"RuffRuff 予約販売" helps you reduce lost sales opportunities that occur when items are out of stock, before a new product launch, or while waiting for restock.
It lets you implement pre-order sales on your Shopify store surprisingly easily, letting you register an unlimited number of pre-order products and accept an unlimited number of pre-orders. It can also prevent customers from ordering pre-order and regular products in the same order, and can send restock notifications when the arrival date is undetermined.
It also has many unique features not found in other pre-order apps, such as "deferred payment," which lets you collect payment before the product ships.
What do you want to sell on your Shopify store?
Some of you may be thinking of selling services rather than physical goods — things like massage, yoga lessons, hotel stays, or sauna sessions.
In this article, we'll introduce how to accept appointment and store-visit bookings for services like these on your Shopify site, along with Shopify apps that make a booking system possible.
If you want to pre-sell products before launch, or sell out-of-stock products before they're restocked, the blog article below introduces pre-order apps. Feel free to use it as a reference.
Example industries that need booking
- Lessons, such as yoga classes or cooking classes
- Tourism, such as ryokan or hotels
- Activities, such as saunas or camping
- Rentals, such as bag rental or camera rental
- Beauty services, such as hair salons or nail salons
- Cleaning services, such as AC cleaning or house cleaning
- Events, such as fireworks shows or concerts
and more
How to accept bookings on your Shopify site
Using a form
This method accepts bookings using a form tool such as Google Forms.
It has the benefit of being low-cost, but the downside is that you can't automatically manage availability.
Communicating directly by phone or email
This method involves listing a phone number or email address on your Shopify site and accepting bookings when customers contact you directly.
There's no cost involved in accepting bookings this way, but the downside is that communicating directly with customers takes a lot of time and effort.
Using an external booking service
This method uses a booking service such as "Jalan" or "Hot Pepper Beauty" to accept bookings. You add an external link on your Shopify site that goes directly to the booking service, and use text to guide customers to use the external booking service.
This greatly reduces the effort of accepting bookings, and lets you take advantage of the external booking service's customer-acquisition power. On the other hand, the downsides are that usage fees can add up, and you can't manage customers centrally on your Shopify site.
Using a Shopify app
This method uses a Shopify app that enables booking.
It greatly reduces the effort of accepting bookings and is relatively low-cost. On the other hand, you don't get the customer-acquisition benefit that comes with an external booking service, so you'll need to handle customer acquisition yourself.
The blog article below introduces ways to acquire customers on Shopify. Feel free to use it as a reference.
3 booking apps (booking systems)
Sesami
Sesami is one of the most popular booking apps for Shopify.
You can freely customize how bookings are accepted, and it also integrates with various Shopify apps such as Klaviyo and Shopify Flow.
Sesami pricing plans
| Plan name | Price | Plan details |
|---|---|---|
| SMALL | $19/month |
100 bookings/month 5 team member accounts 1 Sesami Flow (automation) Google Calendar integration Shopify POS integration |
| MEDIUM | $49/month |
All SMALL features 500 bookings/month 10 team member accounts 3 Sesami Flows (automation) Group bookings |
| PRO | $129/month |
All MEDIUM features 1,000 bookings/month 20 team member accounts 6 Sesami Flows (automation) Klaviyo integration Reporting feature Hide branding |
| PREMIUM | $299/month |
All PRO features 1,000+ bookings/month 40 team member accounts 9 Sesami Flows (automation) Checkout script verification Priority support |
For more details on Klaviyo, check out the blog article below.
Tipo Appointment Booking
Tipo Appointment Booking is free to use and offers a rich set of features as a booking app.
You can also freely customize the design of the booking form to match your Shopify site's brand design. It integrates with various Shopify apps such as Google Calendar, Klaviyo, Omnisend, and Zapier.
Tipo Appointment Booking pricing plans
Free
For more details on Omnisend, check out the blog article below.
Sakurabook
Sakurabook is a domestically developed booking app made by a Japanese company. It integrates with Zoom and Google Calendar. The Google Calendar integration lets you check bookings directly in Google Calendar, and the Zoom integration is handy for hosting online lessons or other online events.
Its admin dashboard and support are also available in Japanese, making it a great choice for those who aren't comfortable with English.
Sakurabook pricing plans
| Plan name | Price | Plan details |
|---|---|---|
| Light | $9.90/month |
200 bookings/month Space booking Service booking Booking wizard widget Manage bookings from a dashboard Link staff to services Flexible booking times and pricing Zoom / Google Calendar |
| Standard | $19.90/month |
All Light plan features 500 bookings/month |
| Premium | $29.90/month |
All Standard plan features 1,000 bookings/month |
| Business | $89.90/month |
All Premium plan features 3,000 bookings/month |
Conclusion
In this article, we explained how to accept appointment and store-visit bookings on your Shopify store, and introduced three specific booking apps. Each app has its own strengths, so it's important to choose the one that best fits your industry and needs. For example, "Sakurabook" is a good fit if you need a domestically developed app with Japanese-language support, "Tipo Appointment Booking" is great if you want to get started easily for free, and "Sesami" is well suited if you value advanced customization and integrations.
Beyond streamlining bookings, strengthening customer acquisition and customer management can help you reach more customers and grow your business. Shopify offers plenty of apps beyond booking apps that support boosting sales and improving operational efficiency, so be sure to make use of them.
For more detailed information and recommended apps, check out the article below as well.
Use Shopify to smoothly manage bookings and deliver your services, and expand the possibilities for your business!
