The 179% Surge — and Why Only 644 Merchants Captured It
Algeria’s electronic payment sector delivered its strongest performance on record in 2025. Total e-payment value reached 939 billion DZD, up 46% from 643.8 billion DZD in 2024. Within that headline, online payments — the channel where certified web merchants operate — grew an extraordinary 179%, generating 145 billion DZD across 27 million transactions.
December 2025 alone registered 3.6 million online transactions worth 65.27 billion DZD, a single-month record that signals consumer confidence in digital commerce is no longer a niche phenomenon. Average transaction values have risen consistently, from 1,180 DZD in 2020 to 5,400 DZD in 2025, demonstrating that Algerians are not just transacting digitally more often — they are spending more per transaction.
Yet the supply side tells a different story. Only 644 merchants were certified as web merchants by end-2025, a 26.27% increase from the previous year. Against a card base of 21.8 million active interbank cards — including CIB (interbank cards) and Edahabia cards — fewer than 650 online acceptance points exist for 21.8 million potential payers. This is Algeria’s central digital economy constraint: the demand infrastructure (cards, mobile wallets, willing buyers) has raced ahead of the supply infrastructure (certified merchants, e-commerce platforms, delivery networks).
The implication for any Algerian business sitting on the sidelines is not ambiguous: the market is real, the payment rails are live, and the competition is thin.
What the Certification Process Actually Requires
Becoming a certified web merchant in Algeria is not a purely technical task — it is a regulatory process administered through Algeria’s legal and financial infrastructure. Understanding the steps is the first filter that separates businesses that capture online demand from those that wait indefinitely.
The foundational requirement is a formal commercial registration via the Centre National du Registre du Commerce (CNRC) with an e-commerce activity code. Algeria’s Law 18-05 on e-commerce, enacted in June 2018, defines the legal framework for online commercial transactions, setting out obligations for website operators, consumer rights provisions, and data handling requirements. Merchants who bypass this legal registration operate in a grey zone that creates liability exposure and bars them from integrating with licensed payment gateways.
After CNRC registration, merchants must connect to a CIB-SATIM-approved payment gateway to accept Edahabia and CIB cards. CIB-SATIM is the interbank payment infrastructure operator in Algeria, and its gateway is the mandatory route for accepting card payments online. Alternative gateways certified by the Bank of Algeria — including Chargily Pay, which opened its platform in 2025 — have expanded options, but all require formal merchant onboarding with Know Your Business (KYB) verification.
Merchants operating on major marketplaces (such as Ouedkniss for classified listings, or local delivery-integrated stores) face a separate onboarding layer: each platform has its own seller verification process, and marketplace listing does not substitute for e-commerce merchant registration. A business can sell via social media without merchant certification, but it cannot legally accept card payments without it — which limits it to cash-on-delivery, still used in over 85% of Algerian e-commerce transactions according to the 2026 ecommaps.com market study.
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What Algerian Merchants Should Do Now
1. Register the E-Commerce Activity Code at CNRC Before Scaling Marketing Spend
The single most common mistake among Algerian online businesses is investing in social media advertising and product content before securing the CNRC e-commerce activity code. Without it, any marketing success creates a customer base that can only pay cash-on-delivery — which generates the logistics cost, fraud exposure, and return rates that erode margins in COD-heavy operations. CNRC registration can be completed online or at a local CNRC office and typically takes 2-5 business days. The e-commerce specific activity codes under Law 18-05 are a prerequisite for any CIB-SATIM or alternative gateway integration. Completing this step before marketing spend avoids the expensive retrofit of converting an established COD operation to digital payments.
2. Integrate a Certified Gateway Immediately — Even for Low-Volume Stores
The argument for delaying gateway integration until volumes justify it is a false economy. Gateway integration has a fixed one-time cost, and every COD order costs 300-800 DZD in logistical overhead (return trip, cash handling, reconciliation) that card payments eliminate. Chargily Pay, launched in 2025, has reduced the technical barrier for small merchants by offering a developer-friendly API and lower minimum transaction requirements than the historic CIB-SATIM direct integration. With average online transactions now at 5,400 DZD, a business processing even 50 orders per month saves 15,000-40,000 DZD in COD overhead costs annually — easily justifying gateway fees from the first quarter of operation.
3. List on the CIB-SATIM Directory to Capture Card-Ready Buyers
CIB-SATIM maintains a directory of certified web merchants, which is one of the primary discovery channels for Algerian consumers who hold CIB or Edahabia cards and are specifically looking for online merchants that accept digital payment. Merchants who complete the certification and gateway integration are automatically eligible for directory listing. This is a zero-cost, high-signal SEO signal for card-holding shoppers — the segment that drives the 5,400 DZD average transaction, not the 1,800 DZD COD average. Merchants should verify their listing is active, accurate, and includes product categories so that directory-browsing buyers can find them without navigating to the merchant website first.
4. Prepare for the DZ Mob Pay Interbank QR Layer
GIE Monétique’s DZ Mob Pay platform ended its inaugural year with 14,283 merchant accounts and 95,014 personal accounts, processing 12,682 QR-code and 44,369 peer-to-peer transactions. This interbank QR payment system — operating alongside BaridiMob for postal account holders — is positioned to expand rapidly as the Bank of Algeria’s Fintech Strategy 2024-2030 drives new institutional participants onto the network. Merchants who register on DZ Mob Pay now benefit from being early participants in the interbank QR ecosystem, with lower competition for consumer attention than the card-acceptance channel and direct access to the growing segment of mobile-first Algerian consumers who prefer QR scans over card number entry.
Where This Fits in Algeria’s 2030 Roadmap
The 644 certified web merchant figure is not a ceiling — it is the starting point for a trajectory that Algeria’s Fintech Strategy 2024-2030 and the national goal of contributing 20% of GDP from digital economy by 2030 requires to grow by at least 10x over the next five years.
The infrastructure is already in place: 21.8 million active cards, 27 million annual online transactions, 4,679 ATMs, 78,774 POS terminals, and a mature gateway ecosystem in CIB-SATIM. The variable is certified merchant supply. Banks including Banxy and Digital Finance Algeria (DFA) are building digital-first onboarding flows that should reduce the time-to-certification for small businesses. The regulatory sandbox announced at the Algeria Fintech and E-Commerce Summit in 2025 will further accelerate fintech participation in merchant payments.
For businesses currently operating via Facebook or Instagram commerce — the primary informal channel for Algerian online sellers, where goods are posted and payments collected via cash or informal transfer — the window for a smooth formal transition is 2026-2027. By 2028, the Bank of Algeria’s cashless targets and the PAPSS cross-border payment integration will make informal digital commerce increasingly difficult to sustain at scale. Businesses that complete certification now are not just capturing current demand — they are building the compliance infrastructure that enables cross-border selling, institutional B2B transactions, and access to formal credit based on verifiable payment history.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is required to become a certified web merchant in Algeria?
Certification requires formal commercial registration with CNRC under an e-commerce activity code (governed by Law 18-05 of June 2018), followed by onboarding with a CIB-SATIM-approved payment gateway. This enables the merchant to legally accept Edahabia and CIB card payments online. Chargily Pay and direct CIB-SATIM integration are the two main gateway paths for SMEs in 2026.
How much did Algeria’s online payments grow in 2025?
Algeria’s online payment volume grew 179% in 2025, reaching 27 million transactions worth 145 billion DZD. December 2025 set a single-month record of 3.6 million transactions worth 65.27 billion DZD. By end-2025, Algeria had 644 certified web merchants — a 26.27% increase from 2024.
Why is cash-on-delivery still dominant if digital payments are growing so fast?
Over 85% of Algerian e-commerce transactions still use cash-on-delivery, according to the ecommaps.com 2026 market study. COD dominates because most informal online sellers — operating via Facebook and Instagram — are not certified web merchants and cannot accept card payments legally. As more merchants complete formal certification, card payment share is expected to rise significantly.
