Couriers in Bulgaria: Econt, Speedy, BOX NOW and how they deliver

In short: the main couriers in Bulgaria are Econt and Speedy (part of DPD), with BOX NOW for parcel lockers and Sameday with its easybox lockers. Most parcels go to a courier office or a locker, and many are paid cash on delivery. Econt delivers on the next working day to any town with an Econt office, and Speedy's standard service is one working day.

This guide is for foreign founders, expats and EU sellers who sell to customers in Bulgaria or ship from a Bulgarian warehouse. It explains who the couriers are, the three ways a Bulgarian shopper receives a parcel, what cash on delivery costs and how it is paid out, what the couriers publish about delivery times, and which of them are built into CloudCart, the Bulgarian ecommerce platform. Courier figures come from each courier's own tariff or help pages, linked in the text. Your contract price can differ from the published tariff, so treat the numbers as the starting point for a conversation with the courier.

Which couriers deliver in Bulgaria?

The couriers you meet at Bulgarian checkouts are Econt, Speedy, BOX NOW, Sameday, Evropat and Pigeon Express, plus DHL and GLS for parcels that cross the border. Each one works on a contract with the store: you sign with the courier, get API credentials, and the store uses them to quote rates and create shipping labels.

• Econt. A Bulgarian courier with a nationwide office network and its own parcel lockers, called Econtomats. It delivers to an address, to an Econt office or to an Econtomat, and is one of the couriers Bulgarian shoppers expect to see first.
• Speedy (DPD Bulgaria). Speedy is part of DPD, the European parcel group, and in CloudCart the integration is called DPD Bulgaria. It delivers to an address, a Speedy office or a Speedy locker (Speedy calls them automats), and also ships directly from Bulgaria to Romania.
• BOX NOW. A locker-only network: no home delivery, just self-service lockers at petrol stations, shops and residential areas, open around the clock. BOX NOW says more than 2,500 online stores deliver with it (BOX NOW Bulgaria).
• Sameday. A courier that started in Romania and also serves Bulgaria, with address delivery, office pickup and easybox lockers.
• Evropat and Pigeon Express. Smaller Bulgarian couriers. Evropat delivers to an address or an office; Pigeon Express delivers to an address, an office or a locker.
• DHL and GLS. International networks for parcels leaving Bulgaria: GLS across Europe, DHL and DHL Express worldwide, including the customs paperwork for destinations outside the EU.

How do Bulgarians receive parcels: office, locker or address?

A Bulgarian shopper picks one of three delivery types at checkout: a courier office, a parcel locker or a home address. The office and the locker are usually cheaper than the door and let the customer collect the parcel when it suits them, which is why a checkout in Bulgaria that offers only address delivery looks incomplete.

Delivery type	How it works	Who offers it
Courier office	The parcel waits at the office the customer chose; the customer shows the waybill number or ID and pays if it is cash on delivery.	Econt, Speedy, Sameday, Evropat, Pigeon Express
Parcel locker	The customer gets a PIN and opens a locker compartment. Lockers take no cash, so a cash on delivery parcel is paid by card or online.	BOX NOW, Econt (Econtomat), Speedy, Sameday (easybox), Pigeon Express
Home or office address	A courier brings the parcel to the door and collects the cash on delivery amount there.	Econt, Speedy, Sameday, Evropat, Pigeon Express, DHL, GLS

Lockers have hard size limits. A BOX NOW locker takes parcels up to 20 kg, and its largest compartment is 36 cm high, 45 cm wide and 60 cm long (BOX NOW FAQ). Econt's Econtomats have small, medium and big boxes, all 61 by 44 cm, with heights of 8, 18 and 37 cm. A parcel larger than the box goes to an office or the door instead, so bulky goods such as furniture or large appliances need address or office delivery, or pallet shipping.

The locker experience differs by network. BOX NOW sends the customer an SMS with a PIN once the parcel is in the locker, and the parcel waits 48 hours, with a further 48 hours available through BOX NOW's tracking page. Sameday no longer sends easybox PINs by SMS or Viber: the customer finds the PIN in the Sameday app or in the delivery email, and pays at the locker only by card or online (Sameday easybox questions and answers).

How long does delivery take in Bulgaria?

Inside Bulgaria, a parcel handed to Econt or Speedy usually arrives on the next working day. Econt's courier tariff states next working day delivery to towns and villages with an Econt office, and delivery within 3 working days to places without one, according to the service schedule (Econt courier tariff for Bulgaria). Speedy's price list gives its "Standard 24 hours" service a delivery time of 1 working day (Speedy price list).

Courier	Published delivery time inside Bulgaria	Source
Econt	Next working day to places with an Econt office; up to 3 working days elsewhere	Econt courier tariff
Speedy (DPD Bulgaria)	Standard 24 hours service: 1 working day	Speedy price list
BOX NOW	Within 24 hours of the store finishing the order	BOX NOW FAQ

The clock starts when the courier collects the parcel, so the real delivery time to your customer is your own processing time plus the courier's time. A store that ships the same afternoon an order arrives can promise next-day delivery in most of the country; a store that packs once a week cannot. Write your handling time on the product page and in the order confirmation, because Bulgarian shoppers compare it with stores that ship on the day.

For parcels leaving Bulgaria, delivery times depend on the destination and the network. DPD Bulgaria ships directly to Romania, GLS covers Europe, and DHL Express offers next-day or two-day international delivery for urgent parcels.

How does cash on delivery work with Bulgarian couriers?

Cash on delivery (COD, called "nalozhen platezh" in Bulgarian) means the customer pays the courier when collecting the parcel, and the courier later transfers the money to the store. It is still one of the most common ways Bulgarians pay for online orders, so a store that sells to Bulgaria needs it at checkout alongside card payments.

The courier charges a fee for collecting the money, usually a percentage of the COD amount. Econt's published tariff charges 3.30% when the customer pays in cash at an office or the door and the store receives the money in cash, and 1.65% when either side uses an electronic channel, such as a bank account for the payout or a card payment by the customer. At an Econtomat, the customer pays electronically with a bank card. Contract rates for stores with regular volume are often lower than the published tariff.

1. The customer chooses cash on delivery at checkout. The courier rate and any COD fee you pass on are already in the order total.
2. You create the shipping label with the COD amount and, if you choose, a declared value that sets the courier's liability for loss or damage.
3. The customer pays the courier in cash at the door or office, or by card where the courier accepts it. At a locker, payment is by card or a payment link.
4. The courier transfers the payout to your bank account on the schedule in your contract, usually as one transfer that covers many parcels.
5. Someone matches the payout to the orders and marks each one as paid. On many platforms this is a weekly spreadsheet job.

Important: a parcel that nobody collects comes back to you, and the courier charges for the return. Econt also charges a storage fee when a parcel waits at an office for more than 7 working days. Unclaimed COD parcels are the main hidden cost of cash on delivery, so track your return rate per courier and per region.

Card payments remove the return risk for the parcels paid in advance. The trade-offs between the two, with examples, are in cash on delivery or card payment, and the card options for a Bulgarian business are compared in PayPal, Stripe and local payment providers in Bulgaria. Cash on delivery also touches Ordinance N-18, the Bulgarian rule on how sales are registered and reported to the NRA (the National Revenue Agency); the invoices and N-18 reporting side is on the invoices page.

How do you choose a courier for an online store in Bulgaria?

Most stores selling in Bulgaria start with Econt and Speedy together and add BOX NOW for lockers, because customers have a favourite courier and an office or locker close to home. Offering two or three couriers covers almost every shopper; offering ten makes the checkout harder to read.

Before you sign, compare the couriers on the points that change your margin and your customers' experience:

1. Where your customers are. Check the office and locker maps of each courier for the towns where you sell most. Econt's next-day promise depends on an Econt office in the destination town.
2. What you ship. Weight and size decide whether lockers are an option. Heavy or oversized goods need address delivery or pallet shipping.
3. The COD fee and payout schedule. Ask for the percentage, the minimum fee and how often the courier transfers the money to your bank.
4. Who pays for shipping. Courier integrations usually default to the customer paying the courier, and a free shipping threshold above a set order value is a common way to lift the average order.
5. Returns. Ask how a return label is issued, what an unclaimed parcel costs and whether the customer can open and check the parcel before paying.
6. API credentials. Ask the courier for integration credentials for an online store. They are separate from the login to the courier's own website.

If you sell outside Bulgaria too, add a cross-border option: DPD Bulgaria to Romania, GLS for Europe, DHL and DHL Express for the rest of the world. For countries where you have no courier contract, aggregators such as Sendcloud and EuShipment bring many couriers into one integration. The rules for setting a free shipping threshold by courier are in free shipping thresholds with Bulgarian couriers.

Which couriers are built into CloudCart?

CloudCart has direct integrations with every courier in this guide: Econt, DPD Bulgaria (Speedy), BOX NOW, Sameday, Evropat, Pigeon Express, GLS, DHL and DHL Express, plus the Sendcloud and EuShipment aggregators and Glovo for same-city delivery within hours. Each one connects with your own courier contract, so you keep your negotiated rates.

Courier in CloudCart	Delivery channels	Live rate at checkout	Cash on delivery
Econt	Address, Econt office, Econtomat	Yes	Yes, payout synced to the order
DPD Bulgaria (Speedy)	Address, office, locker; Bulgaria and Romania	Yes	Yes, payout synced to the order
BOX NOW	Locker only	Your own rate table	Yes, when enabled in the app
Sameday	Address, office, easybox	Yes	Yes
Evropat	Address, office	Yes	Yes
Pigeon Express	Address, office, locker	Yes	Yes
GLS	Address, ParcelShop; across Europe	Yes	Yes
DHL and DHL Express	Address, worldwide	Yes	DHL Express: yes

Two details matter for a Bulgarian store. First, the GLS integration connects a contract from a GLS country office in Croatia, Czechia, Hungary, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia or Serbia, so for parcels inside Bulgaria you use Econt, DPD Bulgaria or the other local couriers. Second, BOX NOW's API returns no live quotes, so you set the locker price yourself, by order value, by weight or by both.

For every courier, you choose how the shipping price is calculated, per channel: the courier's live rate, the live rate plus a handling fee, the live rate with free shipping above an order value, or your own table by order value, by weight or by both. The customer sees the result in the cart before paying, and the full set of shipping rules is on the shipping page.

How do you connect Econt, Speedy and BOX NOW to a CloudCart store?

You connect each courier from Apps in the CloudCart admin, with the API credentials from your courier contract, and then choose the delivery channels and pricing. The steps are the same for every courier; only the credential fields differ.

1. Sign a contract with the courier and ask for integration credentials for an online store. Econt and DPD Bulgaria issue a username and password; BOX NOW issues a Client ID, a Client secret and a Partner ID.
2. Install the courier from Apps in the admin: Econt, DPD Bulgaria or BOX NOW. Speedy is installed as DPD Bulgaria; there is no separate Speedy app.
3. Enter the credentials and connect. CloudCart checks them with the courier. Entering the login for the courier's website instead of the integration credentials will not connect.
4. Set the sender. For Econt, the pickup address is set in the Addresses tab of the Econt app. For DPD Bulgaria, you choose pickup from your address, an office or a locker.
5. Turn on the channels you want at checkout: address, office and locker for Econt and DPD Bulgaria, locker for BOX NOW. Pick the price calculation for each channel.
6. Turn on cash on delivery in the courier's settings if you offer it. BOX NOW lockers appear at checkout for COD orders only when cash on delivery is enabled in the BOX NOW app.
7. Set a default weight for products without one, so the live rate is correct, and test an address order, an office order and a locker order.
8. Create the shipping label from the order. The courier returns a tracking number, you print the label in A4 or A6 for one order or many, and the customer gets an email with the tracking number.

A WooCommerce store reaches the same setup through a separate plugin for each courier; the differences are covered in Econt and Speedy on WooCommerce. If you are still choosing where to build the store, start with how to start an online store in Bulgaria and the overview of how Bulgarians shop online. The field-by-field guide to shipping labels is in shipping labels from the admin.

Questions about connecting a specific courier contract can go to support@cloudcart.com. Plan prices and what each plan includes are on the pricing page.

Frequently asked questions