrangements apply?

Banks bring regulatory credibility, balance‑sheet capacity and existing merchant relationships. Licensed payment institutions may compete through speed, specialization, wallets, point‑of‑sale services and targeted sector solutions. Gateways and software platforms can create value by simplifying integration for merchants, marketplaces and vertical software providers.

5. Strategic implications for executives

Morocco is moving from a concentrated payment‑acquiring model toward a more competitive and technically distributed ecosystem. At the same time, consumer behavior remains hybrid: digital ordering and payment infrastructure are expanding, while COD continues to play a major role.

For C‑suite leaders, the mandate is straightforward: treat payments as a strategic operating system for commerce. Companies that combine local behavioral insight, disciplined measurement, regulatory execution and reliable technology will be best positioned to lead Morocco's next phase of digital commerce.