The rental queue lets members borrow items one after another: they line up what they want, you send the next item that is in stock, and when one comes back the next goes out. It suits board games, books, toys, clothes or gear lent to members who pay a monthly membership. The number of items a member can have out at once comes from their membership tier.
Set it up #
- In Memberships › Tiers, give the tier Items out at a time (1 to 50) and, if you want a limit, Swaps each billing period. Sell the tier with a membership plan. See Memberships, tiers and store credit.
- Open Settings › Rental queue and, under What can be queued, add products or collections. Pick a Queue type for each: Queue only (borrowed through the queue, can’t be bought or rented through the cart) or Queue or buy. Click Save what can be queued.
- Add the Rental queue app block to your product template (or turn on the Rental queue app embed on a theme without app blocks).
- Check the sending, returns and lost-item settings below.
What members see #
- On a product in the catalog, the Rental queue block shows Add to my queue to members, Sign in to guests and “A membership is needed to borrow through the rental queue.” with See memberships to everyone else. On a queue-only product, Add to cart and Buy it now are hidden, and the price too unless you turn off Hide the price of queue-only products. Checkout refuses queue-only products anyway.
- The queue page at /apps/subscriptions/queue lists their queue, which they reorder by dragging.
- The Rental queue tab in their account shows their slots (“Items out 1 of 2”), swaps left, what is out with its due date, the queue (Move up, Move down, Move to top, Send first, Remove) and their past loans.
“We send the items at the top first.”
Send items #
The Rental queue page has three tabs: Overview, Return items and Loans, and a link to Queue settings.
- Overview counts members with a queue, items queued, being picked, out, due back within 7 days, overdue, queues running low and lost items, and lists the members. Open a member’s queue to send one item, add to it, reorder it or clear it.
- Send next for all makes the pick list: “One item for each member who can borrow, in stock now.” Download it as Pick list CSV or Pick list PDF, then Send selected. Each row is checked again when you send it.
With Make a loan order for each loan on, each send makes a $0 order “you fulfil as usual: Shopify counts the stock and the member gets a shipping confirmation.” The loan is Out once the order is fulfilled. Without loan orders, or for an item given at the counter, use Handed over at the counter or Mark sent.
With Send automatically on, “Once a day, each member with a free slot gets their next item in stock, and a return sends the next one.”
Returns #
On Return items, scan or paste the serial numbers (“One per line, or separated by commas or spaces. A scanner’s Enter starts a new line.”) and click Return these, or enter the Loan order name and click Return this order. You can also tick loans under Out with members and click Return selected. A return frees the member’s slot.
With Rentals & Bookings installed, a loan holds the unit there, and checking the item in at the rentals desk returns the loan too.
Lost items #
On a loan’s page, Mark lost frees the member’s slot and, depending on Replacement invoice, emails the member an invoice for the replacement, makes a draft order for you to send, or makes nothing. The amount is the item’s price unless you set a Replacement amount.
Settings › Rental queue #
| Setting | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Members only | On | “Only customers with a membership that has rental slots can queue items.” |
| Send automatically | Off | Sends each member’s next item once a day and on each return. |
| Make a loan order for each loan | On | A $0 order per loan, fulfilled like any other. |
| Queue stock location | The store’s primary location | “Where loans are picked from and stock is counted.” |
| Rentals app hold (days) | 730 | With Rentals & Bookings: how long a loaned unit stays booked, 30 to 1,095 days. |
| Return reminder after (days) | Empty | One email when a loan has been out this long. Empty or 0: no reminder. |
| Queue low below (items) | Empty | An email when a member’s queue gets shorter than this. Empty or 0: off. |
| When a membership ends | Keep the queue | Or Clear the queue. |
| Replacement invoice | Make it and email it to the member | Or Make a draft order only, or No invoice. |
| Replacement amount | Empty | Empty: the item’s price. |
| Catalog link for an empty queue | Empty | Where “Browse the catalog” goes. Empty: /collections/all. |
Good to know #
- Members get emails when an item is sent, when it is returned, the return reminder, the queue-low email and the item-not-returned email. See Emails, Shopify Flow and the API.
- The rental queue works without Rentals & Bookings: it then counts Shopify’s stock at the queue location.
- The Loans tab lists every loan by status: Being picked, Out, Overdue, Returned, Lost and Cancelled.
