So Last Minute launches, developed by ProBlue Solutions
We recently completed the development of "So Last Minute" (SLM), a marketplace app for last-minute hair and beauty appointments. Designed by a beauty professional, SLM directly connects clients looking for spontaneous appointments with professionals who have last-minute availability, helping to fill gaps in schedules and recover lost income for businesses.
Meeting the Challenges of the Industry
Beauty professionals often face cancellations and unbooked slots, leading to an estimated loss of £625 per month. SLM tackles this problem by providing a platform where professionals can actively list last-minute appointment openings, while clients can easily find and book services on short notice.
Key Features and Technical Development
To create a comprehensive and effective solution, we built SLM on the Drupal framework, ensuring a robust, scalable, and open-source foundation. The app integrates several features to enhance functionality for both beauty professionals and customers:
- Business Profiles and Content Management: Professionals can create and maintain profiles, add photos of their work, showcase available services, and receive reviews from clients. This functionality ensures that each business can present its unique offerings in a personalised way.
- Appointment Management: Professionals have full control over their schedules, with the ability to add, update, or delete available appointments. Each appointment includes details such as date, time, service type, staff member, cost, and any applicable discounts.
- Search and Discovery: Consumers can search for available appointments using criteria like service type, date, time, and location. The app includes a dynamic map feature that displays location markers for available appointments, making it easy to find nearby services.
- Booking System and Payment Integration: SLM allows clients to book appointments directly through the app, with payments processed securely via Stripe. Both clients and professionals receive email notifications for every booking, and each user has a dedicated dashboard where they can view their scheduled appointments. The app also supports a monthly subscription model for professionals, which is managed through Stripe's subscription features.
- Pinboard: For clients who cannot find an immediate appointment, SLM offers a waitlist feature. Clients can register their interest in a specific service, date, and time, and professionals can fulfil these requests if they have availability.
Why We Used Drupal
Building SLM on Drupal provided several advantages:
- Flexibility and Scalability: As a leading Digital Experience Platform (DXP), Drupal's open-source nature allows for extensive customisation and expansion. Its powerful capabilities make it suitable for complex applications like SLM.
- Security and Performance: Drupal's reputation for security and performance aligns with the need to handle sensitive user data, secure payments, and high traffic.
- Multichannel Delivery: Drupal's architecture enables seamless content delivery across various platforms, such as web and mobile.
- Customisability: Drupal is a framework to build apps and websites, it is not just an out-of-the-box content management system. It allows bespoke features to be developed in a way that more primitive systems do not.
The Benefits of a Progressive Web App (PWA)
To ensure cross-platform compatibility and reduce development costs, we developed SLM as a Progressive Web App (PWA). This approach delivers a native app-like experience on any device, with features such as push notifications which we integrated via WonderPush. Users can install the app directly from the website, making it accessible on both iOS and Android without needing separate native apps for each platform, or Android users can download the app from the Google Play Store.
Push Notifications and Real-Time Updates
Push notifications are implemented through WonderPush, allowing the app to deliver real-time alerts for appointment confirmations, cancellations, and new availability. This feature helps professionals stay updated on their bookings and ensures customers are promptly informed of any changes.
SLM: A Revolutionary Tool for Beauty Professionals
"So Last Minute" is more than just a booking app; it allows professionals to take control of their schedules, reach new clients, and reduce dependency on expensive advertising or other booking apps which prefer to lock users into their platform. With a cost of just £17 per month for professionals, the platform offers an affordable way to recover lost revenue from unbooked slots.
Explore So Last Minute and see how it’s reshaping the beauty industry by making last-minute bookings effortless for both professionals and clients.
For more information about our work or to discuss how Problue Solutions can help bring your digital project to life, get in touch.