# Partial COD and deposits: how they work > Partial COD means the shopper pays a deposit online and the rest in cash at the door. Shopify's normal checkout has no deposit option for COD. On Shopify Plus, draft orders can require a deposit; on other plans you need an app or a separate payment link. Set your refund rule first. URL: https://khaleejicod.com/guides/partial-cod-deposits/ Updated: 2026-10-26 Publisher: Trifid Media LLC Partial COD splits one order into two payments: a deposit paid online before you ship, and the rest paid in cash to the courier. Shopify's standard checkout can't do this for Cash on Delivery on its own (checked 26 October 2026). On Shopify Plus you can ask for a deposit on a draft order. On other plans you need an app or a manual process with a separate payment link. Before you start, decide what happens to the deposit if the parcel is refused, and write that rule down where shoppers can read it. ## What is partial COD? The shopper pays part of the order online, for example the delivery charge or a share of the total. You ship. The courier collects the balance in cash at the door. In Arabic a deposit is often called «عربون» (a down payment that holds the order). > **Example:** An order costs AED 600. You ask for an AED 100 deposit online, and the courier > collects AED 500 in cash. If the shopper refuses the parcel, you keep or refund the AED 100, > depending on your policy. These figures are examples. Choose your own amounts. ## Why would you take a deposit? The deposit gives the shopper something to lose if they refuse, which puts off impulse orders and prank orders. It can also cover some or all of your shipping both ways if you keep it on a refusal. It suits products you can't easily resell after a return trip, such as custom-made or personalised items. The costs are real too: - The shopper needs a card or wallet for the deposit, so a shopper who can't pay online at all is turned away, much as if COD were hidden. - Every order now has two payments to track, and the courier must collect the right balance. - You pay online payment fees on the deposit, and you handle refunds when orders are cancelled. For a comparison with hiding COD, a COD fee and OTP checks, see [hide COD, COD fee, partial COD or OTP](/guides/hide-cod-vs-fee-vs-partial-vs-otp/). ## Can Shopify take a deposit at checkout for COD orders? Not by itself. Cash on Delivery is a manual payment method, and its settings are text fields: **Additional details** and **Payment instructions**. There's no deposit option. Payment customizations, the Shopify Functions that apps use to change the payment step, can hide, move and rename payment methods, set payment terms (Plus only) and add a review requirement (B2B on Plus only). On Plus, payment terms set this way can include a deposit, as a percentage of the order total, with the balance due later, for example when the order is fulfilled. For partial COD, the courier would then collect that balance in cash and you'd record it, as in the draft-order steps below. On other plans, payment customizations can't add a deposit. ## How do you take a deposit on Shopify Plus? Shopify Plus stores can use draft orders with a deposit requirement: 1. Go to **Orders > Drafts** and create the order. 2. In the **Payment** section, select **Payment due later** and choose a payment term, such as **Due on fulfillment**. 3. Select **+ Require deposit** and enter a percentage. Shopify says this option is available only on the Shopify Plus plan. 4. Save, then send the invoice. Test it once yourself to see exactly what the shopper is asked to pay. When the courier pays you the cash balance, record it on the order: click **Collect payment > Record payment**, enter the amount, choose your manual payment method, and click **Record payment**. The order status changes to **Partially paid** after a partial payment. Recording partial payments is also a Plus feature, and Shopify notes that "manual payments aren't captured by Shopify". You are only recording money you already received. Draft orders are made one at a time, so this suits high-value or made-to-order items where you talk to the shopper anyway. It doesn't suit every order in a busy store. ## How do you take a deposit on other plans? You have two options. ### A partial COD app If you use an app for deposits, ask these questions before you install it: - Does the shopper pay the deposit in Shopify's checkout, or in the app's own form? - How does the order look in Shopify afterwards: does it show what's paid and what's still due? - How does the courier learn the right balance to collect? - How are deposits refunded when you cancel? The first question matters if you also use checkout rules. Shopify lists orders created through its Create Order API, and draft orders created in the admin, among the places where payment customizations don't run. If an app creates orders that way, rules such as hiding COD for some shoppers won't apply to those orders. ### A manual deposit link The shopper places a normal COD order. You send a payment link for the deposit from your payment provider, and you ship once it's paid. This needs no app, but on plans other than Plus you can't record a partial payment on the Shopify order, so the order shows the full amount as unpaid until you mark it paid. Keep the details in one place: - Add a note to the order with the deposit amount, date and payment reference. - Add an order tag such as `deposit-paid`, so you can filter these orders. - Give the courier the balance to collect, not the order total. - Mark the order as paid only when the courier's cash arrives. See [how to mark COD orders as paid](/guides/mark-cod-orders-paid/). ## How do refunds work with a deposit? Decide your rules first, then publish them in your COD policy. You can adapt the [COD policy template](/guides/cod-policy-template/). Rules to settle: - Refused at the door: do you keep the deposit, keep part of it, or refund it? - Cancelled before you ship: do you refund the deposit in full? - Returned after delivery: how do you refund the cash part? How the money goes back depends on how it was paid: - If the deposit was paid through Shopify's checkout, refund it from the order. Shopify's help page says refunding an order sends the payment back to the customer, and you can refund to store credit instead or as well. - If the deposit was paid through an outside link, refund it in your payment provider's dashboard, then note the refund on the order. - Shopify didn't collect the cash balance, so you pay that back yourself, for example by bank transfer or store credit. See [refunding a COD order](/guides/refund-cod-order/). ## Is a pre-order deposit the same thing? No. Pre-orders on Shopify can also leave part of the price to pay later, but Shopify's help page describes collecting it by charging the stored card or by sending an invoice. That's a deferred online payment. With partial COD, the balance is cash at the door. ## When does a deposit make sense? A deposit fits stores where refusals are expensive and orders are worth a phone call, such as furniture, custom-made pieces or high-value electronics. For everyday products, hiding COD for risky carts adds less friction. Khaleeji COD takes that route: it doesn't take deposits, but it can hide COD for products you tag `no-cod`. See [how to turn off COD for certain products](/guides/disable-cod-for-products/). ## Sources - [Shopify Help Center: Manual payment methods](https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/payments/manual-payments) - [Shopify.dev: Payment customization Function API](https://shopify.dev/docs/api/functions/latest/payment-customization) - [Shopify Help Center: Creating draft orders](https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/fulfillment/managing-orders/create-orders/create-draft) - [Shopify Help Center: Partial payments](https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/payments/partial-payments) - [Shopify Help Center: Refunding orders](https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/fulfillment/managing-orders/refunding-orders) - [Shopify Help Center: Managing pre-orders](https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/products/purchase-options/pre-orders/manage-pre-orders)