How to sell products in your salon’s shop
11 min read
Salon Booking OS by OsDot™ includes a shop: you sell the products you use in the salon — shampoos, styling products, brushes, a dryer — on your website. Clients collect their order at the front desk, or you deliver or ship it at your own rates. They pay online, or in person where you allow it.
Video tutorial #
How to sell products in your shop with Salon Booking OS by OsDot™ 1.0.0
The shop’s pages in the administration area are in the Shop group: Shop orders, Products, Categories, Stock, Returns, Delivery and Shop reports. Each page shows only to a role that holds its permission (see Who does what below).
The shop on your website #
The website links to the shop only while something is on sale. The header and the footer then offer Shop, and the home page shows the section Salon care at home: by default up to four products marked Featured on the homepage — or, with none featured, the first products — and the button See all products. While nothing is on sale, nothing on the website links to the shop.
On a new site the section comes after Services & prices. Change its place and its heading under Website → Homepage.
The shop page shows your categories, a search box (Search the shop) and the products. A product shows its price (“From” when its variants cost different amounts), and Sale or Sold out where they apply. A product’s page shows its pictures, the variant to choose, the quantity and Add to cart; when five or fewer are left it says so.
Products and categories #
Shop → Products lists your products, with a search (name or SKU) and a filter by category. The column On the website tells you whether a product is shown. New product opens an empty product.
A product has a Name, a Web address (made from the name when you leave it empty), a Category, a Summary, a Description, a Tax class (from Payments → Taxes), an Order (smaller first) and Featured on the homepage. Its Status is:
- Draft — not on the website;
- Active — on the website, once it has an active variant;
- Archived.
Pictures: add them with Add a picture. Each picture needs its description, for people who cannot see it. The shop shows a product’s pictures in an upright frame, 4 wide by 5 high, and crops them to fill it: keep the product near the middle.
Variants. Once the product is saved, add its variants — “250 ml” and “1 litre”, or “33 mm” and “43 mm”; for a product sold in one form only, use the label “Standard”, and the website shows no choice. A variant has its Label, SKU, Price, Weight in grams (for shipping by weight), Track the stock (never sold beyond it), Low-stock alert at, and a status, Active or Archived.
Sale prices. On the product’s page, under Sale prices: choose the variant, type the Sale price, and when it runs (From, now when empty; Until, optional), then Set the sale price. End now stops a sale. The website shows the regular price struck through and a Sale mark.
Shop → Categories groups the products (“Hair care”, “Styling”, “Tools”). A category has a name, a web address, a description, an optional picture with its description, an order, and whether it is Shown on the website or Hidden (its products too). Each category has its own return window: Returns accepted within a number of days after the order is delivered or collected — 30 for a new category, 0 for no returns.
Discount codes come from Payments → Discounts. To limit a code to part of the shop, choose Only what is listed below and list the Discount key of a category (on the Categories page), a product, or a variant (both on the product’s page).
Stock #
Shop → Stock lists every active variant: On hand, Reserved (by orders not finished yet), Available and Alert at. The low ones come first, marked “low”.
Open a variant to adjust it. Choose Why — Received (add), Counted (set what is on hand), Damaged or lost (take away) or Other (add, or take away with a minus) — the Units and an optional Note, then Save the adjustment. Moves lists every change, newest first: sold, back in stock, and your adjustments.
The shop never sells more than you have. An order holds its units when it is placed; they are sold when it is paid, or when the client chooses to pay in person; they come back if the order closes unpaid or is cancelled, and when you receive a return and mark the items Back in stock.
When a variant’s available units fall to its alert level, your salon’s public contact e-mail address gets one e-mail (“Low stock”). The next comes only after the variant has been above the level again.
Collecting, delivery and shipping #
Shop → Delivery holds three ways to get an order. The rates are yours: there are no carriers’ live rates.
- Collect at the salon — on for a new site. Untick Buyers can collect their orders to stop it. The Note for the buyer (“Collect it at the front desk during our opening hours”) shows at checkout and in the e-mail when the order is ready. Save with Save pickup.
- Local delivery — a zone of postcodes in your salon’s own country: one a line, with a trailing
*for every postcode that starts the same way (627*). - Shipping — a zone of countries: two-letter codes, separated by commas, with
*for everywhere else.
A zone has a Name (the client sees it) and a rate: A flat fee, or By weight (shipping only) with Weight bands, one a line (“1000: 4.50” means up to 1,000 g for 4.50). It may have a Minimum order and a Free over amount. In a local delivery zone you may tick Buyers may pay on delivery (local delivery only). On turns a zone on or off.
Paying when collecting is off on a new site. Turn it on under System → Payment options → Pay at pickup (pickup orders); clients see it as Pay when you collect. What clients are told about it, and about paying on delivery, goes in the fields under it. The page is the owner’s.
How clients buy #
- On a product’s page the client chooses the variant and the quantity, then Add to cart. Your cart lets them change quantities (Update the cart) or Remove an item; delivery, discount codes and taxes come at checkout. They continue with Checkout.
- Your details: name, e-mail address and phone (optional), and How you get it — Collect at the salon (free, with your note) or Delivery to an address, with the address. A discount code can go in here too.
- Code (only a client who is not signed in): they press Send me a code, and type the 6-digit code that reaches their e-mail address — as when booking — then Check the code.
- Review: the items, the ways to get the order to that address with their cost, a discount code (Apply), their details and the total — goods, discount, delivery, taxes. Place the order.
- Payment: the payment page offers the online payment methods you set up (Stripe, PayPal, Razorpay — each only for a currency it accepts) and, under Or pay in person, Pay when you collect or Pay on delivery where you allow them.
Once the order is confirmed — paid, or to be paid in person — the client gets an e-mail with the order and a link to the order’s own page. There they see where to collect it (“Collect at” your salon’s name) or where it is sent, follow the order, pay if it still waits for payment (Pay or choose how to pay), and ask for a return. A client who signs in on your website finds their orders under My orders in their account menu, including those placed as a guest with the same e-mail address.
Orders #
Shop → Shop orders lists the orders, newest first, with how many are to prepare, ready for pickup and on their way. Filter them by status. The administration area and the client use different words for the same steps:
| Status in Shop orders | The client reads | Your next step |
|---|---|---|
| Waiting for payment | Waiting for payment | the client pays, or chooses to pay in person |
| To prepare | Confirmed | Ready for pickup; or Out for delivery (local delivery) or Shipped (shipping) |
| Ready for pickup | Ready to collect | Collected |
| Shipped | Out for delivery, or On its way | Delivered |
| Delivered | Collected, or Delivered | — |
| Cancelled | Cancelled | — |
An order moves to To prepare when it is paid, or when the client chooses to pay in person. Open an order for its buyer, items, payment and history, and its Next step:
- Ready for pickup e-mails the client that the order is ready to collect.
- Out for delivery and Shipped take an optional Carrier, Tracking number and Tracking page (an
https://address), and e-mail the client. The order’s page then shows the tracking, with Follow the parcel when you gave the page. - Collected or Delivered finishes the order. If it is still to be paid, the page shows the amount: handing it over records that payment, with an optional Payment reference. Nobody records a payment for their own order.
- Cancel the order (while it has not left) asks Why. The reason is kept in the order’s history, and the client reads it in the e-mail that the order is cancelled and on the order’s page. A paid order is refunded in full, and its units go back into stock.
Every shop order is also under Payments → Orders, with its payments and refunds; the order’s page links to it (payments and refunds).
Returns #
A client asks for a return from the order’s page, once the order is collected or delivered and while the return window is open: Return items, then how many of each item and Why are you returning them?, then Ask for the return. Your salon’s public contact e-mail address gets an e-mail (“Return asked for”).
Under Shop → Returns, filtered by status (To decide, Waiting for the items, To refund, Refunded, Rejected), open the return:
- Approve, with an optional note for the client (where to send the items), or Reject, saying why. The client gets an e-mail either way.
- When the items are back, untick Back in stock for anything you cannot sell again, then The items are back.
- Refund. Leave the amount empty to refund what was paid for the returned items, or type another amount. The client gets the refund e-mail from Payments.
The client’s order page shows each return and where it is.
Shop reports #
Shop → Shop reports shows a period — the last 30 days unless you choose From and To (UTC days, both included) and Show. It counts the orders that were paid or placed to be paid in person: their goods, discounts, delivery fees, taxes, totals and refunds, and the ways they were received; cancelled unpaid orders are counted apart. Below come the orders By day and the Best sellers. Download the orders (CSV) saves the period’s orders.
The shop’s e-mails #
To the client:
- the order confirmed — its items, how they get it and the total;
- ready to collect, with your pickup note;
- on its way — the carrier and the tracking number;
- cancelled — and, for a paid order, that the payment is being refunded;
- the return approved (with your note), or not accepted (with your reason).
Payment receipts and refund notices come from Payments, as for deposits; a receipt says what was paid for.
To your salon’s public contact e-mail address: a new shop order, a return asked for, low stock — each with a button to the page in the administration area.
The e-mails about an order’s progress carry a See your order button that opens the order’s page. The e-mails go out once the site’s e-mail is set up (see Messages, reminders, text messages and push), in your website’s look.
Who does what #
| Permission | Opens | By default |
|---|---|---|
| See and fulfil shop orders | Shop orders: ready, shipped, handed over, cancelled | the owner, the manager / front desk |
| Accept, reject and receive shop returns | Returns | the owner, the manager / front desk |
| Adjust shop stock | Stock | the owner, the manager / front desk |
| Edit shop products, categories and sale prices | Products, Categories | the owner |
| Change shop delivery and pickup | Delivery | the owner |
| See shop reports | Shop reports | the owner |
Three steps also need a Payments permission:
- setting or ending a sale price — Manage discount codes and sale prices (the owner);
- refunding a return, and cancelling a paid order — Refund payments (the owner);
- handing over an order still to be paid — Record a payment taken at the salon (the owner, the manager / front desk).
Give a role more under People → Roles and permissions (the group Shop). System → Payment options is the owner’s.