Reservo lets customers reserve an item on your Shopify store and pay a deposit to secure it. Your customer reserves online, pays a deposit through Shopify checkout, and pays the balance when they collect. It works on items in stock and on items that have sold out.
A deposit shows the customer is serious, gives you money up front on high-value or hard-to-get items, and cuts down on reservations nobody comes back for. This guide covers how deposits work, how to set them up, and what you and your customers see.
Deposits are part of the In-person & Online and Automation plans. Deposits on sold-out items need the Automation plan, because that plan lets customers reserve items that are out of stock.
How do deposits work on Shopify with Reservo?
You choose which variants need a deposit. When a customer reserves one of those online, Reservo asks them to pay a percentage of the price through Shopify's own checkout. Once they pay, Shopify creates the order and the item is theirs. You take the balance when they collect.
- In stock: the customer reserves, then pays the deposit straight away from the confirmation screen.
- Sold out: the customer can reserve the item and pay a deposit on it too, so you take money on stock you haven't received yet.
One thing to know: the deposit is what secures the item. Until the customer pays, the item stays on sale, so another shopper could buy it first. That's why a short payment window works well. Items without a deposit are held as normal the moment they're reserved.
Deposits apply to reservations made on your online store. Reservations created by staff at POS work as before.
Before you start: check your payment provider
Taking a deposit now and the balance later needs Shopify to save the customer's payment method at checkout. Shopify Payments supports this. Some other providers don't. If Reservo knows your provider can't, it shows a warning on the Deposits settings. Either way, place a test reservation and pay the deposit yourself before offering deposits to customers.
How to set up deposits
1. Set your deposit terms
- In Reservo, go to Settings and open the Online reservations tab.
-
In the Deposits section, set:
- Deposit percentage: anything from 5% to 50%. The default is 20%. It's one rate for the whole shop.
- Deposit payment window: how long the customer has to pay, from 1 hour to 30 days. The default is 12 hours.
- Reminder: how many hours before the deadline to send a reminder. The default is 4 hours. Set it to 0 for no reminder.
- Purchase option name: what customers see at checkout. The default is "20% holding deposit", with your percentage filled in.
- Save.
2. Choose which variants need a deposit
Nothing asks for a deposit until you choose the variants. You can do this two ways:
- In bulk: in Reservo, go to Settings, open the Products tab, select the products, and choose Require deposit from the bulk actions.
- One product or variant at a time: open it in Shopify admin, click More actions then Manage reservation settings, and turn on Require a deposit. Products with several variants are set up on each variant's page.
3. Test it
Reserve a deposit item on your storefront, pay the deposit, and check the order in Shopify. It's the only way to be sure your payment provider and checkout behave as you expect.
What your customer sees
- They reserve as normal from the product page.
- The confirmation screen shows the deposit amount, the deadline and a Pay deposit button that takes them to Shopify checkout.
- They also get an email with the payment link, in case they leave without paying. If they've already paid, that email isn't sent.
- If a reminder is set, they get it before the deadline.
- Until they pay, their customer account shows a Pay deposit button on the reservation. Once paid, they collect in store or at the location they chose.
If one cart has some deposit items and some without, Reservo splits it into separate reservations. Items without a deposit are held as normal. Each deposit reservation gets its own email and deadline.
Deposit emails always send, even if you've switched off other customer emails. Without them, customers wouldn't know how to pay.
What your staff can do
Open the reservation in Reservo. While a deposit is outstanding, staff can:
- Waive the deposit. The reservation carries on as a normal reservation and Reservo holds the stock.
- Record a deposit taken elsewhere, for example by phone or in store.
- Convert it to a cart and take payment at POS.
- Resend the payment link if the customer has lost it.
Waiving, recording or converting cancels the payment link.
When the customer collects, fulfil the order in Shopify as usual and the balance is taken from the saved payment method.
If the deposit isn't paid
When the payment window ends, the link stops working and the customer gets an email saying the deposit wasn't received. Your staff are told too. On the Automation plan, this also fires a Shopify Flow trigger, so you can follow up automatically. See the Flow triggers guide.
Common questions
Can you take a deposit on Shopify?
Yes, with an app. Shopify supports deposits, and apps add the way to ask for
one. Reservo ties the deposit to a reservation: the customer pays part now and
the rest when they collect.
Is this the same as layaway?
It's close. The customer pays a deposit, the item is theirs, and they pay the
balance when they collect. If a customer wants to pay in several instalments
in store, staff can take each payment at POS against the same order using
Shopify split payments.
Can I take a deposit on a pre-order or sold-out item?
Yes, on the Automation plan. Customers can reserve a sold-out item and pay a
deposit on it. See the
waitlist guide
for how reserving sold-out items works.
Can I set a different percentage per product?
No. The percentage is shop-wide. You choose which variants need a deposit.
If you change the percentage, deposits already requested keep the rate the
customer was quoted.
Can customers pick the deposit option on the product page?
It's hidden by default, and we recommend leaving it hidden. A customer who
picks it there buys through Shopify directly, outside the Reservo
reservation. You can change this in the Deposits settings.
Does cancelling a reservation refund the deposit?
No. Reservo doesn't move money. Refund the order in Shopify.
Can staff take a deposit on a reservation made at POS?
Yes, the usual way: convert the reservation to a cart and use Shopify POS
split payment to take part of the total. Reservo's online deposits apply to
reservations made on your online store.
Do I need a separate deposits or pre-order app?
Not for reservations. Reservo takes the deposit and still handles the rest:
holds, waitlists, pick-up locations, staff alerts and POS. For the full
setup, see the
Reservo setup guide.