Introduction to Downpay Purchase Options
Introduction to Downpay Purchase Options
Purchase options add new ways for your customers to pay for products beyond the standard option of "pay now".
This guide will help you understand what a purchase option is and then create, edit, and delete a purchase option using Downpay's app interface.
On this page:
Important notes about multiple Purchase Options
- Line item help text
- Product selection type
- Deposit options
- Deposit option display
- Payment collection type
- Balance due date
What is a Purchase Option?
A purchase option is a set of rules that controls how a product can be purchased.
In Downpay, a purchase option defines things like:
- How much the customer pays today (the deposit)
- When the remaining balance is due
- Whether the product can still be purchased at full price upfront
Once created, a purchase option is assigned to one or more products or variants in your store. Any product assigned to that purchase option will follow those rules at checkout.
Example: Downpay Deposit Purchase Option
A Downpay purchase option might look like this:
- Pay 30% today
- Remaining balance due on a specific date or on fulfillment
- Customers can still choose to pay in full upfront
This gives customers flexibility while keeping everything tracked as a standard Shopify order.
How This Compares to Subscriptions Purchase Option
Another common type of purchase option on Shopify is a subscription.
Subscription apps define rules like:
- How often the customer is charged
- How often the product is delivered
- Ongoing recurring pricing
A product can be sold both as a subscription and as a Downpay deposit, but they work side by side. You cannot place a deposit on a subscription itself.
Where Purchase Options Appear
You can see purchase options in two places:
- Inside Downpay, when creating and managing purchase options
- Inside the Shopify admin, on each product page under the Purchase options section, or for variants, inside the Shopify variant details page under the Purchase options section.
This makes it easy to understand which products are assigned and how they can be purchased.
Important Notes About Multiple Purchase Options
If you are using Downpay with a standard Shopify theme (no custom or headless development):
If multiple purchase options are assigned to the same product Only the first created purchase option will display on the storefront. To display multiple purchase options on a single product, custom theme development is required.
If this is something you need, contact us and we can walk through your options.
Create a purchase option
- Click Create purchase option in the Downpay app.
- Add a name to the "Purchase option name" field.
- This field will also be used as an order tag on your Shopify orders index page
- Update any other purchase option settings.
- Click Save to create the purchase option
Edit a purchase option
- Click on the purchase option you wish to edit.
- Update any purchase option settings.
- The date type in "Deferred payment due date" cannot be edited after creation.
- Click Save to create the purchase option
Delete a purchase option
Delete a purchase option using the Delete button located beside the respective option in the Downpay app.
Purchase option settings
Line item help text
This text will be shown in the cart and checkout for any line item using this purchase option. This helps to differentiate which line items have a purchase option, and can help inform the customer of what to expect.
Example help text:
- Deposit only due a checkout [Default]
- Payment due when shipped
- No payment. Reservation only.
- 50% today. 50% when shipped.
Product selection type
There are different ways to select products or variants that the purchase option applies to. Review assigning products and variants documentation for an in-depth guide on types.
Deposit options
This setting determines if the deposit taken at checkout for the product(s) is either a percentage or an exact amount. Both options offer the ability to take $0 at checkout as well.
We recommend using percentage deposit type for most use cases where there are many items in the cart in order for Downpay to calculate a total percentage across all products.
Taking a 100% deposit and using Downpay scheduled fulfillment status
If you wish to only use Downpay's Scheduled fulfillment status but charge customers in full follow this guide:
- Create a new purchase option in Downpay
- Change
Line item help textto something likeExclusive Preorder. - Assign the products/variants this will apply to
- Set the deposit to
100% - Disable the
Pay in fulloption - Use Balance due date type
On a specific dateand make sure to select the date when the order should automatically move toUnfulfilled. - Click
Save.
- Navigate to the Shopify Theme editor and click
Edit theme. - Navigate to the Product template and locate the Downpay
Product blockand click into it to view the block settings - Scroll down to the Custom CSS section and insert the following CSS code
#downpay-block {
display:none;
}
- Click save and place a test order to ensure it is charged in full but appear with a scheduled fulfillment status.
Order will automatically release to unfulfilled on the scheduled date.
Give customers the option to pay in full
Determines whether to offer the standard "pay in full" purchase option to customers.
Purchase options are only available for certain sales channels and payment methods. Your customers may lose the ability to purchase these products on unsupported channels and payment methods if you remove the option to pay in full.
Deposit option display
You can decide when you want to show deposit option which can be either always or when the variant is out of stock.
- Default option is selected as "Always"
Payment collection type
The payment can be collected either Manually or automatically using Shopify Flow technology.
- By default, order payments are collected manually
Balance due date
The balance due date determines when the remainder is due after a customer checks out with a deposit.
It appears to customers, is saved to the order, and can be used in automations including payment collection, using Downpay's Shopify Flow integration.
The balance due date can be relative, exact, or set to "on fulfillment" instead of a date.
Learn more in the guide to understanding balance due dates.
Updated on: 14/02/2026
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