Athena Gaia grew AOV 25% selling jewelry on Shopify with deposits

Read on to learn more:

• How Athena Gaia began
• The challenge of build times
• Why BNPL wasn’t the solution
• Why Athena Gaia chose Downpay for deposits
• How using Downpay built customer relationships and increased sales

Athena Gaia’s story: A passion for craft and service

After a life-changing experience escaping from the World Trade Center on 9/11—the day after he returned from visiting family in Greece—Peter Bradley decided to move to Athens.

Driven by a love of Greek craftsmanship and its artistic heritage, Peter started selling handmade Greek jewelry online in 2004. He chose the name Athena’s treasures: Athena was the goddess of both wisdom and craftsmanship. His first sale was a Greek cross he had purchased by the designer Gerochristo. 

Athena’s Treasures grew into a thriving business, partnering directly with Gerochristo and other Greek artisans to create stunning, made-to-order pieces.

Over time, Peter returned to the United States, and his wife Joanne became the co-owner. In turn, Athena’s Treasures re-branded as Athena Gaia. Continuing the theme, Gaia was revered as the sender of gifts as well as the mother of all life.

In 2024, having built a great team and a passionate customer base, Athena Gaia celebrated the family company’s 20th year.

Peter’s grandfather had also devoted his working life to a family business, a furniture store in Pennsylvania. His attitude toward customers inspired Peter.

“Respect that they’re trusting you with their hard-earned money,” Barney had told him. “It’s a piece of their life that they’re giving you.”

Building that mutual trust is especially critical in industries with long lead times—including both furniture and custom jewelry.

The challenge: Long lead times and nervous customers

Every Athena Gaia order is produced by a workshop in Greece. Once completed, it’s shipped to Athena Gaia’s warehouse in New Jersey, and then delivered to the customer. This can take up to five weeks.

Even with clear communication at the start, many customers would become anxious as the weeks passed. They’d paid in full and had nothing in hand.

“Sometimes they’d get angry and call us,” Peter says. 

“Their credit card was saying, ‘Hey, pay me.’ And they were thinking, ‘Oh my God, I don’t even have the thing yet.’”

“Then we’d have to calm them down and say, ‘Remember, this is what’s going on.’”

Others abandoned their carts entirely, unwilling to risk sending hundreds of dollars to a company they hadn’t bought from before.

This mistrust was the last thing the team at Athena Gaia wanted. 

If they offered the choice of making a partial payment at checkout to secure their order, it would go a long way toward reassuring customers.

“We want them to be happy. We want them to come back to us. We want them to brag about us to their friends,” Peter says. “So having this payment option for us is really essential.”

The problem was that Shopify online stores support only full payment up front. Athena Gaia would have to look at apps that extended Shopify’s functionality.

Why Buy Now, Pay Later didn’t work: Confusion and high fees

Athena Gaia initially offered Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) services as a partial payment option. 

BNPL apps offer personal loans at the point of sale that cover the full cost of the item. The merchant gets paid right away minus transaction fees, and the customer then repays the provider.

Instead of easing concerns, however, implementing BNPL created more friction.

The services route checkout out of Shopify and through their own apps, which broke the order flow and confused Athena Gaia’s customers. 

Worse, taking on BNPL loans also exposed customers to predatory fees and interest rates.

“The interest rates were ridiculous,” Peter says. “We don’t want our customers to pay extra.”

Athena Gaia didn’t want to pay extra either. But the merchant transaction fees, which climb with order values to offset the BNPL providers’ risk, were taking an unmanageable chunk out of their revenue.

What kept Peter up was how it affected buyers, however. “We want our customers to have a smooth, easy-to-understand experience,” he says. “It was time for a change.”

Why Athena Gaia chose Downpay: Simple Shopify-native deposits

Athena Gaia now offers a transparent, customer-friendly payment option: a 50/50 deposit model integrated right into Shopify—no confusing interactions with third parties involved.

“Customers are paying half up front to secure the materials to make the piece of jewelry,” Peter says. “And then, when we are ready to ship it to them, we charge the other 50%.”

This experience is possible because Athena Gaia implemented Downpay, a partial payment app built by Shopify alumni.

With Downpay, merchants can charge a percentage or amount up front and automatically collect the remainder from the card on file at a later date. The entire customer purchase flow stays within the familiar and high-performing Shopify checkout. And merchants can also clearly communicate the terms and make sure customers are informed about upcoming charges.

“When we saw [Downpay], we plugged it into the store right away,” Peter says. “We knew it was something that we needed.”

The impact was visible just as quickly.

The result: More trust, higher sales

Given the option, 70% of customers chose to pay with the deposit plan. As a result, Athena Gaia saw a big drop in customer support load and a startling boost to sales.

With customers not feeling the financial pressure of having to pay up front and added clarity on payment due dates, the number of support tickets fell.

“There’s a ton of emails we used to get that we no longer do,” Peter says. “Now our customers are content. They’re not nervous, not wondering what’s happening. They feel empowered.”

And those empowered customers are buying the pieces they’ve been dreaming of: average order value (AOV) rose 25% and overall sales climbed 15%. 

The conversion rate also jumped 8% and is expected to keep going up.

Even long-inactive customers came back, with a dormant customer reactivation rate of 5% and climbing.

“The increase in business was not anticipated,” Peter says. “We did this purely for the customer experience.”

Of course, that’s what’s always driven Athena Gaia’s  growth: respect for the individual people purchasing their jewelry.

With Downpay, they could provide customers with:

• Enhanced confidence: The ability to secure an order with just a deposit helped customers feel more in control. They were more likely to move forward with purchases knowing they wouldn’t be charged in full until the item shipped.
• Reduced friction: Deposits lowered financial barriers, making it easier for customers to commit to high-value purchases. Without the burden of full up-front payment, shoppers built larger carts and were less likely to abandon them.
• A personalized experience: The flexibility of deposits fit naturally with Athena Gaia’s bespoke model and . Customers appreciated a tailored payment option that mirrored the bespoke nature of their products.
• A reason to return: Payment flexibility didn’t just convert new visitors, it revived old relationships.

Much of the initial bump in Athena Gaia’s sales came from new customers. But over time, Peter expects even bigger impact from returning ones.

“More return customers, more referrals…everything else down the line is going to be better because of their happiness,” he says.

Inspiring other merchants

Downpay is a perfect match for companies selling anything with a lead time, Peter says.

“If you have something that you’re selling that is not prepared to ship immediately, then this is a fantastic idea, made by fantastic people.

“We look forward to a long and happy relationship.”