Documentation
Amax Connect puts your live Stora units, prices, availability and online booking straight onto your own WordPress website. Customers browse and book on your domain, under your brand, while everything stays in sync with your Stora account automatically. Amax Connect is set up and fully managed for you by Amax Marketing. It is not a plugin you buy or install yourself, it is available by booking a demo.
OverviewWhat Amax Connect does
Amax Connect is a WordPress plugin that links your website to Stora, the self storage management platform. Once connected, it pulls your unit types, sizes, prices and live availability from Stora and shows them on your own pages through a simple shortcode or block. When a customer chooses a unit, they are taken through to secure online booking and the reservation is recorded in Stora. You continue to manage your facility in Stora exactly as you do today. Amax Connect simply gives that information a home on your own site.
Why use itHow it helps your business
Bookings on your own domain
Customers reserve and pay without being sent off to a third party directory, so you keep the relationship and the data.
Always in sync
Prices, sizes and availability mirror Stora automatically, so your website is never out of date, even overnight.
Your brand, not a template
The display uses your colours, fonts and styling, so it looks like a natural part of your website.
Better for search
Your units live on pages you own, which can rank in Google, rather than sending traffic to a directory that competes with you.
Less admin
No spreadsheets and no double entry. Update once in Stora and your website follows.
Built to convert
Clear unit cards with live availability cues help customers move from browsing to booking.
The basicsHow it works
- Connect to StoraWe connect your website to your Stora account, so your live units, prices and availability flow straight through.
- Choose what to showWe set up which unit types, layouts and details appear, matched to the pages you choose.
- Match your brandWe style the units in your colours, fonts and buttons so they look like a natural part of your site.
- Customers bookVisitors view live units on your site and move through to secure online booking, with the reservation flowing back into Stora.
What is neededRequirements
- A self hosted WordPress site, version 6.0 or newer
- PHP 7.4 or newer
- A Stora account
- An SSL certificate (https) on your site, recommended for secure booking
Done for youInstallation
- We install it for youAmax Marketing installs and activates Amax Connect on your WordPress site. There is nothing for you to download or upload.
- We configure everythingWe set up the Amax Connect dashboard and get it ready to connect to Stora.
- You stay hands offYou do not need to touch any code or settings. We handle the technical work from start to finish.
Done for youConnecting to Stora
- We link your Stora accountWe set up a secure, managed connection between your site and Stora, so your live data can flow through.
- Your live data flows inYour unit types, sizes, prices and availability then load automatically from Stora.
- We check it before launchWe confirm the connection is live and your units display correctly, so everything is right before you go live.
The connection to Stora runs through a secure proxy managed by Amax Marketing. No Stora credentials are stored on your website, and nothing sensitive is exposed on the public side of your site.
On your pagesDisplaying your units
Your live units are placed on your pages for you, using a simple shortcode that we configure. It can be set up in many ways, for example a filterable grid of unit types like this:
[amax_connect_units columns="3" filter_bar="true"]Three shortcodes are available:
[amax_connect_units]shows your units as cards or a list[amax_connect_count]shows a live count of available units[amax_connect_price_from]shows your lowest starting price
ReferenceShortcode reference
The main shortcode is [amax_connect_units]. The most useful attributes are below. All are optional, so you only add the ones you need.
| Attribute | What it does | Example |
|---|---|---|
columns | Number of columns in the grid | columns="3" |
layout | Display as a grid or a list | layout="grid" |
filter_bar | Show the size and availability filter bar | filter_bar="true" |
show_price | Show prices on each unit | show_price="true" |
show_image | Show or hide unit images | show_image="false" |
show_availability | Show live availability status | show_availability="true" |
size_guide | Show a size guide | size_guide="true" |
pricetype | Which price to show, for example weekly or monthly | pricetype="weekly" |
orderby and order | Sort order of the units | orderby="size" order="asc" |
limit | Maximum number of units to show | limit="12" |
type or id | Show a specific unit type or single unit | type="..." |
booking_url | Override the destination of the booking button | booking_url="..." |
Not sure which attributes to use? The Shortcode Builder sets all of these for you with a visual preview, so you rarely need to type them by hand.
Make it yoursCustomising the design
We match the units to your brand using the Design controls, which include:
- Set your Primary, Background and Accent colours, each with a matching text colour
- Choose the card style, corner radius and typography
- Set the booking button background and text colours
- Add Custom CSS for anything bespoke
Your design choices apply everywhere your units appear, so the display always stays consistent with your website.
PrivacyData handling and privacy
Amax Connect is designed to handle as little data as possible.
- What is fetched. The plugin requests non personal facility data from Stora, namely your unit types, sizes, descriptions, prices and live availability. This is the same catalogue information you already publish to customers.
- What is stored. To keep pages fast, the plugin may briefly cache this display data on your own server using standard WordPress transients. Customer name, email and phone are collected via the booking form (and address, where a booking requires it) and passed to Stora as part of the order. Demo-request submissions (name, email, phone and the other form fields) are stored in the plugin’s own database table for follow-up.
- Bookings and payments. When a customer books, they are handed to Stora’s own secure checkout. Amax Connect never sees, processes or stores card or payment details. Payment is handled entirely by Stora.
- Credentials. Because the link to Stora runs through a secure proxy managed by Amax Marketing, no Stora credentials are stored on your website or exposed on the front end.
- Your policies. Because bookings complete in Stora, your existing Stora privacy policy and terms continue to govern customer data. We recommend linking to them from your site.
In short, facility data flows from Stora to your website for display, and the plugin constructs and sends customer contact details (name, email, phone, and address where provided) to Stora as part of each booking. Card and payment details are handled by Stora directly and never touch this plugin. Demo-request submissions are stored locally in the plugin’s own database table.
LatestWhat’s new
Amax Connect is updated regularly. These are the most recent improvements, and every site we manage receives them as part of the service.
Book without leaving your site
A clear step-by-step booking form, with customers choosing by size first, so they are never faced with a long list of unit codes.
Availability you can trust
Live counts update the moment something changes in Stora, and “only a few left” appears only when it is true.
See which ads let units
Bookings are linked back to the campaign that brought the customer in, with consent respected by default.
Know your customers
Returning customers are recognised, bookings can be personal or business, and you can ask how people found you.
Follow up on unfinished bookings
Visitors who start booking but do not finish can be saved as contacts in Stora, without creating duplicates.
New ways to present units
Two new storefront styles, a size guide with relatable size labels, metric sizes, and faster pages with images sized automatically.
HelpSupport and updates
Amax Connect is set up, managed and supported by Amax Marketing. To get started or to ask a question, email team@amaxmarketing.co.uk or book a demo, and we will take it from there.