Selligate Deploys AI to Tackle Serial “Pay on Delivery” Order Cancellers in Nigeria

As Nigeria’s e-commerce sector continues to expand, the Pay on Delivery (PoD) model remains the preferred option for nearly 95% of customers. However, this convenience comes at a significant cost to merchants, as a growing number of individuals exploit the system by consistently placing orders they have no intention of fulfilling.

To combat this, Selligate, a rising player in Nigeria’s e-commerce technology space, has turned to artificial intelligence (AI) to identify and flag high-risk customers who exhibit consistent patterns of PoD order cancellations.

“Behind every failed delivery is wasted money, wasted time, and the silent frustration of a business owner trying to grow,” a Selligate representative stated.

Over the past three years, Selligate has studied the damaging behaviors of what it describes as serial order cancellers—individuals who have turned order cancellations into a deliberate habit. These patterns include placing orders with unreachable phone numbers, refusing to answer calls under the excuse of not picking unknown numbers, or stringing merchants along with empty promises like “I’ll get back to you.”

Others fabricate stories about being out of town, cancel orders within minutes of placing them, or continue postponing appointments until merchants give up. The most damaging behavior, however, comes on the day of delivery. These customers confirm the order, assure availability, and then vanish—refusing calls, switching off their phones, or showing up only to reject the product with complaints like “the color is wrong” or “I saw it cheaper online,” sometimes quoting drastically false prices like ₦6,500 for an item worth ₦65,000.

In response to these costly and emotionally draining experiences, Selligate’s AI system now analyzes every order placed on its platform against a dataset of over one million historic transactions. It looks for telltale signs such as poor call pickup history, frequent rescheduling, and previous delivery refusals. When a customer shows three or more of these behaviors, the system flags the order as risky, allowing vendors to take necessary precautions or deprioritize the delivery altogether.

This innovation is already producing real results for Nigerian vendors. Sellers are seeing improved delivery success rates, reduced logistics costs, and less emotional burnout. They can now operate with greater confidence in an industry where uncertainty has long been the norm.

“We’re not just solving a technology problem—we’re solving a trust problem,” Selligate noted. “And we’re doing it in a way that protects the hardworking business owners who are driving the future of e-commerce in Nigeria.”

As PoD remains a necessary option in the Nigerian retail space, Selligate believes the use of AI is critical to preserving the model without sacrificing merchant growth. The company urges struggling vendors to embrace data-driven solutions to focus their energy on reliable customers and let smart technology handle the rest.

With innovations like these, the future of e-commerce in Nigeria may finally be able to balance trust with profitability.