Payment links in Shopify: for B2B, phone and draft orders

You create a payment link in Shopify with a draft order: you build the order in your admin and send the customer an invoice with a secure link to your checkout. The customer pays there with their usual methods, such as Bancontact, card or iDEAL | Wero. That works on every plan. For B2B customers you set payment terms, so they pay by invoice later.

This article is part of our guide to payments in Shopify. Checked November 2026.

When do you need a payment link?

The higher the ticket, the more often an order starts with a quote or a phone call. Think custom work, large furniture or a wholesale customer ordering by email. A payment link still lets that customer pay online, and the order lands in Shopify with inventory, invoice and reporting.

Sending an invoice from a draft order

Go to Orders > Drafts and create a new draft order.

Add products or a custom item, the customer, shipping and any discount.

Click Send invoice. The customer gets an email with a link to checkout.

After payment the draft becomes a regular order.

You can also pay a draft order by entering the customer's card manually, or mark it as paid for a bank transfer. The minimum you need is the customer's email address. Without it you can't send an invoice or build a customer relationship.

Quick Sale: a payment link or QR code from your phone

In the Shopify app, Quick Sale lets you create a sale and collect payment through Tap to Pay, a payment link or a QR code. Handy at a fair or for a home delivery. Shopify says payment links work in all countries where Quick Sale is available, but doesn't name Belgium and the Netherlands separately. So test it in your own store first.

B2B: paying by invoice with payment terms

If you sell to businesses, use Shopify's B2B features instead of loose payment links. On every plan you create companies, give them payment terms (for example 30 days), vault their card and turn a draft order into an invoice. That saves your account managers a lot of manual work. More in our guide to Shopify B2B.

On Basic, Grow and Advanced you get up to 3 B2B catalogs. Unlimited catalogs, payment terms in the checkout itself and deposits on draft orders are for Shopify Plus.

Pitfalls with payment links

Orders with a manual payment method. On an existing order with, for example, bank transfer you can't just send the standard checkout link. Create a draft order instead or use Send invoice.

Prices and inventory. A draft order doesn't reserve stock until it's paid. For scarce products, include that in your follow-up.

Checkout customizations. The customer pays in your normal checkout. What you can change there is in customize the Shopify checkout.

What we learned in the Shopify Community

No checkout link for manual orders. Problem: a merchant wants to send a card payment link for orders with a manual payment method, but Shopify doesn't offer it. Solution: workarounds, such as Send invoice, duplicating the order as a draft, setting payment terms to due on receipt or a payment link email through Shopify Flow; no standard fix. Our take: create phone and quote orders as draft orders from the start, and you avoid this problem. Source: Shopify Community thread (January 2026).

How 6th Man helps

We set up B2B companies, payment terms and invoice flows, and automate reminders and follow-up with Shopify Flow. We do that in a custom Shopify store or as an extension to your existing store.