Wave, Orange Money, MTN Mobile Money and Shafrik

What Shafrik does, and what it does not

Let’s be precise, because this is the most misunderstood point: Shafrik never collects a customer’s Mobile Money payment for you. On a cash-on-delivery order, the customer pays the rider directly, in cash or via Wave, Orange Money or MTN Mobile Money, when they receive the parcel. That money goes from their pocket to yours, without a Shafrik account in the middle, and with 0% Shafrik commission on it. What Shafrik does is capture the order, follow it through its lifecycle (see cash on delivery), and notify you instantly so you can organise collection.

Why this choice, rather than a built-in gateway

An online Mobile Money gateway adds per-transaction fees, a settlement delay, and a dependency on a third party to collect your own money. For a COD seller that detour adds nothing: the customer already pays direct. Where generalist platforms (see the Shopify comparison) do not even have native Mobile Money in francophone Africa, Shafrik avoids the problem by simply not standing between you and your customer on that part.

Where to note how the customer paid

The Note field on the order form (Settings › Form) is often used for this in practice: a rider instruction or a note on the preferred payment method. If you want to go further, a custom field (a “Wave / Orange Money / MTN Mobile Money / Cash” dropdown, for example) can be added to the form. Full detail on the order form page.

Your own subscription, paid with Mobile Money

Creating your store and building your catalogue is free, with no credit card. If you later move to a paid plan to unlock more features, that payment also goes through Mobile Money, consistent with how you already collect from your own customers, without ever needing a Visa or Mastercard to run your store.

The real issue: not losing the sale between click and delivery

Mobile Money is almost never a technical problem. The problem is time between the moment the customer confirms the order and the moment the parcel arrives. The longer that stretch, the higher the chance they change their mind or stop answering. That is why Shafrik pushes a notification as soon as an order arrives (Telegram, email, detail on order management), and offers a ready-to-send WhatsApp follow-up for carts left unfinished, a drafted message you send in one click. That follow-up is unlocked from the first paid plan (Starter).

Why confirm before money changes hands

With Mobile Money as with cash, money only changes hands at delivery, so there is no card chargeback to manage afterwards, unlike a classic online payment. The real vigilance is before: an order never confirmed by phone or WhatsApp is more likely to be refused on arrival. That is why Confirmed is a first-class status in Shafrik tracking (detail on cash on delivery). A call or a message before you ship protects your time and your stock.

One reality per country, not a copy-paste

Wave dominates in Senegal and is growing in Côte d’Ivoire and Mali. Orange Money remains essential in all four countries. MTN Mobile Money is the reference in Cameroon. The Shafrik order form adapts to the store’s country (phone prefix, city examples) rather than imposing a setup built for a single market, the same logic as the store’s other settings.

No merchant account to open

You do not need a Wave Business, Orange Money Merchant or MTN MoMo Merchant account attached to Shafrik to start selling: your personal number is enough, exactly as you already use it with customers today. Nothing to subscribe to, no operator approval to wait for before you publish your first product.