MANILA – A technology startup hopes to bring electronic commerce closer to the majority of Filipinos who don't have credit cards by making cash-on-delivery transactions easier, its CEO said Tuesday.

Using data culled from different merchants, Payo helps online sellers determine whether or not a buyer is likely to cancel. It also determines the best way to deliver products and remit cash payments.

"We want to make cash and delivery easy and reliable like any other payment method," Payo CEO Ofri Kadosh said.

Up to 90 percent of e-commerce transactions in the country are paid in cash since only 8 percent of the population have credit cards. Up to 35 percent of COD transactions gets canceled, he said.

"Everybody is doing blockchain and all of that but you have to understand that cash is not going anywhere. Instead of fighting it, we’re trying to make it more safe, clear and stable," said Payo COO Liron Gross.

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Payo uses a separate algorithm to choose the best courier in terms of price, accessibility and past performance. Reliable deliveries build customer loyalty, Kadosh said.

"It doesn’t mean when a courier is cheaper, we will choose that courier. We look at the performance, too," he said.

A popular shoe retailer that sells limited edition designs saw a 15-percent increase in revenue while its COD transaction base widened to 55 percent after it tapped Payo, said the start-up's head of sales and business development Oren Keston.

Kadosh said Payo charges a fee of 3 percent of the item value per transaction. The company works with big businesses as well as small sellers on Facebook and Instagram.

Today, Payo has 100 local partner shops and 10 international shops from China, Russia, Hong Kong, Australia and Israel who can now delivery on COD basis to the Philippines.

"All those merchants they want to sell to the Philippine market, they just don’t know how. So we offer them the cash-on-delivery platform and warehousing, fulfillment and drop shipping," Gross said.

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