For years, we have been selling plugins and software online and have helped countless WordPress users set up eCommerce websites as well. We found that if you sell expensive products, you can significantly increase your sales by offering your customers the choice to make a deposit or pay in installments.
Many store owners are looking for an easy way to provide flexible payment options. If you use WooCommerce, then you should consider YITH WooCommerce Deposits / Down Payments.
This plugin lets you offer deposits on certain items and customize the terms to fit your business needs. This improves the shopping experience for your customers and helps build trust that encourages larger purchases.
In this YITH WooCommerce Deposits / Down Payments review, we’ll take a look at this plugin’s features, support, and pricing, to see whether it’s the right WooCommerce plugin for your WordPress website.
YITH WooCommerce Deposits / Down Payments: Why Use It in WordPress?
YITH WooCommerce Deposits / Down Payments is a popular WooCommerce plugin that allows your customers to pay a deposit or down payment on major purchases.
Many online sellers are looking for ways to make it easier for their customers to purchase high-value items by reducing the upfront financial burden. Unfortunately, a default WooCommerce setup does not offer flexible payment options.
This is where YITH WooCommerce Deposits / Down Payments comes in. It lets customers pay a deposit or down payment on selected items. And it offers several customization options, making it easy to adapt to different eCommerce business models.
For example, you can easily define default deposit amounts and customize them for specific products. You also have many options to set a deadline for the full payment, whether you prefer that to be paid online, in-store, or when the customer comes for their booking or appointment.
These options give you full control over how you offer payment flexibility to your customers, ensuring that it supports your overall sales strategy.
For example, photographers or restaurants could take a deposit when someone books a photo shoot or table, and the customer pays the balance later.
Similarly, hotels and bed and breakfasts could charge users 50% of the total when they make a reservation, and the remaining balance 7 days before the booking start date.
Another example is stores that offer custom products or preorders of a new product that is not yet available. They could charge a $20 deposit with the remaining balance due within 10 days.
All of this is good news. In our experience, allowing deposits or installment plans lowers the barrier to entry for potential customers, leading to higher conversion rates and increased sales.
YITH WooCommerce Deposits / Down Payments Review: Is It the Right WooCommerce Plugin for You?
A deposit is money paid in advance to reserve a purchase or make a booking. A down payment, on the other hand, covers part of the total cost of a high-value item to make the balance more manageable. Many WooCommerce stores need to offer them, but they will be handled differently.
The details of these payments will vary between stores, or even from product to product. You may want to charge a percentage of the total cost or a flat fee. You have to decide on the deadline for the balance to be paid. And then there is the question of whether the deposit is refundable or not.
All of this means that, when setting up their websites to take deposits or down payments, WooCommerce store owners need a plugin that has flexible options and is easy to use. During our testing, YITH WooCommerce Deposits / Down Payments impressed us on both counts.
In this YITH WooCommerce Deposits / Down Payments review, we will explore whether it is the right WooCommerce plugin for you.
1. Easy to Set Up and Use
After installing the YITH WooCommerce Deposits / Down Payments plugin, we found its settings clearly laid out on the YITH » Deposits / Down Payments page. We like how each setting is clearly explained, and we found the different settings tabs easy to navigate.
It is easy to set up default deposit or down payment settings for your store. You can then override these defaults on specific products or services.
The plugin integrates seamlessly with WooCommerce, making it accessible for both beginners and experienced users.
2. Enable Deposits on All Products or Just Some
The ‘Deposit options’ section of the plugin’s settings lets you configure the default deposit settings for your products or services. However, these are just default settings and can be easily overridden for specific products or services.
Sometimes you might want to take deposits for some products but not others. YITH WooCommerce Deposits / Down Payments lets you handle that with ease.
If you accept deposits on most items, then simply leave the ‘Enable deposits on all products’ setting enabled. Then you can manually disable deposits on the items that need to be paid in full.
However, if you only accept deposits on a few items, then you can save time by disabling the setting here, and then manually enabling it on those items.
You can also make deposits optional. This gives your customers the choice of paying in full if they prefer. Again, you can override this default setting for specific products or services.
Now, if deposits are optional, then your customers will need to choose whether to pay in full or pay the deposit. Normally the ‘Pay Full Amount’ option will be selected, but you can change the default to ‘Pay Deposit’ as you see in the screenshot below.
3. Set a Default Deposit Amount and Type
If you have a lot of products where customers can leave a deposit, then updating the deposit amount on each one can take a lot of time. Luckily, YITH WooCommerce Deposits / Down Payments allows you to set a default value, either as a fixed amount or percentage.
For example, if you accept a $20 deposit for a lot of your products, then you can make that the default and simply change it on the products where it is different. Alternatively, if you need a 50% deposit regardless of the total price, then you can make that the default value.
Whether you choose the $ or % option, the deposit will be displayed on the product page as a dollar amount. For example, if you charge a 50% deposit on a $90 item, then the deposit amount will be displayed as $45 on your front end. This means your customers don’t need to get their calculators out to see how much they need to pay.
If you are shipping the product, you can also determine whether to add that charge to the deposit order or balance order. In our experience, most online stores would apply this to the balance order.
4. Create Advanced Deposit Rules
eCommerce websites with a lot of products or services may have a more complicated deposit system, with different categories requiring different deposit amounts or percentages.
Rather than needing to manually change the default values for each different category, you can set rules to do this automatically.
You can add multiple rules for different products and product categories. For example, you could charge a 20% deposit for all products in the ‘Clothing’ category.
Other product categories can have different deposits, and you can even use rules to set the deposit for individual products without needing to manually visit each product page.
You can even set different amounts for different WordPress user roles. This lets you charge a lower deposit to team members or VIP customers, allowing you to build customer loyalty.
5. Configure When and How the Balance Is to Be Paid
Once a customer has paid a deposit for a product or service, they will eventually need to pay the balance. We were impressed with the number of options that YITH WooCommerce Deposits / Down Payments provides here.
Whether your customers will be paying the balance online, in your physical store, at their appointment, or you will sort it out manually, there is an option that will suit your business.
You can create a due date for the deposit to be paid and send out automatic reminders via email.
The balance could be due on a specific date, a specific number of days after paying the deposit, on the date of their booking, or at some time before their booking.
Tip: To ensure these important emails reach your clients, it’s important to have a reliable email delivery system like WP Mail SMTP. See our WP Mail SMTP review for details.
For example, in the following screenshot, the balance is required 30 days after making the deposit, and a reminder email will be sent out 2 weeks before it is due.
This system will give you the best chance of receiving the payment on time. However, we know too well that customers may fail to pay the balance when it is due.
In that case, you can opt to send another reminder, or simply cancel the order. If you like, you can also refund the customer’s deposit at that time.
You have another option to make sure the customer doesn’t forget to pay the balance. Using Stripe, you can simply charge the expense to the customer’s credit card automatically.
Overall, we are very impressed with the number of balance options YITH WooCommerce Deposits / Down Payments offers and how easy they are to set up.
6. Customize How Deposits Appear on Your Website
The plugin offers a number of ways to configure how the deposits will appear in your store. The first of these is whether the ‘Pay Deposit’ button appears on your shop pages or just the individual product pages. By default, it is hidden on the shop pages.
We feel this is the most sensible option for most websites. However, you can always disable the option to display a ‘Pay Deposit’ button under every product and service on your shop page.
If you feel that the deposit option may be unclear to your customers, then you can also show a custom notice on your product pages where you can explain this.
You can also display notices to explain how the balance will be paid, whether that is online or paid to you in-store or in person.
For example, the business in the following screenshot has let their customers know they can complete the order on location. That may be when they pick up their product, arrive for their meal, or come to have their photos taken.
Depending on your business, you may like to change the labels used by the plugin.
For example, you could change the ‘Deposit’ label to say ‘Down Payment’.
7. Customize Deposit Emails Sent to Yourself and Your Customers
Whenever a customer pays a deposit, an email is automatically sent to you and your customer. And as we said earlier, a reminder email is sent out before the balance is due to be paid.
You can easily customize these emails to match your brand and unique business requirements.
For example, you can customize the ‘Balance expiration reminder’ email by toggling the bottom switch to the on position and then clicking the ‘Edit’ icon which looks like a pencil.
This will display fields for the email subject line and content and allow you to choose whether to send a plain text, HTML, or Multipart email.
8. Customize Deposit Options for Individual Products or Services
When running an online store, there are often exceptions and special cases to consider. We love how YITH WooCommerce Deposits / Down Payments recognizes this.
Once you have set up default deposit and balance settings and created deposit rules to cover different cases, you can easily overrule any of these settings for specific products and services.
When editing a product, scroll down below the product description until you come to ‘Product data’. You can customize the settings for that specific product on the ‘Deposit & Balance’ tab.
Here you will find many of the settings we covered earlier in our YITH WooCommerce Deposits / Down Payments review, such as whether to make a deposit optional, displaying custom notices, and how and when the balance needs to be paid.
These settings will override the default options you created earlier and will only apply to the product you are editing.
9. Integrate With Other YITH WooCommerce Plugins
One major advantage of using YITH WooCommerce Deposits / Down Payments is that it integrates well with other YITH plugins. This means you can easily combine it with tools like Product Add-Ons, Subscription, Request a Quote, and more.
This opens up a lot of possibilities. For example, you could use it alongside the Subscription plugin so you can follow up the initial down payment with recurring payments.
Alternatively, when using Yith’s Pre-Orders plugin, you can collect deposits on preordered products. Or when combined with the Dynamic Pricing and Discounts plugin, you can offer discounts on the deposit or balance, giving customers an additional incentive to buy.
Another possibility is to use the Request a Quote plugin to allow your customers to ask for a quote on a product or service. You can then offer your customers the option of paying a deposit when they accept the quote to secure the order.
Using these plugins together with YITH WooCommerce Deposits / Down Payments creates a more flexible and powerful eCommerce platform that caters to a wider range of customer needs.
10. Community and Professional Support
We have tested a number of YITH WooCommerce plugins and found them easy to configure and easy to use. However, you may need additional help and support from time to time, such as when using the plugin’s more advanced features and integrations.
When you purchase YITH WooCommerce Deposits / Down Payments, you are not just paying for the plugin, you are also gaining access to a year of updates, bug fixes, and technical support. This lets you use new features as they are introduced and receive expert assistance.
There are a few ways you can get support and assistance when encountering a WordPress error. YITH offers comprehensive documentation on its website. Here, you will find a detailed guide covering all the plugin’s major features
They also offer a support ticket system for getting more targeted support from the plugin’s developers. The YITH support team is available 7 days a week between the hours of 8:00 to 16:00 UTC+1. They usually respond to support tickets within 12 to 24 hours.
When creating a support ticket, we recommend you provide as much detail as possible so the experts understand your issue and offer a helpful response. For more on this topic, refer to our guide on how to properly ask for WordPress support.
YITH WooCommerce Deposits / Down Payments: Pricing and Plans
YITH WooCommerce Deposits / Down Payments offers straightforward subscription pricing with a single plan costing $129.99 per year. This plan includes 1 year of updates and support, giving you the latest features and expert help.
If you’re not sure if YITH is right for you, don’t worry. You can try it out for free for a whole month. That way, you can explore its features and see if it is a good fit for your online store.
YITH WooCommerce Deposits / Down Payments Review: The Right WooCommerce Plugin for You?
To sum up this YITH WooCommerce Deposits / Down Payments review, we’re confident that it’s a great WooCommerce plugin. It offers a simple way for customers to pay deposits or down payments on products, which can greatly improve sales, especially for more expensive items.
Offering the option to pay a deposit makes larger purchases more manageable for customers and can reduce shopping cart abandonment. This plugin’s flexibility and ease of use make it a worthwhile investment for businesses of all sizes.
The plugin is easy to use and customize, even for beginners. It offers helpful features like setting different deposit amounts for different products or categories and customizing the text shown to customers. Whether you’re selling furniture, electronics, or digital downloads, this plugin makes it easier for customers to commit to a purchase.
We hope this YITH WooCommerce Deposits / Down Payments review helped you decide whether it’s the right WooCommerce Plugin for you. Next, you may want to see our guide on how to set up installment payments in WooCommerce, or our expert pick of the best WooCommerce plugins for your store.
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