Downpay app for Shopify makes deposits and partial payments a breeze

by | Jun 12, 2024 | What's Next Series

WHAT'S NEXT: Learn how Diana Birsan, cofounder of Downpay, makes deposits and partial payments simple on Shopify.

What is Downpay?

Downpay enables merchants to offer deferred and partial payments which enables more sales on bespoke, made to order products and preorders.

Downpay enables storing a card on file and includes a robust API and Shopify Flow integration to empower brands to develop workflows for partial payments.


Are you funded?

No, we're bootstrapped.

Who do you serve?

Furniture and jewelry brands offering made to order products or preorders and service based businesses taking bookings such as rentals or workshops.

What's standout about Downpay?

We're former Shopify alumnis who personally worked on developing the partial payments architecture. We went on to use this architecture and develop an API first app for partial payments.

What's next at Downpay?

With the recent launch of our API and Shopify Flow integration, we've gained a lot of interest from Plus brands looking to offer deposits and partial payments at scale for selling strategies such as made to order products, and preorder campaigns and more recently rentals.

We've also found great partnership opportunities with booking apps such as Sesami and we will continue to develop partnerships across the Shopify ecosystem, both with agencies and app partners.

Our focus this year is to continue making payments flexible and we aim to continue on this journey with some innovative Checkout and customer portal extensibility features to improve affordability for customers and grow sales for Shopify brands.

What's next in your niche?

With interest rates at an all time high, we're seeing merchants looking for ways to reduce reliance on buy now pay later apps especially for high value products. It's proven difficult to give away 5-12% to these providers and it will be interesting over the next couple of years how this concern evolves.

Along with this, many brands want to gauge demand rather than spend the money upfront on products that may or may not sell. Preorders and just in time production is becoming more common practice.

Who should I interview next?

Daniel Patricio & Ivan Sanchez

What's one thing the public doesn't know about your professional background that has led you to this point in your career?

I don't think I ever imagined being a founder. My parents worked the same job their whole lives and it meant that I grew up in a risk averse environment. In 2023, in the span of two weeks, I quit my previous job to pursue being a founder full time and bought my first home after searching for 2 years. I took a huge risk and can honestly say a big part that made me comfortable was having a killer co-founder. Got really lucky there.

What's one thing you wish more people paid attention to in the world?

For me, a big motivator to building Downpay and partial payments in general has been reducing waste. I would love to see more and more brands move towards gauging demand with preorders or selling made to order products before planning production. If we can make an impact there, I know I've done something right.

Thanks for the insights Diana!

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