Headphones.com reduces backorder and preorder cancellations with deposits
Partial payments with Downpay made it easy for Headphones.com's customers to stay committed to high-end audio purchases, even though inventory was unpredictable.
We brought in Downpay to mitigate cancellations and customer frustration. The early returns are looking good.
— Taron Lissimore, Co-Founder, Headphones.com
Keeping trust when stock runs thin with Downpay
Headphones.com regularly deals with limited release products and backorders, because of how inventory flows in the premium audio equipment space.
With lead times often stretching to several months, the company was looking for a way to reduce checkout drop-off and the number of frustrated customers cancelling orders.
They chose the Shopify-native partial payment app Downpay to offer deposits for backorder and preorder products, allowing customers to reserve inventory without committing the full amount up front.
The result: they saw fewer refund requests, less support overhead, and higher customer trust on big-ticket purchases.
Headphones.com’s story
Founded by brothers Taron and Andrew Lissimore, Headphones.com combines high-end gear sales with honest reviews and a vibrant online community. (I bought my current headphones based on reading their reviews. –Jeremy)
This approach, along with their long return windows and customer-first philosophy, has earned them a loyal following. But loyalty can have limits when inventory is unpredictable.
With products moving in and out of stock, customers often faced a dilemma. They could park their money with Headphones.com without knowing the shipping date, or wait and risk missing out entirely.
The problem: Upfront payment with uncertain timelines
Paying in full up front for a pre-order or an open-ended backorder caused hesitation, anxious calls to support, and refund requests.
The team at Headphones.com wanted to:
- •Make it easier for customers to commit to items with long lead times
- •Reduce cancellations on pre-ordered or backordered items
- •Limit support debt for inventory with unknown delivery dates
This situation was similar to what made-to-order jewelry brand Athena Gaia faced with their online Shopify store. Athena Gaia owner Peter Bradley explained that nervous customers with nothing in hand and credit card bills coming due would overload their team with "where's my stuff?" calls and emails, and some of them would back out entirely.
The team at Headphones.com knew offering a deposit option was a common way to address these issues for retailers selling in person in their boutique audio equipment space.
There’s less psychological burden on customers if they aren’t fronting the full amount with no ETA.
— Taron Lissimore, Co-Founder, Headphones.com
The Shopify online store checkout doesn’t support partial payments out of the box, however, and typical workarounds come with toil for staff and confusing experiences for customers.
The solution: Deposits through Downpay
Like Athena Gaia did for their made-to-order jewelry, Headphones.com found their answer to deposits for preorder and backorder items with the Shopify-native app Downpay.
Customers can now pay 25-50% up front, with the rest charged to their card on file automatically when the order is ready to ship.
Why Downpay was the right fit
- Seamless setup for preorder and backorder products
- Configurable deposits by product, variant, or tag
- Shopify-native partial payments, no checkout redirects
- Analytics to test the impact of different deposit percentages
Headphones.com was able to drop Downpay right into their existing theme product pages:
Results: Lower cancellations, more flexibility
Initial results are strong: a drop in cancellations and a smoother experience for customers.
Deposits provided security: that the customer will receive the item and that the company will receive the balance, without the need to collect the full amount at checkout.
The app also gives the team room to experiment.
By adjusting deposit amounts depending on the product and lead time, they can find the balance between keeping sales moving and bringing in more cash to allocate to vendors who require payment up front.
With Downpay, we can test if we need to charge below our cost in order to entice more customers to commit, or if we can charge a higher deposit and not have our inventory cash tied up months in advance.
— Taron Lissimore, Co-Founder, Headphones.com
The takeaway
For Headphones.com, Shopify deposits are doing what the team hoped: cutting down on frustration and lost orders.
With Downpay, the team has a partial payment experience that makes preorders and backorders easier for customers and more predictable for the business.
Read more case studies and learn how Downpay can enable more sales for Shopify merchants.