A merchant is researching solutions to manage a storage unit rental business alongside e-commerce sales on Shopify. They need an app combination that handles three specific requirements:
Key Requirements:
Storage units must be booked via draft orders (not direct checkout), requiring customers to complete a form first
Recurring billing: 3 months paid upfront, then automatic monthly/weekly charges until the unit is vacated
Restricted product access: certain items in the shop should only be visible to current storage unit renters
Recommended Approach:
One responder (Chris from BookThatApp) suggests combining multiple apps:
Use a static contact form for initial rental inquiries
BookThatApp can automatically create draft orders after booking confirmation
Add a separate recurring billing/membership app for ongoing charges (Shopify doesn’t natively support this)
Use access restriction apps like Locksmith to limit product visibility to specific customer groups
Alternative Solution:
Another suggestion involves sending automated reminders at rental period end with incentives to extend directly on the website, though this may not fully address the recurring billing requirement.
The discussion remains open as the merchant evaluates which app combination best fits their workflow.
Summarized with AI on November 22.
AI used: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.
I am doing research for a customer. They are looking to start a storage unit rental business but also sell items so the e-commerce functionality of Shopify is needed as well.
I know I won’t find an app specifically for storage units but I thought maybe using one of the rental apps should do the trick. However I am not sure which one. I was looking at Izzy Rent but don’t think it has everything that’s needed:
the storage units will need to be booked through a draft order, client doesn’t want everyone to be able to book, they will need to fill a form and after approval a draft order will be sent
rental should be ongoing, 3 months are paid in advance and then every subsequent month/week is charged until the storage unit is vacated
certain products in the shop should be available only for people who are currently using the storage unit
Any idea what app will be able to help with this? I am thinking I might end up a combination of a rental app and a membership app to achieve all of this.
This workflow can definitely be achieved using a combination of apps. I would recommend using a static contact form to capture the initial rental inquiry. Once the booking is confirmed, you can create a booking and send the customer a draft order. BookThatApp, for example, supports automatically creating a draft order as part of the booking process.
Shopify doesn’t support recurring billing out of the box but there are recurring billing or membership apps that support this requirement. Alternatively if you don’t want to use an app, what we’ve seen some merchants do is send an automated reminder at the end of the rental period with an incentive to extend directly on their website.