Shopify: Show a Payment Method Only to Tagged Customers

You want to offer bank transfer or pay by invoice to customers you know: wholesale accounts, schools and councils, a few regulars who order every month. You do not want every first-time buyer to pick it, take the goods and never pay. In Shopify, though, a manual payment method you turn on is shown to everyone.

This guide covers the two ways to limit a payment method to certain customers: Shopify B2B, for real trade accounts, and a rule on a customer tag, for everything else. It also covers the setup mistakes that hide a method from the very customers who should see it.

Why every buyer sees every method

Payment methods in Shopify are store-wide. You activate them in Settings > Payments, and a manual method such as bank deposit or “Pay by invoice” appears for any buyer whose checkout it applies to (Shopify Help Center: Manual payment methods). There is no field on the method for customer tags, login or order count.

Option 1: Shopify B2B for trade accounts

If the customers you trust are businesses, Shopify’s native B2B features are the first place to look. Since April 2026 they are available on Basic, Grow and Advanced as well as Plus. You set each trade customer up as a company with its own locations, catalogs and payment terms, such as net 30 or due on fulfillment. The buyer checks out for the company and pays later under those terms. Our Shopify B2B wholesale setup guide covers the setup and the plan limits.

B2B fits when you want terms, company accounts and wholesale prices. It does not fit everyone you trust: a regular retail customer, a school ordering once a year, or a store where you do not want to maintain companies. That is where a customer tag comes in.

Option 2: a rule on a customer tag

A customer tag is a label on the customer record in Shopify admin, such as invoice-ok or wholesale. You add it by hand, in bulk from the customer list, or with Shopify Flow. Tags change nothing at checkout on their own, but a payment customization can read them. Payment customizations are Shopify Functions from apps that hide, rename or reorder payment methods at checkout, and you manage them under Settings > Payments > Payment customizations (Shopify Help Center: Checkout customization).

The rule you want reads backwards from how most people say it. Not “show bank transfer to tagged customers”, but:

Hide bank transfer when the customer does not have the tag invoice-ok, or when the buyer is not logged in.

Both halves matter. Guests are not logged in, so checkout has no customer and no tags for them, and a tag check alone may not match them at all. Adding “not logged in” makes sure the method is hidden for guests too.

Set it up step by step

1. Choose one tag and write down what it means, for example invoice-ok: approved to pay by bank transfer. One tag per payment rule keeps it readable.
2. Tag the customers. Start with the accounts you already trust. Add the tag to new ones when you approve them.
3. Make sure they log in. A customer tag only reaches checkout when the buyer is logged in to their customer account. Tell approved customers to sign in before ordering.
4. Create the hide rule for buyers without the tag or not logged in, matching the method by the name buyers see at checkout.
5. Test three buyers: a tagged customer logged in, the same customer as a guest, and an untagged customer. Only the first should see the method.

Mistakes that hide the method from the wrong people

• Matching the wrong name. Buyers see the name you gave the method, not “Manual payment”. Copy it exactly, or match on a word it contains, such as transfer.
• Translated names. If your checkout runs in several languages and the method has another name in one of them, a rule on the English name will miss it there. Test each language.
• Tag typos. invoice_ok and invoice-ok are different tags. Pick one spelling and use the customer list filter to check.
• US and Canada below Plus. In those countries, payment customizations below Plus apply to non-credit-card methods only. Bank transfer and invoice methods are not card methods, so this rule works; a rule meant to hide card payments would not.

Where Payora: Hide Payment Methods fits

Payora: Hide Payment Methods is an app that hides, renames or moves payment methods at checkout, with rules that run as a Shopify Function and need no theme changes.

• Customer conditions. Customer tag, Customer login (logged in or not) and B2B buyer (checks out for a company in Shopify B2B), next to cart, product, delivery and order history conditions.
• Match by the name buyers see. Name contains or Name is exactly, compared without letter case against the name shown at checkout.
• Rename and move. Give a method a clearer name for your approved customers, with a name per language in English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch and Polish, or move it to the top of the list.
• Simulator. Try a tagged customer, an untagged one and a guest before the rule goes live.

For the bank transfer rule above: add Customer tag with has none of invoice-ok and Customer login with is not logged in, choose Any condition matches, and hide the method with Name contains transfer. A customer tag condition only matches logged-in buyers, which is why the login condition is needed for guests.

The app cannot add a payment method or change a price; it works on the methods your store already offers. Each store can have up to 200 rules, and Shopify limits functions to 100 customer tags. See the app’s page.

FAQ

Can I show a payment method only to certain customers in Shopify? Not from the payment settings. Use Shopify B2B payment terms for company accounts, or a payment customization that hides the method for customers without a tag.

Why can a tagged customer not see the method? They are probably checking out as a guest. Tags only reach checkout when the customer is logged in.

Do I need Shopify Plus for this? No. Payment customizations from apps work below Plus. In the US and Canada, only non-credit-card methods can be customized below Plus.

Can I use Shopify Flow to tag customers automatically? Yes. Flow can add a customer tag when a condition is met, for example after a set number of paid orders. Check the rule before you let it run on its own.