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Look closely when you next shop online and you’ll realize that you can get anything for an EMI. A phone, a collection of rare books, jewellery and even earphones. That’s one side of the story.
The other side of the story is your own business. How often have you had to let your event run at half the capacity because there were last-minute cancellations? It’s both a monetary and a logistic loss. Don’t you wish there was some way you could guarantee customers showing up?
The one common solution to both of these problems of ecommerce store owners lies in the Deposits plugin. The ability to pay and accept deposit amounts as payments is beneficial for both the admin and the customer. So why would you not install it on your WooCommerce Store?
At $39 for a single store, it’s super affordable for even the smallest businesses, packed with features and flexibility, easy to install and use and promises to increase sales. Wondering if your online store is really the right fit? Find out, from this list of ecommerce segments and businesses that have used our plugin in the past or continue to do so.
1. Gaming & Sports Businesses
Imagine you run a laser tag arena, an escape room or high-end sports businesses such as scuba diving, paragliding or hot-air balloon rides. If customers don’t show up as planned, you risk either killing the vibe or suffering monetary losses. It’s best if you enable a deposits plugin, where your customers can pay a part of the amount at while booking and the rest at the venue.
Several of our customers such as Monkey Escape Room, an escape room in Barcelona, Snookball, a gaming and sports bar in Richland Hills, Texas, and The Adventure Club, a scuba-diving center ion Phi Phi islands in Thailand have used the Deposits plugin. Similarly, there is Kite Surf Travel, an adventure travel company in Mauritius.
2. IT & Web Services
If you are offering high-end IT solutions such as cloud services, security, maintenance or consulting or graphic and web solutions, this plugin is of utmost importance. Both your time and knowledge are precious, and it’s best to get customers to commit to them as soon as possible. Because these are priced on the higher side, you could also create payment plans such that your customers can pay you as and when a section of the work is completed. Our client, e89.it, from Italy have used it.
3. Salon and Services
Running a salon can be very demanding. Customers want the best services and they want them now. You can plan and plan, use booking plugins or keep registers, but chances are high that some customer or another will cancel and your time will go to waste.
To avoid losses like these, get customers to pay a minuscule amount at the time of booking so that they are incentivized to keep their commitment. That’s what Mira’s Eyelashes, an eyelash-extension store in Vancouver has done.
4. Travel & Tours
From the days of international trips to now tours of all kinds, be it heritage tours, birding tours or themed tours, travelling has come a long way. Backpackers and trekkers also make some bookings before setting off. Advance payments were always a part of this industry, but now you can simply integrate it on your online WooCommerce store and not have to bother about keeping track of who paid what and when.
Some of our customers in this segment include:
Advantoures, tour operators in Barcelona.
Camperpunt van Herpen BV, providers of camper vans in Berlicum, Netherlands.
Lee Hoy Photography, which operate the Big Bend birding and photo tours, in Texas.
5. Party Rental Companies
The business models of rental companies often rely on playing middlemen. You get an order, you contact your vendors for the required products and finish it. Now imagine, after your vendor has sent the goods, the customer cancels! Either you find a party with the exact same needs, or you bear your loss. Best to take a deposit, especially when you often have to give a deposit yourselves.
Even if you stock your own party equipment, this is beneficial, as you can make policy changes with respect to refundable and non-refundable deposits and minimize losses in case of last-minute cancellations.
Take a cue from Peabody Party Rental in Birmingham.
6. Studios, Events & Workshops
Has it ever happened that your photography studio, conference or yoga workshop was overbooked and you had to decline one or more of your customers. And then, the customer who did get to book, cancelled it? Frustrating right? People tend to cancel less when there is money involved and it doesn’t take a genius to know that. Use the Deposits plugin to save yourself the hassle.
Our clients in this category include:
Laura Dark Photography, a photography studio in Ohio.
My Yoga, a yoga studio in Singapore.
GFA National Conference happening in January in Perth, Australia.
Workshop organizers, like Evryman, a “benefit corporation that brings men together to exercise their emotions”.
7. Bakery
This is really obvious, if you think about it. Who wants to have a bridal cake waiting to be sold just because the wedding got called off? On a serious note, we know that no bakery will make one without a deposit. All we are saying is that there is now an easier way to do it.
Check out Amaranto Cakes in Victoria, Australia, which uses the Deposits plugin for local pick up of their custom cakes orders. Amaranto Cakes also uses our Order Delivery Date plugin, a popular combination of used by WooCommerce store owners.
8. Hotels and Holiday Homes
A hotel-full of booked rooms on 24th August and then a hotel full of empty rooms on the designated date. Simply because you did not take a deposit and they could cancel. Okay, of course we are grossly exaggerating here but you get our point? So put your hotel online, and make life easier for you and your customers. Like Williamstone Farm Steadings, a farm stay in Scotland or The Room Key, holiday rentals in South Africa have done.
9. Niche, Custom & Luxury Products
Hand-made guitars, photobackpacks, hand-made pop-culture merchandise, craft beer or other drinks, or 3D sculptures, Lamborginis, first edition vinyls, vintage arcade games or original Star Wars figurines – the Deposits plugin for WooCommerce is your soulmate. When it comes to luxury, it has always been money first and your online store should be no exception.
Our customers include:
Little Crow Guitars, guitar-makers in Western Australia, which use two payment plans on their products. Oh, did we forget to mention that you can have different payment plans for different products too?
The Reformation Brewery based in Georgia.
10. Lifestyle Businesses
Be it furniture, jewellery, designer clothes or custom versions of all these, keep the Deposits plugin at hand. Create flexible payment plans depending on the product, such that both you and you customer are at ease.
Especially with furniture, if you have custom made something of specific dimensions, it is very difficult to resell it somebody else. And diamonds are everyone’s best friends except a merchants’, when they won’t sell. So be sure to not have your customers hiding under the proverbial desk when the time for payment comes.
Con-tempo, furniture sellers in Wiltshire, selling chairs and dining tables among several other items and also makes them to measurements.
Intirium Furniture from in UK.
Dress Troc, an online clothes store from France, which uses the plugin to allow customers to reserve items from the collection.
11. Online Courses
We think one way to curb the massive drop out rates of MOOCs is to have students follow a payment plan when they complete a portion of the lecture series. And the easiest way to do this is to use the Deposits plugin for WooCommerce.
Conclusion
As you have seen, taking a deposit and making payment plans is cheap and effective for businesses of all kinds. It is obvious why it is used most together with our Booking & Appointment Plugin for WooCommerce and also often the Order Delivery Date or Product Delivery Date plugin. If there is a booking, a deposit follows.
