Modern Bungalow’s 47% conversion boost with partial payment on Shopify

Looking to accept partial payment on Shopify, Modern Bungalow chose the app Downpay and saw a big jump in checkout conversions.

Founded in 2004, Modern Bungalow sells custom Amish furniture, handcrafted lighting, and other decor. They have a storefront in Denver, Colorado, as well as their online store hosted by Shopify.

Modern Bungalow's retail location is a hundred-year-old former movie theater. It gave away two Shetland ponies as a door prize on opening night. (The movie theater, not Modern Bungalow. Although Modern Bungalow could probably source some really nice sawhorses.)

The skilled workers who built the Washington Park Theater by hand and horse inspire the business. So do the store's vendors, including those who use similar traditional techniques to build quality furniture. Modern Bungalow aims for a customer experience, online and off, that matches the care put into these goods.

Choosing Downpay to implement deposits online fits right in—the app is handcrafted by a small team of Shopify alumni.

Read on for the details:

• The unvarnished story of Modern Bungalow
• The gap the company wanted to fill
• How Downpay dovetailed with their needs
• The finished product

The story: More Modern Bungalow

After their son was born in 2015, Danielle Sandusky and Matt Hubbard were thinking about bringing something else up together. They wanted to leave their jobs, adopt a local business, and grow it as their own.

By 2017, they had narrowed their search to retail stores with owners who were ready to retire. A friend put them in touch with the original owners of Modern Bungalow. Tucked away in a strip mall, the shop brought a lot to the table:

• It sold beautiful items by vendors with sustainable practices.
• It was the glue that held together a community of artists, builders, and enthusiasts.
• And, naturally, it had a strong frame to build on.

The couple wished they knew about it when they last needed furniture. They were sure many others would feel the same way. Modern Bungalow could expand to accommodate more customers like a butterfly-leaf table.

The store slotted right into Danielle and Matt's designs. It was a business they saw themselves being passionate about.

So they hammered out a deal to buy Modern Bungalow and began making it more visible. And more, well, modern. (In a way that was true to its roots, of course.)

Aligned with this approach, they took on moving the storefront to the larger and more centrally located heritage building.

Despite their best-laid plans, however, the process took longer than they thought. They spent three years instead of six months perched on the edges of their hardwood seats. And then came the pandemic.

But thanks to the support of the community and the grit of their employees, Modern Bungalow thrived. Danielle and Matt got through all three legs of their journey:

• Buy and renovate the theater.
• Launch their new website and online store using Shopify.
• Build their social media brand (Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest).

The challenge: Seamless partial payment on Shopify

By 2024, Modern Bungalow had carved out a niche. The store fit right into historic Washington Park. The neighborhood was perfect for their Denver customers. Almost all was squared away.

There was still a rough spot to smooth out, though.

Some customers couldn’t pay up front for heirloom-quality furniture with long lead times. Family members would cherish these pieces far into the future. But they weren’t pitching in now. Especially if they weren't born yet!

For these made-to-order goods, Modern Bungalow offered another choice for payment terms. A prepayment of 50% down, with the rest due before delivery.

The snag was that the business couldn't accept partial payment on Shopify. The software platform didn't support it out of the box.

The added friction of working around this made some online customers delay making an order. Others abandoned their carts and orders entirely.

The team at Modern Bungalow were far from stumped, though!

By integrating the right app, they could accept split payments online. Checkouts would then have a natural finish, not a distressed one.

The solution: The Downpay app for Shopify

Modern Bungalow found their groove with Downpay. The app interlocked with their Shopify store .

Customers can now pay a deposit amount online during checkout and have the remainder charged when the order is completed.

Onboarding with Downpay to collect partial payment on Shopify was easy. Here’s the drill.

1. Select purchase options

Modern Bungalow set up a purchase option with half the cost due on checkout. Customers still had the choice to pay the full amount at once.

2. Add Downpay info to page templates

Next, Modern Bungalow configured Downpay embedding on the product and cart pages of their theme.

These blocks let them use their own wording to share deposit and payment details with customers.

3. Set up collecting deferred payment

Now Modern Bungalow just needed a way to bill customers for the balance.

Downpay supports two ways to charge the remaining amount to the payment method on file:

• Manual: Click Collect payment on an order details page.
• Automated: Add a Downpay action to a workflow in Shopify’s Flow tool. For more fine-grained cases, the Downpay API is also available.

A Flow workflow that makes the second charge when a partially paid order is marked as fulfilled is very simple. (Such understated elegance! Such precise joinery!)

4. Profit

Not a joke for once—the final step here was profit!

Modern Bungalow saw the enormous difference they were hoping for after launching partial payment on Shopify.

The results: Sustainable growth

Taking deposits with Downpay increased the number of customers who felt confident completing an online order. Customers could secure items and manage their funds as they waited for their items to be available.

As a result, Modern Bungalow experienced a 47% boost in checkout conversion.

Here is a glossy counter to illustrate what that kind of rapid growth feels like.

Danielle says this improvement was crystal clear with their made-to-order lighting.

With partial payment on Shopify in place, Modern Bungalow can continue to focus on the planks of their business:

• Offering a top-notch customer experience.
• Working with vendors and artists to share special products.
• Educating buyers on these products and how to care for them.