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Basic Setup & Configuration
Getting Started with Simplee Memberships
Getting Started with Simplee Memberships

A quick start guide to get your memberships program up an running as smoothly as possible

Carly avatar
Written by Carly
Updated over a week ago

Don't forget - we'll complete the installation for free! Click here to get started

Here's a video walking you through the basics of getting Simplee Memberships up and running:

Read Me First

Before you get started, be sure that this is the right app for you:

  • You must be using a payment gateway that is compatible with recurring payments. Today this is one of::

    • Shopify Payments, Stripe, Authorize.net, PayPal Express, Google Pay, Apple Pay, and ShopPay

  • This app is best for memberships that don't include a physical product

    • If you want customers to subscribe to physical products, you'd be better served by an existing subscription app

    • Our app specializes in billing for memberships, and enabling perks for active members

Step 1 - Create the Membership Product

  • Create a non-physical product on Shopify. This will represent the membership on your store. We recommend creating a new product for this:

    • Set the price to that of your standard membership (i.e. the monthly price)

    • Uncheck the option to "Track Inventory"

    • Uncheck the option "This is a physical product" - this will remove any shipping costs from the membership

    • If you are not ready to display this product on your live store, set the "Product Status" to "Draft"

    • Save this product

IMPORTANT: If you plan to sell multiple levels, or membership tiers, you should create a product for each tier (e.g. Gold Membership, Silver Membership)

Step 2 - Backup Your Live Theme

  • DON'T SKIP THIS - we modify your theme files, and this is the simplest way to revert back if you need to

    • In Shopify, click on Online Store, and in the Current theme section, click on Actions (or ...) > Duplicate

    • Optionally, rename the duplicate to understand that it is your theme before Simplee Memberships

Step 3 - Create a Membership Plan

  • In Simplee Memberships, create a new plan on the "Plans" page

    • Give it a name (e.g. VIP Membership)

    • Choose a customer and order tag - these will be added to active members and all membership orders

    • Select the product you completed in Step 1

    • Create one or more Membership Lengths

      • These determine how often you want your membership to renew

      • This could simply be 1 Month (or 30 Days), but you can offer customers an incentive for subscribing to several billing periods upfront

      • If you want to offer a free trial, setup fee, or setup a minimum or maximum number of membership orders, open the Advanced Membership Options section

    • In the Rules section, you can optionally add rules for things to hide from non-members

    • In the Additional Form Fields section, you can add questions you would like members to answer when signing up

    • If you want to give POS customers a flat or % discount on all orders, add that in the POS Discount section

    • Save the plan

Optional - Create an Automatic Discount

  • Our app can automatically apply a members-only discount when your members log in 🎉

  • After you have saved the membership plan, follow these instructions to create a discount code, then add it to your existing membership plan

    Create discount code for automatic discounts

Step 4 - Update Your Theme

  • In the app, click on the Installation page

  • Choose the theme you want to update, and click Update Theme

  • This could take a minute, wait until this completes

Test it Out

  • Open the product page (if you created a Draft product, you'll need to preview it from your Shopify admin)

    • If you only have a single membership length, you will not see any widget on this product page - to test the installation, add the product to your cart and confirm that the membership length is displayed in the cart and at checkout

  • If you have multiple membership lengths, you should see two or more checkboxes on the product page letting customers choose their membership length

  • If you don't see this, click the chat button and let us know so that we can complete the installation for you

Create a test membership

  1. To do this, you'll need to complete an order on your existing checkout

  2. If your store is live, we recommend creating a 1-time 100% discount code (make sure the discount code is valid for subscription products)

  3. Within a minute, check the app to see the membership appear

  4. Create an account on your store for the test customer

  5. Log in and test the member portal and any rules you may have configured

Testing on development stores

Shopify allows developers and agencies to create test memberships using the Shopify Payments test mode. Note that the Bogus Gateway will not work for memberships.

  1. Enable Shopify Payments on your dev store (don't enter any company details)

  2. From the Payments settings page, click on Manage to edit Shopify Payments settings

  3. At the bottom of the page, enable Test Mode, then save

  4. You can now go through your checkout using credit card number 4242 4242 4242 4242, with any name, address, and credit card details

If you're enjoying the app, we would love it if you would share your experience with other merchants. Here's a quick link - thanks!

Good luck launching your new membership 🎉

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