Make Equipment Hire Easier for Customers and More Efficient for Your Team

Your customers want to do business with you online, but are your systems ready to let them?

There's a shift happening across the hire industry and it's not subtle. Customers who once picked up the phone to request a hire are now expecting to do it online and on their own schedule.

They want to browse equipment, check availability, and submit a reservation at 9pm on a Tuesday and not wait until your office opens at 8am on Wednesday.

The challenge comes when these businesses are using generic eCommerce platforms designed for retail and not for how their business and industry actually operates.

They don't get rate structures, reservation workflows, or everything a depot team needs to review and confirm every order before it goes out the door.

That's the gap OnRent eCommerce was built to close.

Over 70% of asset suppliers lack real-time digital booking engines, creating a massive opportunity for eCommerce platforms that offer instant fleet visibility, digital contracts, and automated telemetry tracking.

The online experience your customers expect 

Imagine giving your customers a professional, branded online portal where they can:

• Browse your full hire catalogue – with product images, descriptions, and attachments.
• Select hire dates and request reservations – using logic that understands hire periods, not retail baskets.
• See pricing that's specific to their account – no generic rate cards, no confusion, no disputes.
• Save baskets and revisit previous requests – making repeat hires effortless.
• Submit enquiries 24/7 – from any device, at any time.

This means no phone queues, email chains, or waiting until Monday morning. The customer gets convenience. Your team gets control. Everyone moves faster.

It also presents greater upsell opportunities. A European Rental Association digitisation report found that digital channels offered a 40% increase in additional billable services. This can create a significant commercial opportunity for hire businesses.

Built for equipment rental, not retrofitted from retail

Generic eCommerce platforms like Shopify, WooCommerce, or BigCommerce are brilliant at what they do, but they weren't designed for hire businesses.

They don't understand that a "purchase" in equipment rental is actually a reservation request. They don't handle hire-period pricing, depot-level fulfilment, or the fact that your team needs to confirm availability before anything is committed.

OnRent eCommerce is different because it was purpose-built around rental workflows:

• Integrated directly with OnRent – reservation requests flow straight into your system, eliminating re-keying and reducing manual admin.
• Your depot team stays in control – they confirm availability, adjust pricing, apply delivery charges, and manage payment before processing the order.
• Supports both account and cash customers – existing account holders can log in and see their specific terms, while new cash customers can submit enquiries seamlessly.
• Reduces inbound calls and email traffic – not by replacing human interaction, but by giving customers a self-service option for the straightforward stuff.

This means your team spends less time on low-value admin and more time on revenue-generating work.

A modern front door for your hire business

First impressions matter, and for a growing number of your customers, that first impression is digital.

OnRent eCommerce gives you a customisable, branded online storefront that reflects who you are as a business. It's not a generic template with your logo dropped in. It's a genuine extension of your brand, complete with:

• Custom homepage and branding – your colours, your messaging, your identity.
• Product images and attachments – so customers can see exactly what they're hiring.
• Google Analytics integration – so you can track traffic, conversions, and customer behaviour.
• Delivery charge handling – built into the workflow, not bolted on afterwards.
• Brochure mode – for when you want to showcase your catalogue without enabling full online ordering.
• Customer account management – giving your customers visibility of their activity and history.
• Analytics dashboard and reporting – so you can measure what's working and optimise over time.

It's a professional digital experience that says to your customers: we're modern, we're easy to work with, and we respect your time.

Modernise the experience without changing how you operate

Here's what makes this approach different from a typical "digital transformation" project: nothing about your internal process needs to change.

Your depot team still reviews every reservation, pricing rules still apply, fulfilment workflow stays exactly as it is. The only thing that changes is how customers interact with you at the front end, and that change is entirely in their favour.

• Customers can request hires online.
• Your team stays in control of fulfilment.
• Everyone works more efficiently.

This gives your staff better tools and gives your customers the experience they've come to expect.

Ready to see eCommerce for OnRent in action?

If you're running a hire business on OnRent and want to make it easier for customers to do business with you, OnRent eCommerce is worth 20 minutes of your time.

Book a demo today and see how rental reservations can work better for everyone.