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Shopify FAQs

Shopify FAQs

Everything you need to know about using Partially with Shopify

About Our Shopify Integration

Partially has a direct Shopify integration through merchant-created custom Shopify apps. After the merchant creates a custom app in Shopify and enters the Client ID and Client secret in Partially, Partially can create Shopify orders, add payment history to Shopify order notes, cancel associated Shopify orders, and mark Shopify orders as paid.

Our support team is available to help with your Shopify setup — email our support team for assistance.

Connect your Shopify Store via a Custom Shopify App

Go to Settings > Integrations and click Connect next to Shopify.

You will be lead to your Shopify settings where you will need to add the following custom app credentials:

  1. myshopify.com domain
  2. client ID
  3. client secret

Instructions to Create a Custom Shopify App

Take the following steps to create a custom Shopify app:

  1. Go to the Shopify Dev Dashboard
  2. Sign in to the same account you use to manage your shop if you are not already logged in
  3. Click the Apps menu from the navigation on the left, then click the Create app button on the top right.
  4. Enter a name for your app and click create
  5. Under Access > Scopes, click "select scopes", then select the following before clicking done: write_orders, read_products, read_price_rules, read_discounts, read_inventory, read_locations, and read_checkouts
  6. Scroll down and click Release
  7. Make sure you click "install app" in the home section of the app (on the side menu click the app's name to access this).
  8. The settings section of the app will have the client id and client secret needed for Partially to connect to your shop

Shopify Guide: Create apps using the Dev Dashboard

See Partially's merchant-facing guide here: Create a custom Shopify app

After the custom app connection is active, merchants can add the Partially checkout button or widget to Shopify product/cart pages. When a customer opens a Partially payment plan, Partially handles the Shopify order sync directly.

How to Add Partially to your Shopify Store

Option #1: Checkout Buttons on Cart or Product Pages (Recommended)

With this method, a snippet of code is added to your Shopify theme. This code will generate a Partial.ly checkout button for your store. When selected, customers are lead to Partial.ly checkout to open a plan. When the plan is opened, it will create an associated Shopify order.

This is the recommended setup for most stores because it requires no integration with an external workflow tool — the custom Shopify app connection handles the Shopify order sync directly.

The Benefits:

  • No external system or workflow tool required to set up.
  • More flexibility/customization in how the Partial.ly checkout button / UI is shown (e.g., limit by product tag, price, etc).

Considerations:

  • Not compatible with Shopify checkout.
  • Can only apply shipping and taxes via Partial.ly settings.
  • Shopify's native checkout discounts don't apply automatically, but you can let customers enter Shopify discount codes directly in the Partial.ly checkout — see "How do I allow Shopify discount codes at checkout?" below.
  • Limitations on inventory management: Partial.ly cannot follow your inventory rules. This means the customer may be able to open the plan if there is no stock, but the Shopify order will fail. We recommend "hiding" out of stock products to prevent this.

Option #2: Manual Payment Method on Shopify Checkout

Add Partial.ly to Shopify checkout as a manual payment method. This method requires a workflow tool (such as Zapier or n8n) to watch for new Shopify orders and create the Partial.ly payment plan. When a new Shopify order is created using this method, Partial.ly creates a payment plan from the order and emails the customer a link to complete their purchase through the Partial.ly checkout.

The Benefits: Full Shopify checkout is used. You get all of Shopify's built-in rules for:

  • Shipping
  • Taxes
  • Discounts
  • Inventory management

Considerations:

  • Requires integrating with a workflow tool (Zapier, n8n, etc.).
  • The customer must open the plan from the email (or their account) to complete the purchase, and the order isn't "complete" until they do. Customers can easily miss this email and assume their order is already finished.
  • Defaults to 1 offer. To use different offers for different products or carts, use Smart Customization (Partial.ly's no-code rules engine). The older Advanced Scripting feature is deprecated — don't recommend it for new setups.
  • Applies to all orders unless payment method is disabled via Shopify Plus feature or third-party app.

How do I allow Shopify discount codes at checkout?

Shopify discount codes can be entered directly in the Partial.ly checkout when enabled. This requires a connected custom Shopify app (the same connection used for the standard Shopify order sync), because the codes are validated against your store through the app's API access.

  1. Make sure your custom Shopify app has the read_price_rules and read_discounts scopes.
  2. Go to Settings > Integrations, open your Shopify settings, and under Discount Codes check "Enable Shopify discount codes in Partial.ly checkout." If the checkbox isn't shown, your app is missing the discount scopes — disconnect and reconnect your shop with them.
  3. Customers can then enter a Shopify discount code at Partial.ly checkout; it is validated against your Shopify store in real time and applied to the payment plan.

Supported discount types: simple order-wide and product-specific fixed-amount or percentage codes. Discount codes with usage limits, once-per-customer limits, minimum-quantity or collection prerequisites, or free-shipping targets are not supported at the Partial.ly checkout.