--- title: La Marie Beauty — Bookly & WooCommerce Integration type: article created: '2026-04-05' updated: '2026-04-05' source_docs: - raw/2025-12-16-la-marie-beauty-project-call-109148440.md tags: - woocommerce - bookly - square - la-marie-beauty - booking - credit-card-tokenization - technical-investigation layer: 2 client_source: null industry_context: null transferable: true --- # La Marie Beauty — Bookly & WooCommerce Integration ## Overview This article documents the technical investigation into Bookly's capabilities and its integration with WooCommerce for the [[clients/la-marie-beauty/_index|La Marie Beauty]] booking system. The core challenge is a mismatch between Bookly's plug-and-play design and the client's custom vision, compounded by a critical unresolved blocker in the Square API credit card tokenization flow. The findings below are drawn from a Dec 16, 2025 project reset call between Kimberly Gehrmann (client-side technical lead) and Melissa Cusumano (Asymmetric project lead), with developer Eshock (Isahaque Mahmud) as a key background stakeholder. --- ## Architecture Overview The intended booking stack is: ``` Bookly (booking UI/logic) └── WooCommerce (payment/checkout layer) └── Square API (payment processing + card-on-file) ``` Square is intentionally kept as the **source of truth** for payments and staff/service data, in order to support Lisa Frommelt's longer-term product vision beyond the website. This means Bookly should not become the authoritative data store. --- ## Bookly Capabilities Identified Kimberly's deep-dive into Bookly surfaced several built-in features that may resolve previously identified friction points: ### Compound Services - Bookly supports **compound services**, which may address the need for service variants (e.g., different durations or add-ons for a single treatment type). - It is unclear whether this was previously investigated by Eshock. ### Custom Service-Specific Forms - Bookly allows creation of **custom forms scoped to individual services**. - This directly addresses the "Flash Services" page problem — where every possible service was displayed to clients in an overwhelming list. - With service-specific forms, a category like microneedling can have its own dedicated form, reusing styling without exposing the full service catalog. ### Add-On Ecosystem - Bookly has a significant library of purchasable add-ons. - A full audit of which add-ons are currently installed in the WordPress staging environment is still needed. --- ## Critical Blocker: Credit Card Tokenization > **Status: Unresolved — Go/No-Go dependency** ### Requirement La Marie Beauty requires the ability to **save a credit card on file** at the time of booking in order to charge cancellation fees after the fact. This is a hard go/no-go requirement for launching the booking system. ### Technical Approach The implementation path runs through WooCommerce, not Bookly directly: ``` Bookly booking → WooCommerce checkout → Square API └── $0 auth charge └── Card token stored └── Token charged later for cancellation fee ``` A custom PHP integration with the Square API was built by Eshock to perform the `$0` authorization and token capture. **This integration is not currently working.** ### History - Chris Ostergaard (former Asymmetric developer) previously flagged this as non-functional before departing. - The team pivoted to routing through WooCommerce as a potential solution path. - A Zapier zap was briefly involved and was found to have been inadvertently re-enabled; it has since been turned off. Zapier is **not** currently in use. - As of Dec 16, 2025, Eshock's status on this blocker is unknown — it is unclear whether he has remaining approaches to try or is fully blocked. ### Required Action Eshock must provide a summary of: - All tokenization approaches attempted - Specific failures encountered - Whether he considers himself blocked or has remaining paths to explore A Loom video walkthrough of the WordPress/WooCommerce environment is an acceptable format. Kimberly will email Eshock directly (CC Melissa) to request this. --- ## Scope Tension: Plug-and-Play vs. Custom Vision Bookly is designed as a generic, plug-and-play booking solution. The client's vision requires significant customization — including custom booking flows, service-specific UX, and deep Square integration — that pushes against Bookly's design boundaries. Two paths are under consideration for the Dec 30 scope decision: | Path | Description | |------|-------------| | **Launch with Bookly defaults** | Ship the site using Bookly's out-of-the-box features; scope a separate SOW for custom work afterward | | **Custom build** | Abandon Bookly in favor of a fully custom booking solution | The go/no-go on credit card tokenization is the primary input to this decision. If tokenization cannot be resolved within the Bookly/WooCommerce stack, the case for a custom build strengthens significantly. --- ## WooCommerce Integration Gaps As of Dec 16, the WooCommerce layer has not been fully mapped against Bookly's internal data model. Open questions include: - How does Bookly's staff availability sync with WooCommerce? - Does staff scheduling require Zapier, or can it be handled natively within Bookly's WordPress plugin? - Which Bookly add-ons are currently purchased and active? - What is the exact failure mode of the Square API token capture through WooCommerce? These will be addressed in Kimberly's technical report (due Dec 26). --- ## Potential Development Resources If custom work is scoped beyond what Bookly/WooCommerce can support: - **Kimberly's contacts**: India-based dev teams at approximately $45/hr; Eastern European contacts also available. - **Asymmetric internal**: Dimitri leads a small custom dev team within Asymmetric with existing project context. Rates unknown. Would need to bid competitively. Knowledge transfer is a meaningful advantage for Asymmetric's team given their existing depth on the project. --- ## Related - [[clients/la-marie-beauty/_index|La Marie Beauty Client Overview]] - [[meetings/2025-12-16-la-marie-beauty-project-call|Dec 16 2025 Project Reset Call]] - [[knowledge/woocommerce/square-woocommerce-payment-integration|Square + WooCommerce Payment Integration]]