DPD has the ability to collect for single product purchases in multiple payments by creating an installment price point for an existing product.
Conditions to use Installment Payments:
- You must use an installment capable processor. Currently, Stripe and PayPal Express are supported.
- You must create a product with a standard, one time payment price first. Even if you only intend to sell the product with installment payments, the default price for a product should be a fixed, one time price for that product.
- You must use a buy now button with the installment price point selected to sell the product. Installment products can not share a checkout with other products due to the way processors handle installment payments. This includes fixed (one time payment) products and other installment products.
Setting up an Installment Price Point for a Product
1. Create a product normally.
The product price when creating the product should be the actual total price you want to sell the product for. For example, if you want to sell a product for 3 payments of $33, you should make the price on the edit product page $99. This is because this is the "fallback" default price for the product if someone tries to manipulate the buy URL or there is a browser error, etc.
2. Once you have created a valid, active product with a fixed price, go to that product's details page:
3. On the details page, go to the price points section and add a new price point:
4. On the price point page, select Installment Payments from the checkout type:
5. Configure your installment price point.
Name: Name your price point something logical since your customer will see it during checkout and you'll need to identify and select it when creating your installment button.
Include different first payment: If you select this, a field will be shown to enter your first payment amount. This is for if you want to charge a different up front amount from the following payments.
Payments: The number of payments you want to collect, the amount of each payment, and the frequency of the payment
Total to collect will update on the page to show the total amount you'll collect from all installment payments when the purchase is complete.
Once you are done, save.
6. Create a buy now button or link using the price point you have just created.
Checkout will show the product and price point you have configured along with the payment term:
On the purchase page in the DPD admin, the purchase will show the number of payments, the collection date, and their collection status.
Some Examples:
This purchase shows 3 payments of $33.33, collected daily, for a total of $99.99 that has been fully collected:
This purchase shows a checkout that used a coupon on the initial payment. The coupon discount only applies to the initial payment. This installment purchase has 7 total payments (first payment of $50 then 6 payments of $10). The initial payment is collected (minus the coupon discount) and the future payments are queued for billing but have not occurred yet:
Some Important Notes and Warnings:
- Coupons will only be applied to the initial payment if used and allowed.
- Customers will gain access to the purchase after the first payment is made. You are exposing yourself to risk that the customer may cancel the recurring payment arrangement in PayPal, etc. after downloading the product when using installments.
- The first payment can not be 0. You are free to charge more or less for the initial payment, but it can not be 0.