In-store appointments from your online shop: how to set them up

A customer looks at a mattress, sofa or bike in your online shop but wants to try it before buying. They drive to the store – and the model isn't on display, or the advisor is busy with someone else. Booking a visit right from the product page solves this: the customer picks a time and you know in advance what they want to see.

Why an online shop needs in-store appointments too

For goods people need to see or try, the physical store still decides:

48% of shoppers prefer to buy home furnishings in store; only 28% prefer online (BigCommerce, 3,007 US shoppers, 2024; source: businesswire.com).
Buyers who lay on a mattress in the store for at least 10 minutes were very satisfied in 72% of cases; without trying it, only 62% (Consumer Reports, 5,900 buyers; source: furnituretoday.com).

Your online shop brings the customer in, but the decision is often made in the store. Booking from the shop connects the two.

Where to put the button in your online shop

Below “Add to cart” as a discreet row, for example “Try it in store – pick a time”. Buying stays the main action.
Only on products you have in store or can bring in – for example just one brand or category.
In the theme, not in the product description. Descriptions end up in product feeds for comparison sites.
Without leaving the shop. Booking should open in a window on the page so the customer keeps their cart.

What carries over to the booking

Resovu reads the product name and code from the page – from the platform's data (Shopify, WooCommerce, Shoptet) or from schema.org structured data, which most online shops have. If the customer chose a variant (size, firmness, colour), it adds it with its code.

The customer sees the product in the booking and confirmation; you see it in the new-booking e-mail and in your admin with a link to the page. Resovu can also pre-fill it into your questionnaire, for example a “What would you like to try?” field.

Setup in 4 steps

Create a service, for example “In-store consultation”. Priced at 0, it shows as “Free”.
Set your advisors' working hours and a minimum notice – say 2 days, so you have time to bring the item from the warehouse.
In Settings → Form fields, add your questions and switch on “Pre-fill from the web page” for a text field.
Copy the “Booking for a product or page” code and paste it into your shop's theme.

Tracking and reminders

If your shop uses Google Analytics 4 or Meta Pixel, the widget sends them a conversion after each booking – so you see how many store visits your online shop brought. E-mail reminders (all plans) and SMS reminders (from the Starter plan, through your own SMS provider) reduce forgotten visits.

Frequently asked questions

Will the customer leave my online shop? No. Booking opens in a window right on the product page, and after closing it the customer is back at the cart.

Does Resovu know which variant the customer chose? Yes – on Shopify, WooCommerce and Shoptet it takes the chosen variant with its code. On other platforms it takes the product name and code from the page.

Will the button end up in my product feed? No, as long as the code is in the shop's theme and not in the product description.

How much does it cost? Product-linked booking and the on-site window are in every plan, Free included. There is no commission on bookings. Online card payments only carry the per-plan fee (0–1 %) plus Stripe's fees.

Read more about appointments for retail on Appointment booking for shops and showrooms.