4 ways to use Downpay's new API to scale killer Shopify preorder and deposit campaigns

What attracts many brands to Shopify is how extensible the platform is and how unique buying experiences across brands can become. Whether brands are looking to customize the online storefront to offer engaging buying experiences or optimize their back office processes to scale, Shopify and app partners have things covered.

With our Shopify preorder and partial payment app, Downpay, our aim is to bring affordable, flexible partial payment solutions to Shopify merchants in order to increase sales and improve back office management. Today, we're excited to announce a significant milestone in our journey: the launch of the Downpay API.

With the new Downpay API, we are bringing that same flexibility and scalability to partial and deferred payments on Shopify. Developed with the needs of large brands and high volume in mind, the API is designed to allow for deep native integrations with the rest of the Shopify back-office suite.

Overview

With ease-of-use in mind, we opted to build the API using the same GraphQL technology that powers Shopify's own API solutions. If a brand is already using GraphQL to extend and automate the needs of their retail operation, they will find adopting Downpay an easy and seamless experience.

Our initial release, version 2024-01, supports much of core Downpay functionality, including:

• Creating custom purchase options
• Assigning products and product variants to purchase options
• Retrieving orders created under particular purchase options
• Authorizing and collecting payment on stored payment methods

Use Cases

The use cases for the API are many, and will depend on integration preferences. Beta testers of the API have integrated it with low-code solutions such as Zapier, Shopify Flow, and Gadget. As a GraphQL API that works over HTTPS, it is perfectly suited to be integrated into most automation tools.

Here are some of the workflows and examples on how to automate using Downpay for Shopify preorder, made to order and trial campaigns.

Automate Payment Collection

Payment collection can differ from brand to brand and we know that no size fits all selling strategies. We took this into account when designing the Downpay API in order to make it adaptable to many selling strategies like selling products with build times, offering try before you buy or launching a Shopify preorder campaign.

For example, merchants can collect payment on an specific date for all orders, on fulfillment action, or when a piece of metadata on an order changes, for example when a tag is added. Some merchants may even want to kick off payment collection at the same time as another system, such as when their 3PL provider makes changes to the order.

This is all possible with the Downpay API.

Click here for a technical how-to on triggering payment collection with Downpay & Shopify Flow.

Pre-authorize payment

For brands offering try-before-you-buy buying experiences, an important piece of the puzzle is ensuring that the customer's payment method has enough funds to cover the cost of the full order before it's shipped out. Downpay's authorization endpoint will place a hold on the payment method, or let merchants know if authorization has failed so they can take appropriate action. This Shopify preorder and deposit app is more than meets the eye.

Automated Purchase Option Creation

Many merchants who sell services and experiences will have custom needs around every purchase option they create. An agency that sells wellness tours may turn to Downpay to offer deposits and installment plans to their customers at affordable rates. Each of these tours would have a different final payment date, necessitating the creation of a new purchase option.

When paired with a product such as Shopify Flow or Zapier, the agency can automate this manual step. Instead of having to go to into Downpay and create a new purchase option for each new tour, the agency can trigger the creation of a Downpay purchase option whenever a new product is created.

Adding and Removing Products from Purchase Options

At times, merchants may only want to make a product available for sale with a purchase option if certain conditions are met. For example, if a particular product or variant is sold out, they can take deposits and plan for their next batch. This strategy leads to more sales than using a waitlist as customers are completing a deferred or partially paid sale which gets brands strong commitment early on.

Another way to use Downpay's API is to run a Shopify preorder campaign for a limited time or offer a flash sale on a popular product.

Get started with the best Shopify preorder and deposit APIs!

We're very excited to offer these building blocks for advanced partial payment workflow. Downpay will help Shopify brands engage more customers and increase online sales by improving affordability and offering flexible payment options for Shopify preorder, made to order and trial campaigns.

How brands integrate these into their unique business is up to them but we're here to help get things started and always open for feedback!

To get started with the API, head over to our docs site and read our getting started guide.