How to Use Shopify for Hair Salons
Why Shopify Makes Sense for Hair Salons
Hair salons aren't just service businesses anymore — most carry retail stock like shampoos, treatments, styling tools, and color products that clients want to buy between appointments. Shopify gives you a professional online storefront to sell those products around the clock, without relying solely on what moves off the shelf in your salon.
Beyond retail, Shopify handles digital gift cards and click-and-collect (local pickup) orders natively. That means clients can buy a gift card online for a friend, or order a product and grab it at their next appointment — all through one platform.
What You Can Do: The Core Use Cases
The most immediate win is selling your retail hair and beauty products online — brands you already stock in-salon can generate revenue 24/7 through your Shopify store. You set inventory levels, product descriptions, and pricing, and Shopify handles the checkout.
Digital gift cards are a built-in Shopify feature that work especially well for salons. Clients can purchase them instantly online for birthdays or special occasions, and you don't need to manage physical card stock. For click-and-collect, Shopify's local pickup setting lets customers place an order online and choose to collect it in-salon, which keeps foot traffic coming in and saves on shipping.
One important note: Shopify is not a salon booking system. For scheduling in-salon appointments, you'll need a separate tool. However, Shopify and a booking tool can run side by side — your online store handles product sales and gift cards, while your booking software manages appointments.
How to Set Up Shopify for Your Salon
- Start your 3-day free trial at Shopify.com and choose a plan — plans start from $89/month after the trial.
- Set up your store with your salon's branding — logo, colors, and a clean theme that reflects your style. Shopify's theme library includes options that suit service and retail businesses well.
- Add your retail products — upload photos, write descriptions, and set stock quantities. Group products into collections (for example, by hair type or brand) to make browsing easy.
- Enable digital gift cards under your Products section. Set denominations that make sense for your services and retail price points.
- Turn on local pickup in your Shopify Shipping settings. Add your salon as a pickup location and set expectations for when orders will be ready.
- Set up Shopify Payments or connect a payment gateway so you can accept cards, Apple Pay, and other methods at checkout.
- Install any apps from the Shopify App Store that fit your workflow — there are options for loyalty programs, email marketing, and more.
Connecting Shopify to Your Accounting Software
One of the biggest time-savers for salon owners is automating bookkeeping. Manually reconciling Shopify orders, sales tax, and payout data is tedious and error-prone — especially when you're also managing a busy in-person service schedule.
Through the Shopify App Store, you can connect your store to accounting tools so that order data, tax collected, and payout amounts sync automatically. QuickBooks Online — which we also review on this site — is a strong example of this kind of integration, pulling your Shopify sales data directly into your books without manual entry.
This kind of sync means your accounts stay up to date in near real-time, and you or your accountant can see a clean picture of revenue, cost of goods, and tax obligations without digging through spreadsheets or Shopify reports manually.
Is Shopify Worth It for a Hair Salon?
If your salon carries retail products and you're not yet selling them online, Shopify is a genuinely strong fit. The combination of product sales, built-in gift cards, and click-and-collect gives you a revenue stream that works even when your chair is full or your salon is closed.
The monthly cost is a real consideration, and Shopify works best here when you have enough retail volume to justify it. If you carry a meaningful range of products and have an existing client base to market to, the platform will likely pay for itself.
Go in knowing that you'll still need a separate appointment booking system for your services. But as a retail and gift card engine that sits alongside your in-salon work, Shopify is a practical, scalable choice for salon owners ready to grow beyond the four walls of their business.