Learn how to offer deposits on out of stock products. This strategy helps customers lock in deals during BFCM while brands get real orders they can charge and fulfill at a later date.

On this page:

Overview

Setup

• Shopify setup
• Downpay app setup
• Downpay storefront setup

Managing deposit orders

FAQ

Overview

Problem: Customers shop on BFCM to lock in great deals. When brands run out of stock, buyers can't place orders and secure their discounts.

Often times joining waitlists aren't ideal for customers only shopping deals. They want products now for the price they are listed.

Solution: Allow customers to leave a deposit preorder for the next batch during the sale

If your brand has a reasonable restock schedule, consider offering $0 or nominal deposits as a way for customers to lock in the BFCM deal on the next batch.

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Setup

Shopify setup

Continue selling when out of stock

In order to ensure customers can add products to cart when inventory reaches 0, enable Continue selling when out of stock on the products you will be using with Downpay.

You can edit this field for multiple products at once using Shopify's bulk edit functionality:

1. On the Shopify Products page, select individual products or all products using the checkbox in the title bar.
2. Click Bulk edit.
3. Click Columns.
4. Scroll down to Continue selling when out of stock and enable it.
5. Scroll right to where that column now appears.
6. Use one of the methods listed in Shopify's bulk editing shortcuts guide to select multiple cells in the column.
7. Check the box in one of the cells to change the value for all selected cells.
8. Click Save.
   

Discount codes

Ensure your discount codes applies to Both Purchase types to ensure deposit orders are also discounted.

Downpay app setup

1. If you haven't installed Downpay, follow our quick start guide to get started

2. Create your first purchase option in Downpay for out of stock products.

• Purchase option name will be used as an order tag
  

• Line item help text will be displayed beside the line item on the cart and checkout

• Product selection type is used to determine which products should be part of this purchase option. We recommend using Tag based and assigned products to a tag in Shopify that Downpay can listen to

• Deposit options will allow you to set the deposit amount and whether you'd like a customer to also be able to pay in full. We recommend low deposit fees to encourage orders to be placed. $0 works well for back orders with longer lead times.

• Deposit option display to When variant is out of stock.

3. Set your Deferred payment due date to match the tough timeline when the product will be back in stock. This date will be displayed at checkout and in email notifications. If you have a range of dates, consider using our guide to reword date fields to meet range timelines.

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Downpay storefront setup

Product Block

Adjust various fields in the Downpay product block to display on out of stock variants and help customers understand expected delivery dates.

Handling mixed carts

By default, if customers attempt to purchase an in stock product at full price and leave a deposit for an out of stock product, Downpay will look at the in stock product and if it is also assigned to the same purchase option in Downpay, it will convert the product to a deposit purchase.

This behaviour is designed to support selling add-ons and ensure they are also paid with a deposit while also set up merchants who will be shipping everything together when all items are back in stock.

If this behaviour is not desirable for your business, use this guide to disable this functionality.

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Managing deposit orders

Once you've received orders, they will be marked scheduled if an exact date was used for when the product will be back in stock. Orders will move to unfulfilled on their payment due date

To collect payment, you may want to allow customers to pay their balance or automatically charge the card on file. Simply review all of Downpay's payment collection workflows and enable one that suits how you'd like to charge customers.

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FAQ

Does Downpay on out of stock support Shopify Markets?

• Yes, when using deposits for out of stock products, Downpay will only make deposits available if there is 0 inventory in a specific market and if you have Continue selling when out of stock enabled on the Shopify product page.

Which discount types are supported?

• Downpay supports product, cart and shipping discounts. Buy X, Get Y, is currently not supported.

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Updated on: 09/05/2025