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Paid memberships

A paid membership is a VIP plan a customer buys (vs. a VIP tier they earn). In Charm a membership is just a Shopify product — the customer purchases it, perks switch on, and they stack on top of points and tiers.

Model

  • A membership program links to a product, optionally pinned to a single variant (e.g. monthly vs. annual). The plan inherits that variant’s price.
  • Plans can be one-time / term-based (e.g. a 12-month pass) with expiry + a configurable grace window, or auto-renewing subscriptions (currently a preview that needs Shopify subscription approval).
  • Perks use the same vocabulary as VIP tiers (shipping, multiplier, member discounts, custom benefit cards) and resolve through the same checkout discount Function, so member + tier perks compound.

Lifecycle

  1. The customer buys the membership product through normal checkout.
  2. As soon as the order is paid, the membership activates and its perks switch on.
  3. Perks are enforced automatically at checkout (and at POS) for as long as the membership is active.
  4. When the term ends, the membership lapses after the configurable grace window; lifecycle emails (welcome / expiring / expired) fire along the way.

Important behaviors

  • No platform cut. Membership sales settle through Shopify checkout like any order — Charm never takes a percentage or per-member fee.
  • Fees don’t earn points. Membership purchases are auto-excluded from point earning across every surface (order earning, refunds, on-page estimate, checkout preview) so a plan can’t circularly earn against its own multiplier.
  • Revenue tracking. Each purchase captures amount + currency; analytics report lifetime and active membership revenue, not just member counts.
  • Self-service auto-renewal. Once the auto-renewing subscription preview is enabled for your store, a subscription bought through the membership block auto-applies its selling plan (with auto-renew copy). Customers can Cancel renewal from the membership card in their account — access continues to the end of the paid period — and Charm skips the expiring-soon email for anything still set to auto-renew.

Storefront

Memberships surface through:

  • the membership theme block on product pages,
  • a widget upsell/owned card in the floating widget,
  • the customer account hub and the POS customer view.

See Theme app blocks.