Your customers check out on your store like normal, but select the “Paythen Payment plan” option. The order is submitted and all details come through in the Shopify admin (You'll set this up via the instructions below).

Your customers get an automatic email with their custom payment plan link that lets them pay and start their payment plan (You'll set this up via the instructions below – the text in the email is fully customizable)

You'll get an email notification once the customer starts their payment plan and has made their first payment

You update the payment status in Shopify to “Mark as Paid” and proceed with order fulfillment as you normally would. That’s it!

If you haven’t already, create your Paythen trial account.

If you don’t already have one, you can create a free Stripe account at the same time. Stripe is the payment processor used by Paythen. If you have Shopify Payments enabled on your store, that is also powered by Stripe (along with many leading businesses) – but you’ll need to create a separate Stripe account for this workflow since Shopify payments doesn’t allow you to connect external tools. There is no cost to create a Stripe account.

In your Paythen dashboard, go to Settings > Integrations and switch "WooCommerce" to ON. This will show you a new menu option called “Templates”. (Yes, we realise it says WooCommerce above. A separate "Shopify" setting is coming very soon!)

In your Paythen dashboard, go to "Templates" and create a new template. Configure this how you want – the number of installments, any additional fees, upfront fees, etc. You can read more about templates here.

From your Shopify admin, go to Settings > Payments.

In the Payment providers section, select Create custom payment method.

In Custom payment method name, enter "Paythen Payment Plan" or just "Payment Plan" – or anything else you prefer – this is how it shows 👇

In Additional details, enter any information that you want shown next to the payment method in your checkout. We recommend something like:

Pay for your order in 6 easy weekly installments. Once you complete the order here, a payment link will be emailed to you. The order is only finalized once you complete payment.

The screenshot above shows how it will appear 👆

In Payment instructions, enter the instructions that you want your customer to follow to pay for the order. These instructions are shown on the order confirmation page after the customer completes their order – only for this payment method. We recommend something like:

Please check your email for the payment plan link. Your order is not finalized until you complete this step and make the first payment. If you haven't received this email in a few minutes, please check your spam folder, or email us at support@yourcompany.com. 👈 👈 Remember to change this to your actual support email.

Click Activate. This will make this payment method live on your store.

Log in to your Zapier account. If you don't have one, you can create a free 14 day trial account

Use our pre-made Zap template to easily set up this Zap

This Zap looks for new orders in your Shopify store, then filters out any orders that are not using the Payment Plan method, and sends a customized email to your customers that chose the payment plan method. When you edit the Zap template above, Zapier will ask you to authenticate your Shopify account.

In the filtering step (step 2) of this Zap, ensure you choose text that matches the name of the payment method you chose in your Shopify admin when you set up the manual payment method in the step above.

In step 3, our template uses Zapier's built in "Email by Zapier" app to send the email with the payment plan link. This should be replaceable by alternative email tools if preferred - like SendGrid, etc. With the "Email by Zapier" app, you can customise the text of the email your customers get, or you can add your own custom HTML to make the design a bit fancier.

In step 3 of the Zap, in the "Body" box paste in your unique Paythen template url here – you created this in step 1 of this guide. This will be visible on the template summary page:

Don't forget to update the rest of the body text to reflect your business and your payment plan – you can add anything you want here

Update the "Reply To" email to your business' support email.

You can optionally bcc yourself or your store admin too if you'd prefer. This will send you the same email your customer gets so you have each customer's unique plan link handy. You can access these links at any time via the Paythen dashboard too.

This is how the email will look to your customers if you use the "Email by Zapier" app as shown above:

Test your Zap and set it live!

Now go to your Shopify store and place an order– check out with the Paythen Payment Plan option of course! If it works as it should, you should get an email with the right amount and your name. Click on the "CLICK HERE TO PAY" link to ensure it opens a plan with the correct amount and details.

Remember, you can test this entire flow on our demo Shopify store, including simulating the payment step using a test card.

As soon as a customer commences their payment plan and has made their first payment, you get an automatic notification from Paythen as an account admin so you'll know the customer has paid.

Once you do, you can log in to your Shopify admin dashboard and update the order status to "Mark as paid".

At the moment, this is a manual step. We are looking into a better way to automate this.

Depending on your order fulfillment workflow, we also recommend adding a note in your timeline for this order with the link to the customer's summary page in Paythen. Eg:

Expected payment plan completion date is x. See more info here 👉https://paythen.co/examples/customer-summary-self-serve-page-example

(you would use their actual customer link here - this is available via the new customer email notification you received or the customers page in your Paythen dashboard)

From this point on, you can fulfill the order as you normally do. If it's a physical product, you can ship it immediately, or wait till the payment plan is paid in full.

As an admin, you also get an email notification when a customer completes their payment plan in the future.