The business
OTB Hair & Beauty is a UK retailer of professional haircare. Its Shopify store stocks salon brands across shampoo, conditioner, treatments and styling, and the homepage leads with brand tiles and a banner for the latest arrival. Free UK delivery starts at £30, and a rewards button sits in the corner of the page.
A professional haircare store attracts two kinds of buyer. Some shop for themselves. Others work in hair, and they may ask for VAT invoices.
What a UK beauty retailer needs on paper
Haircare and beauty products are charged at the standard 20% VAT rate, and consumer prices are normally shown with VAT included. A VAT-registered stylist or salon owner is in a different position. A seller has to give a VAT-registered customer a proper VAT invoice when they ask for one, and that invoice has to carry the seller's name, address and VAT number, a unique number, the date, a description of the goods and the VAT shown separately.
For sales under £250, UK rules allow a simplified invoice with fewer details. That is handy for small retail baskets, but it does not help the customer who wants to reclaim the tax, so a store that serves both groups needs a layout that works for either.
Volume makes it harder. A shop sending out thousands of small parcels cannot write documents by hand. Records have to be kept for six years, and VAT-registered businesses keep them digitally under Making Tax Digital.
How OTB uses PDF Invoice
OTB installed PDF Invoice in 2024. Its main template is the Order template, in English, which shows the order number, the VAT line and the total. The account also holds invoice, quote, packing slip and refund templates, so the shop can issue a formal VAT invoice when someone asks for one. Invoices are emailed automatically, and the documents are in English and in pounds sterling.
The sample uses the Blue order layout, the app's default order template, which is compact. Seller details and VAT number sit top left, the order number, date and amount top right, and billing and shipping addresses and methods fill the next block. An items table follows with SKU, quantity, price and line total, then the VAT line and a grand total. The heading reads ORDER, which fits a retail basket.
The sample invoice beside this story uses invented names, addresses and numbers. It shows a typical haircare basket with a shampoo, a conditioner, two masks and a heat protection spray, priced including 20% VAT, with the VAT amount shown beneath the lines.
Results
The app has sent more than 130,000 documents since 2024, each in the same Order template, and the invoice goes out by email on its own.
Try it for your store
If your customers include both shoppers and professionals, PDF Invoice lets you issue a simple order document or a full VAT invoice from the same app. Install it from the Shopify App Store.