How can I send a customer an email with a link to the payment gateways?

Question

We need to allow our customers to place a (pre)order, filling all the data at checkout

(product type and quantity, name, email, shipping/billing address, shipping method calculated)

except their payment information. We think in creating a new payment option labeled "reservation" or "pay on delivery" for that and limit the checkout only to this method (order/payment status will be placed "on hold", or "pending").

Once placed the order, it will take about 4-6 weeks for us to have the product ready for shipping.

(We don't need to charge our customers any down-payment). When it is ready, we'll enter Magento to un-hold the order and send an email to our customer, with a link to the payment page of our store, where he/she can find all other available payment options (PayPal, credit card, or check).

Is that possible with Magento? How can we do it, please?

Thank you in advance!

Answer 1

I would suggest that you could look into using the payment type invoice. Here you can send an invoice to the customer when you want it and include all the needed information regarding payment information.

I have used the Itabs_Invoice extension for this in the past and it works very well.