Now that you’ve got the basics of your WooCommerce online store done, it’s time to start thinking about the next level. There are so many more functionalities you can unlock. This blog post will provide inspiration for certain directions you can take, but keep in mind there’s lots more possible. One of the reasons you started using WordPress and WooCommerce.
Make sure to check out my previous article ‘You bring the ideas, WooCommerce brings the eCommerce magic’ as well as the info below is a follow-up to that article.
The WooCommerce Marketplace is packed with extensions that will make your life as online shopkeeper easier and more relaxed. But there are also extensions that unlock functionalities that take your shop to the next level. My all-time favourite WooCommerce extension that did this for me is WooCommerce Bookings. It’s an easy way for customers to book appointments or rent equipment or spaces.
What WooCommerce Bookings is all about
You know by now that WooCommerce Bookings is an extension or add-on for any WooCommerce store. Since it has ‘Bookings' in the name, it’s obvious that it is meant to make bookings or reservations.
But there are more use cases. Think of WooCommerce Bookings as an online calendar & booking system for your business.
So yeah, these options are also possible:
- Rental business, for example equipment rental. Customers can book a time slot for picking up the product and for dropping off, the system calculates the rental price based on the number of days hired.
- Product customisation & personalisation. You can have customers book a time slot for customising a product, like engraving of jewellery or custom signage on a cake. They can choose a date/time for pick-up or delivery.
- Event Ticketing. Sell timed access to events, webinars, live streams, workshops or classes . Customers simply book a slot to attend.
- Service Add-Ons. Bundle bookings with products, for example, buy a camera and book a photography lesson or purchase a grill and schedule a BBQ masterclass.
- Resource management for shared workspaces. If you run a co-working space or have hot-desking available for Digital Nomads, it’s an easy solution to have people book certain spaces or resources.
WooCommerce Bookings is easy to combine with other extensions, like WooCommerce Subscriptions, Memberships or Product Add-Ons, for extra functionality and to make your online dream possible.
To get started, go to your WooCommerce dashboard, click on ‘Extensions,’ and search for ‘WooCommerce Bookings.’ Purchase it, install it and you’ll find a new ‘Bookings’ tab in your WooCommerce menu. From there, you can create your first bookable product in just a few clicks.
How I have used WooCommerce Bookings
It’s easy to see all benefits and features of WooCommerce Bookings but how to use it in real life can be challenging when you’re still at the Brainstorm or Ideas Stage. So here are some examples and use cases of how I have used WooCommerce Bookings.
Use Case 1: Working Holiday Support Resources
A long time ago, my 123NZ travel blog for New Zealand (focused on the Dutch speaking market), sold a Working Holiday Support service. This service was focused on Dutch & Belgian travellers between 18 and 30 years of age (age range for the NZ working holiday visa) and provided them with lots of things to prepare for their trip, support for up to 12 months by a local NZ office via a partner organisation and more. People could start their trip at any day of the week, while the partner organisation had certain days allocated for their workshop and introductions to New Zealand session.
Having a bookable calendar functionality was key to provide customers with the easiest solution. Yes, it could have been a static product in a WooCommerce store but then customers couldn’t tailor their arrival & start date or add info like that. With WooCommerce Bookings customers got the most flexible and easy to use solution that gave them the power to select their arrival & start date based on availability and their travel plans. In the world of travel it’s important to provide up-to-date availability data so travellers can plan their trip worry-free.
Use Case 2: service slot bookings at a workshop
For a rental vehicle business that also offered motorhome services, I used WooCommerce Bookings to have a bookable calendar that was easy to use for customers and staff. As the resource Workshop had variable availability due to the seasonality that is inherent to a vehicle rental business – more workshop slots available in low season and few slots available in high season due to the workshop being busy with servicing their own fleet – WooCommerce Bookings made it all easy to manage.
Some of the WooCommerce Bookings magic explained (+ tips)
WooCommerce Bookings comes with a lot of bells and whistles so it can be daunting at first. But fear not, just start setting up your first bookable product or service, then have someone test it to see if it works as expected and what needs to be tweaked to make it perfect. Here are some of my tips.
Figure out the timeslots you need to set up
There are various ways to create the timeslots you need. There are some cool features in this extension that will help you out.
- Fixed time slots. This is the easiest slot series to set up and works great if you have fixed time slots like classes or workshops from X time to Y time.
- Customer-chosen time ranges. In this scenario your customers can select the timeslot they want, for example for the arrival/start time of accommodation bookings or equipment rental.
- Buffer times. This is a nice little feature to add breaks between bookings so you don’t end up with back-to-back bookings. Perfect if you need time to prepare for the next class.
Other necessary limitations to think of
Do you limit the number of participants per workshop or the number of customers arriving at the same time for accommodation? Then setting up the number of participants per timeslot is a great feature for you. It’s so easy to set up the minimum and maximum number of participants in WooCommerce Bookings.
You can even use it to set up things like group discounts or special pricing for certain combinations of customers, for example special pricing for a family with kids.
Use resources to avoid double bookings
By assigning resources to timeslots you can avoid double bookings. For example, in the use case of workshop services there was a maximum number of vehicles that could fit in the workshop. Resources were limited by that number, which meant that all bookable service options shared these resources so we never would have more vehicles booked on a specific timeslot than the workshop could handle. Easy as.
Automatic or manual approval
Another great feature of WooCommerce Bookings is the option to automatically approve bookings or do it manually. If for example you need to check things before a booking can be confirmed you set it to manual and you’ll have full control over which bookings to accept and which not.
Deposit vs full payment
The payment options are easy to set up by adding an extra extension called WooCommerce Deposits. That way customers can choose whether to pay the full amount at time of booking or only a deposit. Perfect in the world of travel for accommodation rental businesses.
How will you use WooCommerce Bookings?
The examples and use cases above are just the beginning. There are so many more cases where a bookable product or service option will add value to your online store. Feel free to ask questions via the comments sections about this WooCommerce extension. Happy to answer them and to get you started.
Join or Start the Discussion