Last week a Riyadh client showed me his dashboard: same batch of goods, October COD rejection 9.2 percent, September was 17.8. The goods didn't improve. An OTP step did.
Since September 2026, local last-mile players like SMSA and iMile have been rolling out recipient verification codes. The driver no longer asks "is this yours" at the door. The customer reads out a 6-digit code from their phone. No match, back to the hub.
The upside is blunt. The old "I never ordered this" arguments are mostly gone. We estimate each return-to-origin costs 18 to 25 SAR in reverse freight plus re-shelving. Halving rejections saves roughly 1,600 to 2,200 SAR per 1,000 orders.
But new traps. One wrong digit and the code never arrives; the parcel sits three days then goes back. Saudi customers often leave a landline or a relative's number. Those orders are now high risk.
My advice: force a second confirmation of the mobile number at checkout and add a backup number field. Send a WhatsApp confirmation 24 hours before dispatch, and only a reply counts as valid. Before Q4 peak, pull historical orders with odd number formats and don't ship them blind.
One detail many sellers miss: after two failed OTP attempts, some stations log it as customer refusal, which hits your delivery success score. The platform won't explain that for you.
How much of your Saudi volume is still COD? If it's over 40 percent, this process needs a look.