How to start ecommerce in Morocco: the payment side, step by step for beginners

To start ecommerce in Morocco, the payment side comes down to five decisions taken in order: the channel your customers order through, the payment methods you offer them, a free test of the full flow before your first sale, the verification of your business before you collect real money, and then delivery, which sits outside payment. This beginner's guide takes each step in turn: what it requires, what it costs and where to go deeper.

Starting ecommerce in Morocco: payments in five steps

ChariPay is a Moroccan payment platform, a PSP operated by Chari Money, a payment institution licensed by Bank Al-Maghrib. This guide, written by its team, covers only the payment side of a launch, the part you set up once and that every sale then depends on. It promises no revenue.

Order matters: choosing the channel before the payment methods keeps you from setting up the wrong tool, and testing before going live means you reach your first real sale with a flow that already works. For the complete picture (technical building blocks, costs, compliance), the reference guide is our page on e-commerce payments in Morocco. Anything legal, such as your legal form, what you must display or taxes, is out of scope here: only your advisor can give an opinion.

Step 1: pick your sales channel

A beginner has three realistic starting points. They are not mutually exclusive, but starting with one lets you see what works before adding a second.

Social media. A payment link is an amount and a description; the customer pays on a page hosted by ChariPay. It is shared as a link, a QR code, a printable PDF poster, by email or WhatsApp. It is the lightest way to start: no website to build, and every order confirmed in a direct message becomes a link for the exact amount. The full method (confirm, send, follow up, ship) is in our guide to selling on Instagram and WhatsApp.

The hosted storefront. No website yet? Publish your products on your hosted storefront and track your orders — awaiting payment, paid, shipped, delivered — from your portal. Each product gets its own sales page that you can share anywhere. The walkthrough is in our article on the hosted storefront.

Shopify or WooCommerce. There is no ChariPay extension for Shopify or WooCommerce: you send a payment link for each order, without a line of code, or connect the hosted checkout through the API for an automatic redirect. The Shopify setup is covered in Shopify in Morocco.

Whichever channel you pick, you can create your first payment link and pay it yourself with the test card, for free: Start in test mode. What happens after the click is described in Step 3.

Step 2: choose your payment methods

Offer few payment methods, but the right ones for your customers. There are three options.

Card, with 3-D Secure. By default: Visa, Mastercard and Maroc Pay. Other methods can be enabled on request to the team, depending on your business. Card payments go through 3-D Secure authentication: the cardholder confirms with their bank, which protects the merchant against most unpaid charges and disputes. The customer enters their card on a hosted page, so you never see their card number.

Cash at an agency. On the page of a single-use payment link, your customer chooses cash, receives a reference, pays it at an agency of the Chari network, and you are notified as soon as the network confirms the deposit. Cash payment at an agency always relies on a single-use link — one reference per deposit. Two corollaries to keep in mind from day one: a checkout session created through the API only collects card payments, and a reusable link collects by card only. On the hosted storefront, the buyer chooses at checkout to pay by card — on the hosted payment page, with 3-D Secure — or in cash: they then receive a reference to pay at an agency of the Chari network.

Cash on delivery. It is neither forbidden nor outdated: it is an option to choose with your eyes open, for the customers and products where you think it helps. If you want to reduce its share without losing customers, the levers are gathered in alternatives to cash on delivery.

Step 3: test for free, before your first sale

Test mode is free, with no time limit and no commitment, and it opens as soon as your account is activated, with no approval to wait for: Start in test mode — three fields (name, work email, company), an activation link received by email to choose your password, then the portal, where you create your own test key after re-authenticating; the full key is shown only once. Pay with the test card 4918 9141 0719 5005, CVV 123, any future expiry date, 3-D Secure code 555: only this card is accepted, and no real money moves. Your business verification (KYB) runs in parallel and only gates the move to production.

Your first mock sale, in four moves:

1. 1In the portal, create a single-use payment link: a real amount from your catalog and a clear description, for example "Test order — leather bag".
2. 2Open the link on your phone, the way a customer receiving it in a message would, and check what they see: your name, the amount, the payment page.
3. 3Pay with the test card and enter the 3-D Secure code 555 at the authentication step.
4. 4Go back to the portal: the link has turned "paid" and a notification flags the payment.

If you are starting with the hosted storefront, do the same with a product: publish it, open its sales page and place a mock order by card. One thing to know: test mode simulates card payments, not a real cash deposit at an agency. Draft your real customer messages too (confirmation, follow-up, shipping) and reread them on a phone screen.

Step 4: business verification and going live

To collect real payments, your business goes through verification. Once KYB is validated — identity documents and trade register, with dual human review — your application is reviewed and you receive a priced proposal; the MAD 6,000 incl. VAT activation fee is paid once, then your account is activated and your production key created. On the choice of your company's legal form, only your advisor can give an opinion.

What to budget for, with no surprises:

We publish no "from" rate. The payment account with its RIB and certificate, the full merchant portal and cash at an agency are included at no extra cost. The details are on the pricing page.

Start verification early, while you are testing: it runs in parallel and blocks nothing in test mode. If you integrate through the API, going live changes only the key and the webhook secret: URLs, payloads and error codes are identical.

Step 5: organize delivery, outside ChariPay

ChariPay collects payments; it does not deliver: no carrier, no delivery management. Three decisions are yours.

Who delivers. You at first, a courier or a delivery company: a choice you negotiate outside payment.

When to ship. The safest rule is to ship when the payment is confirmed, not when the customer says they have paid.

How to handle a return paid by card. Refund a customer, in full or partially, from the portal or through the API. Refunds are free; the amount is deducted from your available balance, and if the balance is not enough, the operation is blocked rather than creating an overdraft. A refund is not instantaneous on the bank side, so let your customer know. Write your return policy before your first sale and display it where customers order.

The first month: what to review every week

The "Launch checklist" on our pillar page prepares launch day; this weekly review is for afterward, always in the same order.

• Payment links. A link has a clear status: active, paid, canceled, expired. Follow up on active links that are still unpaid, cancel those that no longer apply, and create a new one for a customer who is still interested.
• Storefront orders. No "paid" order should wait to be prepared; no order should sit at "shipped" with no follow-up in your own tracking.
• The share of orders paid before shipping. Work it out yourself, week after week: it is your only useful benchmark, not a national average.
• Recurring customer messages. A question asked three times deserves a sentence on your product page or in your confirmation message.
• This week's refunds. Their reason often tells you what to fix: a misleading photo, a wrong size chart, a poorly communicated delivery time.

If the share of orders paid before shipping stays low after a few weeks, apply the levers in alternatives to cash on delivery one at a time, starting with a single product category.

Frequently asked questions

How do I start ecommerce in Morocco as a beginner?

By making five decisions in order: a sales channel, payment methods that fit your customers, a free test of the full flow, verification of your business before collecting real money, then how you organize delivery. Start with a single channel and measure what works every week. On your status and your obligations as a seller, only your advisor can give an opinion.

Can I start on social media alone?

Yes, on the payment side: every order confirmed in a direct message becomes a payment link for the exact amount, which the customer pays on a hosted page, by card, or in cash at an agency if the link is single-use. No website is needed. You can add a hosted storefront or a website once your number of products or orders justifies it.

Which channel should I start with: social media, a hosted storefront or Shopify?

Start where your customers already talk to you. In direct messages, begin with payment links. With a handful of products and no website, the hosted storefront gives you one sales page per product and order tracking. Shopify or WooCommerce make sense for a larger catalog, with a cart and your own design. You can always add a second channel once the first has proved itself.

Can I test selling online before paying anything?

Yes. Test mode is free, with no time limit and no commitment, and it opens as soon as your account is activated, with no approval to wait for. You create links and products, pay them with the test card and watch the statuses change in the portal. No real money moves, and a real cash deposit at an agency is not simulated. Use it to try out your messages and pages before your first customer.

What happens between test mode and the first real sale?

Your business is verified: identity documents and trade register, with dual human review. Your application is then reviewed, you receive a priced proposal, you pay the activation fee once, and your account is activated and your production key created. Start that verification while you test: it runs in parallel and does not hold up your tests, and you reach production with a flow you have already tried out.

How much should I budget to go live?

Activation costs MAD 6,000 incl. VAT, paid once when you go live. On top of that come a commission, a percentage per successful payment, and a security deposit, both set once your application has been reviewed: we publish no "from" rate. Test mode stays free, and refunding a customer is free. The details are on the pricing page.

Can I launch my store without knowing how to code?

Yes. Payment links are created in the portal and sent by message, without a line of code; the hosted storefront publishes your products and tracks your orders from the same portal. On Shopify or WooCommerce too, one payment link per order is enough. The API comes later, to automate: the redirect to checkout, syncing a catalog.

Next step

Open your account — Start in test mode — and run a mock sale on the channel you picked: a link sent to your own phone, or a product published on the hosted storefront. Then prepare your verification file: it moves forward in parallel with your tests. Our page on e-commerce payments in Morocco remains the reference for going further.