In this post, we take a look at how you can sell time bookings and appointments through Shopify. This means that customers can pick a time and/or date in a calendar, and pay via Shopify’s checkout to complete their registration for the appointment. Shopify has a number of apps that can help enable calendar bookings or date pickers so that registrations can be completed on your store, rather than using or going to a third-party calendar provider.

Time bookings and appointments: Products and services

There are a number of different products and services you can sell via appointments or time bookings. Some products include:

vehicles – you can rent out cars, boats, etc.
equipment – like heavy machinery, snowblowers, other specialized equipment
space – like apartments, rooms, meeting spaces, convention halls

You can also provide services for which you charge customers. This can include one-on-one consulting or training, group courses and lessons, services at a physical location, etc.

Time bookings and appointments: Apps

You can enable bookings on your Shopify store using a number of apps. One of the popular apps on Shopify is BookThatApp. The app is free to use for up to 10 products or bookings. Once you install the app, you will be taken to the app dashboard with an overview of the calendar.

You can link products with the app to make them bookable and display booking options in different formats. You can create a product in your Shopify store and import it into BookThatApp to make it bookable by defining different parameters.

Set parameters for your Shopify products

In addition, you can assign blackout days, resources in your organization to certain bookings, locations, opening hours, and more. The various display options allow you to customize the layout of the app based on the type of product you’re selling.

For the calendar and date-picker to appear on your store, you will have to add some code to the template files. There are installation guides in the app dashboard, or you can reach out to the developers for installation help for a fee.

Take a look at the demo store for BookThatApp to see the various options in which you can display booking options on product pages or standalone forms.

If you only want a calendar on the store where customers can book time with you, you can use the Appointment Booking app. The app allows your customers to book times without the need for checkout. This can be complimentary to your products, for example, fitting services, reservations, etc.

Time bookings and appointments: Summary

You can start your own version of bookings like Airbnb, car/boat/equipment rentals, meeting room/space rentals, or consulting services through online time bookings. Integrate that with Shopify to charge customers when they book to get better commitment and upfront payments. Shopify has a number of options to allow time bookings and appointments through different apps.

Do you currently sell times or appointments on Shopify? Please tell us about your experience in the comments.