ShopConnect Booking: Let Customers Schedule and Pay in Your Store

Overview

ShopConnect Booking lets your customers schedule a Mindbody appointment or class, based on real live availability, right on your Shopify product page, and pay at the same time. There is no separate booking site, no phone call, and no follow-up email to chase. The customer picks a real open time, checks out, and the booking is created in Mindbody automatically after payment. We call this pay then book.

It also works across multiple Mindbody locations from a single Shopify store, so a business with more than one site can sell all of them from one storefront and one cart.

In short:

Your customers book and pay in one step, on your store.
Availability is pulled live from your Mindbody, so the times and classes shown are real.
Bookings are created automatically after payment.
One store can serve many Mindbody locations.

How it works for your customer

Depending on what you sell, your customer will see one of three experiences on the product page. ShopConnect chooses the right one automatically based on the product.

Appointment booking

The shopper sees real open times pulled live from your Mindbody. They can optionally choose a practitioner, pick a time that works, add the product to the cart, and pay. The appointment is booked into Mindbody automatically once payment succeeds.

Service picker (multi-service packs)

Some products can be used for more than one kind of session, for example an appointment pack that covers a few different services. In that case the shopper first picks which service they want, and then sees the available times for that specific service. Everything else works the same way.

Class booking

For classes, the shopper sees your class schedule with the date, the number of spots left, and waitlist status. They pick the class they want and pay to enroll. If a class is full, they can join the waitlist where you allow it.

Here is a quick summary of what a shopper can book:

Experience	What the shopper sees	Good for
Appointment	Live open times, optional practitioner choice	Massages, facials, assessments, one-to-one sessions
Service picker	A choice of services, then live times for the one chosen	Packs and passes that cover more than one service
Class	A schedule with dates, spots left, and waitlist status	Drop-in classes, class packs, group sessions

Multiple locations, one store

If your business runs more than one Mindbody location, you can sell all of them from a single Shopify storefront. Each product in your store is tied to a specific location behind the scenes, and availability is always pulled from the correct location automatically.

For your customer, it simply works. They shop your store, add what they want to a single cart, and check out once. They never have to think about which location system a booking came from. For you, there is one store to manage instead of one per location.

Pay then book, and what happens if a booking cannot be completed

Booking happens only after a successful payment. Your customer chooses their time or class first, but the actual reservation in Mindbody is created after checkout completes. This keeps the experience clean and avoids holding slots for people who do not buy.

If a booking cannot be completed for any reason, for example the slot was taken in the seconds before checkout finished, the order is flagged so your staff can follow up with the customer and sort it out. There are no double charges and no silent failures. You always know when something needs a human touch.

Use cases

ShopConnect Booking fits a wide range of wellness and service businesses. A few common examples:

A spa selling appointments. Massages, facials, and consultations become bookable products. Clients pick a therapist and time and pay in one step.
A gym or studio selling classes. Drop-in classes and class packs show your live schedule with spots remaining, so members can grab a seat and pay on the spot.
A multi-location franchise. Sell every location from one Shopify store, with each product routing to the right site automatically.
Memberships and packages. Sell a package and let the customer book their first session right at checkout, instead of waiting for them to schedule later.
Mixed catalog stores. Sell retail products and bookable services side by side. Regular products check out as normal, and only bookable products show the scheduling experience.

Customizing which products are bookable

There are two ways booking gets applied to your products. Most businesses only ever use the first.

1. Automatic (default)

When your Mindbody services and products sync into Shopify, ShopConnect automatically tags which product variants are bookable and how. The booking experience simply appears on the right products, with the right locations and services already connected. Most businesses never need to touch anything here.

2. Manual control with metafields

For businesses that want to hand-pick or fine-tune what is bookable, each Shopify product variant carries a small set of booking fields called metafields, grouped in a namespace called shopconnect. Because ShopConnect sets these up as proper metafield definitions, you can view and edit them right in your Shopify admin, on the product variant, just like any other product detail.

Here is what each field means and what to put in it:

Field	What it does
`booking_mode`	Set to `class` to make the variant book a class. Leave it empty for an appointment.
`session_type_id`	The Mindbody service (session type) an appointment should book, when the product maps to a single service.
`session_type_ids`	For a pack that covers several services, a JSON list of services (id and name). This is what makes the storefront show a service picker.
`location_id`	The Mindbody location the booking should go to.
`site_id`	The Mindbody site the booking should go to.

You would typically edit these only when you want manual control, for example:

To turn booking on or off for a specific product.
To point a product at a specific service or location.
When you run a manual sync and want to hand-match products to Mindbody services.

To be clear, these fields are normally filled in for you automatically. You only need this section if you want to take manual control of a specific product.

Requirements

Before booking can appear on your store, make sure you have:

An active Shopify store and a connected Mindbody account.
Your Mindbody services set up to allow online booking, with staff and availability configured.
At least one online, single-session pricing option on each appointment service you want to sell. This one matters: a service that only has memberships, contracts, or multi-session packages attached will not show a booking option until a single-session online price is added. This is the most common reason a service does not appear.
A ShopConnect subscription with the Booking option enabled.

Pricing

Booking is an add-on to your ShopConnect subscription:

$99 per month, which includes 100 bookings per month.
Additional bookings are $49 per 100 per month.

A booking is counted when an appointment or class is successfully reserved in Mindbody after checkout. Bookings are pooled across all of your Mindbody locations, so multi-location businesses draw from one shared monthly allotment.

Setup

Getting booking live on your store takes just a few steps:

Enable the Booking option on your ShopConnect plan.
Confirm your Mindbody services allow online booking and that each appointment service has a bookable, single-session online price.
Let ShopConnect add the booking experience to your store. It adds the scheduling experience and tags your bookable products for you.
Check a product page on your storefront to see booking in action.
Optionally fine-tune with metafields if you want manual control over specific products.

FAQ

When is the booking actually created? After payment. Your customer chooses their time or class during shopping, and the reservation is created in Mindbody automatically once checkout completes successfully.

What happens if a booking fails? The order is flagged so your staff can follow up with the customer. There are no double charges and no silent failures, so you always know when something needs attention.

Can customers book without a Mindbody account? Yes. Customers book directly through your Shopify store. They do not need to log in to Mindbody separately.

Can I sell more than one location? Yes. A single Shopify store can sell every one of your Mindbody locations, with each product routed to the correct location automatically. One store, one cart, one checkout.

How do I control which products are bookable? It is automatic by default. When your services and products sync, ShopConnect tags what is bookable for you. If you want manual control, you can edit the booking metafields on a product variant in your Shopify admin.

Why is a product not showing a booking option? Usually one of these:

The product is not a bookable Mindbody service.
The Mindbody service has no single-session online price attached (add one and it will appear).
The product just synced and is still populating its booking details.
A short storefront cache delay. Wait a few minutes and try the page again.

Does booking work for both appointments and classes? Yes. ShopConnect Booking supports appointments, multi-service packs with a service picker, and classes with live spots and waitlist status.

How much does Booking cost? The Booking add-on is $99 per month and includes 100 bookings per month. Additional bookings are $49 per 100 per month. Contact us to enable Booking on your plan.