Every membership plan needs a membership product: the Shopify product customers buy to join. You choose it under Membership Listing in the plan form, either by selecting a product you already have or by letting Appstle create one. You can also sell several options, such as monthly and yearly billing, from one product.
Choose how to set up the product
Pick the option that fits your store:
Option | Use it when |
Select Membership Listing | The product already exists in Shopify, or you want several variants, such as monthly and yearly. |
Create New Membership Listing | You want Appstle to create a simple product with one price. This option appears only when you create a new plan. |
Select a Shopify product
If the product doesn't exist yet, create it in Shopify first. Then select it in the plan form.
Create the product in Shopify
In your Shopify admin, click Products, then Add product.
Enter a title, a description, an image and a price.
In the Shipping card, turn off Physical product. Shopify then shows Not a physical product. A membership is digital, so it needs no shipping.
Click Save.
Select it in the plan form
In your Shopify admin, open Apps → Appstle Memberships, then click Plans & Perks.
Click Create Membership Plan, or open the plan you want to edit.
Under Membership Listing, click Select Membership Listing.
In Search, type the product's name.
Select the product. If it has more than one variant, select the variant instead.
Click Add.
The product appears under Membership Listing with a badge showing its status in Shopify, such as Active or Draft. Customers can't buy a Draft or Archived product. Not found means the product or variant no longer exists in Shopify. To pick a different product, click Delete and select again.
Important: Make the membership product subscription-only in Shopify, so customers can't buy it as a one-time purchase. After you save the plan, open the product in Shopify, select Only sell this product with these purchase options in the Purchase options card, and click Save. Products that Appstle creates are already set up this way.
Let Appstle create the product
While you create a new plan, Appstle can create a simple, one-price product for you. This option isn't available when you edit a plan.
In your Shopify admin, open Apps → Appstle Memberships, then click Plans & Perks.
Click Create Membership Plan.
Enter the Membership name. Appstle uses it as the product's title and fills in Membership URL from it.
Under Membership Listing, click Create New Membership Listing.
Then fill in these fields under Create Membership Listing:
Field | What to enter |
Membership URL | The end of the product's web address, called the product handle, for example roastery-club. Appstle fills it in from the membership name. You can change it. |
Price | The membership price for each billing cycle. |
Description | Optional. The description customers see on the product page. |
Image URL | Optional. The web address of the product image. See How to get the image URL for the product image. |
Finish the rest of the plan and click Save. Appstle creates the product only then. It gets the membership name as its title, needs no shipping, can be bought only with the plan, and is live on your sales channels right away.
To select an existing product instead, click Discard New Listing.
Offer monthly, yearly or tiered options
To sell more than one option, such as monthly and yearly billing or Bronze, Silver and Gold tiers, give one product a variant for each option. Then create one plan per variant.
In Shopify, create or open the membership product and add an option with a value for each choice, for example Monthly and Yearly.
Give each variant its own price, then click Save.
In Appstle, create a plan for the first variant. Under Membership Listing, click Select Membership Listing, select the variant and click Add.
Give the plan its own Membership name and Display Name, and set Renewal Frequency to how often that option bills.
Repeat steps 3 and 4 for each remaining variant.
For example, a product with two variants needs two plans:
Variant | Membership name | Bills every |
Monthly | Coffee Lovers Club Monthly | 1 month |
Yearly | Coffee Lovers Club Yearly | 1 year |
On your product page, customers pick a variant the same way they'd pick a size or color, and join the plan linked to it. For the rest of the plan form, see Create a membership plan.
Things to know
Select only the membership product in Membership Listing. You choose which store products members get perks on later, in Set Up Perks. See Add perks to a membership plan.
Each plan needs its own Customer Tag Name. Appstle suggests one from the membership name and won't accept a tag that another plan already uses.
FAQs
Why don't I see Create New Membership Listing?
It appears only while you create a new plan, not when you edit one. For an existing plan, create the product in Shopify, then select it with Select Membership Listing.
Why can't I select the product in the Select Membership Listing window?
The product has more than one variant. Appstle links a plan to one variant, so the product itself is greyed out. Select one of its variants instead.
Do I need to publish a product that Appstle creates?
No. Appstle makes the product available on your sales channels when you save the plan. If it doesn't show on a channel, open the product in Shopify and check its sales channel availability.