Equipment rental
Rent equipment through your Shopify store
Construction tools, camera gear, camping equipment, power washers. If you rent items that cost real money to replace, you need to know where each one is and what shape it came back in. Shopify doesn't track that on its own.
Why equipment rental needs more than Shopify
A customer books a pressure washer or a camera kit for a few days. You deliver it to the job site or their door, collect it when the rental ends, check it over, and send it out again. A $2,000 lens booked twice for the same weekend is a real loss, and when items come back damaged, you need a record.
Shopify handles product listings and payments, but its inventory only goes one way: items sell and stock goes down. Rental stock comes back. The same drill gets rented, returned and rented again, and Shopify has no built-in way to know it is due back. RentalFlow adds that, along with the rest of the rental toolkit.
Know where every piece of equipment is
Customers pick delivery and pickup dates on your product page. When they click Add to Cart, RentalFlow checks your stock for those dates. If every unit is already booked, the customer is asked to pick other dates, so your only pressure washer booked through Friday can't be booked again for Wednesday.
Five inventory states
Reserved, Out on Rent, Pending Inspection, Returned and Damaged.
Overdue tags
An order gets a red Overdue tag once its pickup date passes.
Change history
Edit dates, quantity or addresses with a required reason. RentalFlow rechecks stock and logs every change.
Calendar sync
Deliveries and pickups go to Google Calendar, Apple Calendar or Outlook, so your field team sees the schedule without Shopify access.
Record damage and missing parts when it comes back
Confirm a delivery and the tool is marked out on rent. When it comes back with a cracked housing or a missing battery, confirm the return, enter how many units came back, and tick Damaged, Lost/Stolen or Late Return with notes.
The units that came back are free to rent again, and lost units marked gone for good come off your count. The flags and notes stay on the booking. See how inventory and damage tracking works, and how RentalFlow prevents overbooking.
What RentalFlow doesn't do, and the Shopify workaround
Equipment rental often needs things RentalFlow doesn't have yet. Here is what is missing and how stores handle it in Shopify today.
- Deposits. RentalFlow doesn't take or refund deposits. Add a separate deposit product to the order, or use Shopify's own payment settings. Our guide to rental deposit management on Shopify covers the options, and RentalFlow vs Rental Booking & Deposits compares an app that takes deposits.
- Per-day pricing. The customer pays your Shopify product price. Price each item for your standard rental length. RentalFlow doesn't charge by the day.
- Hourly rentals. Bookings are by date, not by hour.
- Damage fees. RentalFlow flags damage but doesn't charge for it. Bill the customer through Shopify if you need to.
- In-store pickup. The form is built around delivery and pickup addresses. You can relabel fields and choose which are required, but there is no separate counter pickup mode.
Equipment types that work with RentalFlow
- Construction tools (drills, saws, compressors)
- Camera and photography gear
- Outdoor and camping equipment
- Power washers and cleaning equipment
- Landscaping and garden tools
- Audio and visual equipment for events
- Sporting goods and fitness equipment
- Specialty tools (metalworking, woodworking)
Questions
Related reading
Start renting equipment on Shopify
$39 a month after a 14-day free trial. Every feature included, with no per-rental charges.