Paid memberships that pay for themselves.

Sell a VIP plan as a product. Members unlock free shipping, point multipliers, and member-only discounts — perks that stack on top of the free loyalty program and your VIP tiers, settled by the same checkout engine.

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What it is

A paid membership is a VIP plan a customer buys, rather than earns. Where VIP tiers reward behavior, a membership is a deliberate purchase — a recurring (or fixed-term) relationship that gives the member better economics every time they shop.

In Charm a membership is just a product. The customer buys it, the perks switch on, and they stack on top of everything the free program already does. Membership revenue lands in your Shopify payout like any other order, with no platform cut.

How it works

Four moving parts.

The configuration surface is small on purpose. Most stores set this up in one sitting.

Sell it as a product

Link a membership plan to any product — or pin it to a single variant when you sell several plans (monthly vs annual, Silver vs Gold) on one product page. The plan inherits that variant's price, so member pricing is always whatever you set in Shopify.

Plans are one-time or term-based today (e.g. a 12-month pass). Auto-renewing subscription billing is in build — see the FAQ.

Perks that stack on tiers

A membership carries the same perk vocabulary as a VIP tier: free or discounted shipping, a point multiplier, member-only discounts, and custom benefit cards. The perks resolve through the exact same checkout discount Function that powers VIP tiers — so a paying member who is also Gold gets both, compounded, with no double-charging or conflicts.

Members see their active plan and its perks in the loyalty hub and their Shopify customer account, alongside their points and tier.

Drive sign-ups on the storefront

A dedicated product-page block presents the plan — perks, price, and term — to logged-out shoppers (served from a cached metafield, so it's fast and safe for guests). Logged-in customers who already own the plan see a 'you're a member' note instead.

The floating widget also surfaces a membership card: an upsell anchor to the plan for non-members, or the active-plan summary for members. Both read per-variant, so they update as the shopper switches options.

Track the revenue

Every membership purchase captures its amount and currency, so analytics show lifetime membership revenue, active-and-grace revenue, and active-member counts — money, not just headcount.

Expiry runs on a cron with a configurable grace window, and membership fees are automatically excluded from point earning so a plan never circularly earns redeemable points against its own multiplier.

Examples

Three configurations to steal.

Ready-to-copy patterns we see in production. Tune the numbers to your margin and audience.

Pattern 1

Free-shipping club

$49/year plan: free shipping on every order + 1.5× points. Pays for itself for any customer who orders more than ~5×/year.

Pattern 2

Annual VIP pass

12-month term plan: 2× points, 10% member discount, early access to drops. Pinned to the 'annual' variant at $79.

Pattern 3

Insider tier

Low-price entry plan ($9) that unlocks member-only products and a welcome bonus — a paid on-ramp into your top VIP tier.

Use cases

What it looks like in the wild.

Beauty

DTC beauty: replenishment membership

A paid plan with free shipping + 2× points turns one-off buyers into a predictable replenishment cohort, without the discount race of a subscribe-and-save.

Food & Beverage

Coffee: the regulars' club

An annual pass with member pricing and a birthday gift. The perk that pays for itself is free shipping; the perk that retains is the status.

Apparel

Apparel: early-access membership

Members get 72h early access to every drop plus a multiplier. The plan funds the marketing of the drop itself.

FAQ

Common questions.

Is this a subscription with recurring billing?

Today memberships are sold as one-time or fixed-term plans (e.g. a 12-month pass) with expiry and a grace window. Auto-renewing subscription billing is built and pending Shopify's review of the subscription APIs — it'll switch on without changing how perks work.

Do membership perks stack with VIP tiers and points?

Yes — that's the point. A paying member who is also a VIP tier earns both multipliers (compounded) and gets both sets of perks, all resolved by the same checkout Function. No conflicts, no double-charges.

Does buying a membership earn points?

No. The membership fee is automatically excluded from point earning across every surface (order earning, refunds, on-page estimate, checkout preview) so a plan can't circularly earn redeemable points against its own multiplier.

Where do customers see their membership?

In the storefront loyalty hub and their native Shopify customer account, alongside points and tier. The product page and floating widget also show 'you're a member' once they own the plan.

Do you take a cut of membership revenue?

No. Membership sales settle through Shopify checkout like any other order — Charm never sits between you and the money, and there's no per-order or per-member fee.