Before you launch, buy one of your own memberships with a test card to see exactly what your members get. You place the order as a shopper, check the membership in the app and in the member portal, and then clean up. It takes about 20 minutes.
Do this after you create your first membership plan, and again whenever you change a plan, a perk or your checkout.
Before you start
Install Appstle Memberships and turn on its app embed: in your theme editor (Online Store → Themes → Customize), open App embeds and switch on Appstle℠ Memberships. See Get Started: Install Appstle℠ Memberships on Shopify.
Create a membership plan and attach a product to it. See Create a membership plan and Choose or create your membership product.
If your store uses new customer accounts, add the Manage Membership Button block to your Orders and Profile pages in Shopify’s checkout and accounts editor. Without it, members don’t see a Manage Membership button in their account. To open the editor, use the Embed buttons in the app’s Home setup guide: complete Enable Membership Portal first, which adds the Membership management extension, then Enable Manage Membership Button.
Check that your payment gateway works for memberships. See Shopify’s requirements for memberships.
Pick an email address you can read for the test shopper. The Membership Created email goes there, and you sign in with it in Step 5. A plus address such as you+test@yourstore.com reaches your own inbox.
Step 1: Choose a test payment method
Pick the test payment method that fits your store. Shopify Payments test mode and the Test payment gateway run the whole checkout without charging anyone, and the orders don’t show in your payouts or reports. For more, see Shopify’s Placing a test order.
Shopify Payments test mode (recommended)
Shopify recommends this method for testing subscription orders. You need Shopify Payments set up first.
In your Shopify admin, go to Settings → Payments.
In the Shopify Payments section, click Manage.
In the Test mode section, select Enable test mode, then click Save.
At checkout, enter card number 4242 4242 4242 4242, a name of at least two words, any future expiry date and any 3-digit security code.
Test payment gateway
Shopify lists its Test payment gateway (called Bogus Gateway on development stores) as not compatible with subscription products, but a membership test order went through with it on our development store. Use it on a development store, or on a store that isn’t selling yet.
Shopify makes you deactivate your credit card provider before you can turn it on, so customers can’t pay by card while you test.
At checkout, enter card number 1 to approve the payment, any future expiry date and any 3-digit security code. The order total must be more than $1.
Real card, then refund
If you can’t use either method, for example on a live store without Shopify Payments, buy the membership with a real card. Then delete the test membership and refund the order (Step 6). Your payment provider may keep its processing fee.
Important: While Shopify Payments test mode or the Test payment gateway is on, customers can’t pay with a real card on your store. Switch back as soon as you finish testing (Step 6).
Step 2: Buy the membership as a shopper
Open your store in a private browser window, so you shop as a new customer. If your store has a password page, enter the password from Online Store → Preferences.
Open the membership product page. The membership widget shows your plan and its price, as in the first image below.
Click Add to cart, then go to checkout.
Check the price and the plan name under the product. Look for a recurring line, such as Recurring subtotal $19.00 every month in the second image below. It shows that Shopify sees a membership, not a one-time purchase. Shopify sets the wording of this line, so yours may differ slightly.
Enter the test payment details from Step 1 and complete the order.
Step 3: Check the membership in the app
In your Shopify admin, open Apps → Appstle℠ Memberships and click Memberships.
Find the new membership, as in the first image below. It usually appears within a few minutes, with your test order’s number and the status Active.
Click the membership ID to open it. On the Details tab, check the product, the plan and the price, as in the second image below, and the Next Renewal Date.
Open the Activity Logs tab. You should see a Tags Updated row with Entity: Customer and your plan’s customer tag, and a Send Subscription Created Email row, as in the third image below. The customer tag is what gives the member their perks.
Open the Upcoming Renewals tab. It lists each renewal with its billing date and status. To test a renewal now, click the ⋯ button at the end of the first row, then Attempt Billing. This charges the member’s card and creates a renewal order. It’s available on Starter and higher plans.
Step 4: Check the email
Open the inbox of the test shopper and look for the Membership Created email. By default its subject is Your new membership! and it comes from Appstle’s email address, unless you set up a custom email domain. Its Manage Membership button opens the member portal without signing in.
If it doesn’t arrive, check the spam folder. Then check that the email is switched on in More → Customizations → Email Templates (see How to Customise Emails in Appstle Memberships). The Activity Logs tab shows whether Appstle sent it.
Step 5: Check what the member sees
In the private window, sign in to your store’s customer account with the email address you used at checkout.
On the Orders or Profile page, click Manage Membership. The button in the Membership Created email opens the same member portal without signing in.
Check the membership card, as in the image below: the status, the product, how often it bills and the price. See more details and More Action open what you allow members to do, such as pausing or cancelling. See Member Portal (for customers) - Overview.
Test every perk the plan gives. For a discount, add a product to the cart while signed in as the member, and check the price at checkout. For a members-only page or product, open it signed in, then signed out to confirm it’s locked. See Add perks to a membership plan.
If you sell more than one plan, repeat the test for each one.
Step 6: Clean up
Delete the test membership, so it doesn’t renew or count toward your plan’s membership limit.
Open the test membership in the app, click More actions, then Delete Membership, as in the image below.
Click Delete. Appstle cancels the membership, removes the member’s perks and deletes it from the app. It stays visible in Shopify, and you can’t undo this.
If you used Shopify Payments test mode, go to Settings → Payments, click Manage in the Shopify Payments section, clear Enable test mode and click Save.
If you used the Test payment gateway, deactivate it in Settings → Payments, then turn your credit card provider back on.
If you paid with a real card, open the order in Orders and refund it.
If Delete is greyed out and a banner says bulk operations are locked, email [email protected] to unlock them. Until then, click More actions → Cancel Membership, add a reason or a note if you want, and click Confirm.
A cancelled member keeps their perks until the end of the period they paid for, unless Immediately revoke customer perks on membership cancellation is on in Shop Settings. To remove the perks right away, open the cancelled membership and click More actions → Remove Member’s Perks. See Shop Settings: change how memberships behave across your store.
Cancelled memberships still count toward your plan’s membership limit until you delete them. See Compare Appstle Memberships pricing plans.
FAQs
The membership widget doesn’t show on my product page
Check that the Appstle℠ Memberships app embed is on, Widget enabled? is ticked in the widget settings, the product has a membership plan, and not all of its variants are sold out. On a product with several variants, the widget shows only while a variant that has a plan is selected. See Customize the membership widget on your product pages.
There’s no recurring line at checkout
The item was most likely added without the plan. Go back to the product page, check that the plan is selected in the widget, and add it to the cart again. If it keeps happening, your theme’s Add to cart button may not be recognized: see the Troubleshooting section of Customize the membership widget on your product pages.
My test card is declined
Check that Shopify Payments test mode or the Test payment gateway is on, and that you entered the card details for that method from Step 1. With the Test payment gateway, the order total must be more than $1.
Checkout says “Duplicate membership purchases are not allowed”
Allow membership per customer is on in Shop Settings, and the signed-in test shopper already has a membership, or the cart holds more than one. Delete the earlier test membership (Step 6), or test as a new shopper with another email address. Your store may show its own wording for this message. See Shop Settings: change how memberships behave across your store.
The membership isn’t in the list
Wait a few minutes and refresh the page. Check that you’re on the All tab, that the order in Shopify is paid, and that the checkout showed the recurring line from Step 2. Without it, the order was a one-time purchase and no membership was created. If it’s still missing, email [email protected] with the order number.
I don’t see the Manage Membership button
On new customer accounts, the button appears only after you add the Manage Membership Button block to your Orders and Profile pages in Shopify’s checkout and accounts editor (see Before you start). To see the test membership in the portal, sign in with the email address you used at checkout. The button in the Membership Created email also opens the portal.
Do test memberships count toward my limit?
Yes. Every membership counts, cancelled ones included, until you delete it. See Step 6.
Need help? Email [email protected] and tell us what you tried.