Industries · Services
Online catalog, bookings, and product sales for salons.
A salon sells services AND products. WhatsMenu gives you a service menu (haircut, colour, treatment) priced per tier, a booking page where clients pick their stylist and take a chair time that is genuinely free, retail product sales (shampoo, styling tools), and a loyalty programme that brings regulars back. One catalog, two revenue streams, no per-booking fee.
Where salons get stuck online
Five frictions specific to running a salon online.
Stylist preference matters but isn't bookable
Clients want a specific stylist (Sarah for colour, John for cuts). Without per-stylist booking, the chat goes "is Sarah available Saturday?" — every time.
Service prices vary by stylist seniority
Senior stylist haircut RM 120. Junior stylist haircut RM 80. Without a tiered structure, every quote is manual.
Retail products sit in a corner, not selling
You stock shampoo, styling tools, hair masks. Clients ask about them after the cut. Without an online store, they buy from the supermarket instead.
Cancellations and no-shows that lose revenue
Client books Saturday 2pm, doesn't show. The slot is lost. Without deposits or structured cancellation policy, the chair sits empty.
Repeat clients who deserve recognition
Your top regulars come monthly. They're profitable. They never get a thank-you, an early booking window, or a small discount — anything to keep them.
How WhatsMenu fits a salon
Five features matched to salon operations.
Clients book the chair themselves, at a time that is free
Each service carries its own length and price (junior RM 80, senior RM 120, master RM 180), plus any cleanup time you need between clients. The booking page offers only the times that are genuinely open, so Saturday never gets double-booked and the "do you have 2pm?" messages stop.
Learn more →Every stylist gets their own calendar
Mark who performs which service and clients pick Sarah for balayage or choose "No preference" so whoever is free gets it, spread evenly. Each stylist has their own working hours and their own leave, so booking Sarah at 2:00 never blocks John — and the Team tab draws the whole floor as one timeline.
Learn more →Reviews from real clients, in your dashboard
Registered clients can leave a star rating and comment from their order page once the booking is closed. Reviews land in your Reviews dashboard tied to the original visit — useful for spotting service quality by stylist / date and for identifying happy regulars to ask for Google reviews. Switch on storefront display and your rating and recent reviews appear below your catalogue.
Learn more →Online ordering for retail products
Stock the shampoos, styling tools, and hair masks as products in your storefront alongside services. Customers buy after their cut; some buy without coming in. Add a revenue stream that needs no extra labour.
Learn more →Loyalty points reward repeat clients
Customers earn points on services + products; redeem for discount or free add-on (deep treatment, blow-dry). Brings repeat clients back automatically.
Learn more →How a salon uses WhatsMenu through a typical week
- New client browses the service menu. Services carry their own length and price (junior RM 80 / senior RM 120 / master RM 180). Clients self-qualify and reach the booking page already knowing what it costs and how long it takes.
- She picks Sarah from the stylist cards. Team member cards show each stylist's photo and the services they perform. She picks Sarah, or takes "No preference" and gets whoever is free — no "is Sarah available?" DMs either way.
- She takes a slot on Sarah's calendar. The calendar shows only what Sarah genuinely has open, respecting her hours and her leave. She books 2pm Saturday and is confirmed on the spot, with an add-to-calendar button and a reminder the day before.
- Retail products sell at the chair-side moment. After the cut, Sarah recommends colour-protect shampoo. Client buys via the same storefront — Stock Management ensures the bottle is actually available. Add-on revenue with no extra labour.
- Loyalty points compound across services + products. Service spend + retail spend both earn points. Client redeems for a free treatment add-on next month. The cost of switching to a competitor goes up.
- Reviews + referrals close the flywheel. After the visit she leaves a 5-star review on her order page; you spot it in the dashboard, share it on social. Six months later she's referred two friends — they hit the storefront with built-in trust.
WhatsMenu vs salon booking platforms
Salon platforms (Fresha, Booksy, Vagaro) charge per-booking fees or marketplace commissions and centralise customer relationships. WhatsMenu gives you the same per-stylist calendar and keeps your customers, branding, and retail revenue in one place.
| What you get | Salon platforms (Fresha, Booksy, Vagaro) | Phone / WhatsApp DMs only | WhatsMenu |
|---|---|---|---|
| Per-booking cost | Subscription tiers (USD 25-100+/mo) + per-transaction fees on online deposits + marketplace commission on referred customers (up to 20% in some platforms). | Free in dollars; expensive in receptionist time. Every "what time?" answered manually. | Flat monthly subscription. Payment gateway fee only on online payments. No marketplace cut. |
| Customer relationship + retail upsell | Platform owns the calendar; retail product sales need a separate e-commerce tool. | Yours, but unstructured — repeat customer details live in your phone's contacts list. | Yours, calendar included. Customer phone, name, history in dashboard. Retail products sell on the same storefront — service + retail revenue tracked together. |
| Book by stylist | Native (it's their core feature). | Manual — "is Sarah free Saturday?" answered one DM at a time. | Native. Each stylist has their own calendar, hours and leave; clients pick a person or take "No preference". Stylist cards carry their photo, and a Digital vCard adds the full portfolio. |
| Branding on customer screen | Platform branding; your salon is one of thousands listed. | No web presence; everything in DMs. | Your subdomain, your logo, your colours, your stylists' work front-and-centre. |
| Loyalty programme | Available on higher-tier plans; platform-mediated. | Punch cards or memory. | Native Loyalty Points across services + retail. Per-category earn rates configurable. |
| Marketing reach | Strong — platform surfaces you to in-app browsers. | Word of mouth; whatever Instagram brings. | You drive traffic via Instagram, WhatsApp, signage, QR codes. |
| Best when | You want the platform to surface you to new customers and don't mind the per-booking economics. | You're a one-chair salon with mostly word-of-mouth regulars. | You have a built-in customer base via Instagram + WhatsApp and want to convert them to direct bookings + retail sales without paying per booking. |
Many salons use both: a platform listing for new-customer reach + WhatsMenu as the direct channel for regulars and retail. The retail-product margin alone often pays the WhatsMenu subscription several times over.
Recommended setup
Modes to enable
Features to enable
Frequently asked questions
Can clients book a specific stylist?
Yes, natively. Mark a service as performed by specific team members and tick who can do it. Clients then pick the stylist they want, or choose "No preference" and WhatsMenu books whoever is free, spreading those evenly across the team. Each stylist keeps their own calendar, their own working hours (including split shifts and days off) and their own leave, so booking Sarah at 2:00 never blocks John and nobody is offered while they are away. You can also reassign a booking to another stylist while confirming it.
Can I show stylist portfolios?
Yes. Stylist cards on the storefront carry each person's photo and open straight into booking with that stylist chosen. For the full story — specialties, portfolio gallery, years of experience — add a Digital vCard per stylist and link it from the service.
Can I sell retail products (shampoo, styling tools) alongside services?
Yes. List retail products in your storefront and keep services on the booking page — booking runs independently of the Ordering setting, so the Book button and stylist cards work whether you sell retail through a cart (Online Ordering) or run a catalog with WhatsApp orders (Online Catalog). Pick the mode that fits how you sell shampoo; bookings are unaffected either way.
How do I cut no-shows?
Start with reminders: every confirmed booking gets one automatically, 1 to 48 hours ahead, by WhatsApp or email. Each message carries a secure link the client can use to reschedule or cancel in two taps without calling, so they move the appointment instead of silently not turning up — and the freed chair time reopens for someone else at once. Mark the ones who still miss as no-shows (or let WhatsMenu flag them after a grace period); three or more in 90 days puts a warning badge on that client's next request. Deposits are possible too, but manual: send a payment link from the order page once the booking is confirmed. A per-service automated deposit split isn't shipped today.
How does loyalty work for service-based businesses?
Customers earn points on every paid order — services AND retail products. Set per-category earn rates under Loyalty > Points; build rewards (discount or store credit) under Loyalty > Rewards. Each redemption produces a single-use coupon the customer applies at checkout.
How does pricing work for a salon using WhatsMenu?
Flat monthly subscription. No per-booking or per-product fee, however many appointments you take. Payment-gateway processing fee only on online payments. Cheaper than building a salon website plus a booking system plus an e-commerce platform separately.
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Learn more →Open your salon online today.
Service tiers, per-stylist calendars, retail products, loyalty — all in one platform.
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