Instagram finds the customer; your website closes the sale. If the only way to book is a message, you are answering "is this available on the 14th in a size 8?" at 11 pm and losing the ones you answer too late. An online booking page answers that question for you.
What the customer needs to see
- Dates first. A date picker with blocked days greyed out.
- Then sizes. Chips for each size, showing only those free for the dates.
- The price for those dates, including any longer tier, before they commit.
- The deposit or hold amount, clearly stated.
- The return date, after your closed-day rules, so Monday means Monday.
Then checkout: name, contact, card, the rental agreement to sign, and a confirmation email. No messages needed.
Embed, do not redirect
Sending customers to another site to book breaks the brand and the funnel. Embed the catalogue and the booking flow in your own website with a script or an iframe, styled to your colours and fonts. The embed reads the same availability as your portal and the marketplace, so a booking from the site, from the marketplace and from the shop floor can never collide.
Share Marketplace's embeds run on Squarespace, Wix, Shopify, WordPress and plain HTML pages, and the size chips and blocked dates come from the same units the portal uses.
Product deep links from Instagram
Every dress on your site should have its own URL so a post can link straight to it. When the post says "the Petra dress, link in bio", the link should land on the Petra dress with the date picker ready, not on the home page. Deep links also let Google index each dress, which is where searches like "rent Reformation dress" come from.
Pending or instant?
Two models:
- Instant booking. The customer pays and the dress is theirs. Best for boutiques with clean stock records.
- Request to book. The booking is pending until you approve it; the card is held. Useful when you want to check a piece before confirming, or for high-value designer stock.
Choose per store, and keep the customer informed either way.
Pickup, delivery and try-ons
Offer pickup by default, and delivery where it makes sense. A try-on appointment can be a booking on its own or a showing added to a rental booking. Whichever, the customer should see the option at checkout, not discover it later.
What to put in the confirmation
Dates, size, pickup window, return window and the late fee, the deposit or hold amount, the agreement they signed, and how to reach you. A reminder the day before pickup and the day before return finishes the job.
Checklist
- Catalogue embedded on your own site with dates-then-sizes
- One URL per dress, linkable from Instagram
- Deposit or hold at checkout, agreement signed online
- Instant or request-to-book, set per store
- Confirmation and reminder emails automatic
The dress and wardrobe rental software page has the storefront detail, and tracking sizes explains what makes the size chips accurate.