Selling memberships
Memberships are recurring subscriptions. Customers sign up at your storefront, get billed automatically each month or year by Stripe, and manage their own billing through a Stripe customer portal where they can update their card, switch plans, or cancel. Add an optional check-in QR for gyms, studios, and co-working spaces.
Selling memberships
A Zillo membership is a recurring subscription. Your customer signs up once on your storefront and is then billed automatically each month or year by Stripe. You don't have to chase renewals or re-charge anyone — the billing runs on its own, and customers manage their own card and plan through a Stripe-hosted portal you never have to build or maintain.
Memberships suit anything paid on a repeating schedule: a gym or studio, a wine club, a "supporter" tier, a software-style monthly plan, a co-working desk, or an all-access pass. If members also walk through a door, you can attach a check-in QR so staff can log visits (covered below and in detail in Member check-ins).
Set up a membership plan
- Open Products and choose New product → Membership (or start from New product).
- Add the basics — title, description, and a photo. This is what customers see on the membership's storefront page, so make the value clear ("Unlimited classes", "10% off every order", "Members-only events").
- Add one or more pricing options. You can offer a single option ("Monthly $20") or several side by side ("Monthly $20", "Annual $200 — save $40", "Founding member $10/mo"). Each option is its own billing interval, and the customer picks one at checkout.
- (Optional) Add custom fields to capture extra info at signup — an emergency contact for a gym, dietary notes for a meal plan, a profile bio for a community. Whatever you add appears on the member's record so you can read it later.
- (Optional) Turn on the check-in QR if members will check in physically. Each active member then gets a unique QR code your staff scans on arrival. You can also set a per-period check-in allowance here — for example, "8 visits per month" — and scans are counted against it for the current billing period.
- Publish the product so it appears on your storefront.
Annual options often lift retention and cash flow because the customer commits for a year up front. A common setup is to price the annual option at roughly ten months of the monthly rate so the "save two months" framing does the selling for you.
How a customer signs up
On the membership's storefront page the customer picks a plan, enters their card on Stripe Checkout, and they're set up. From that point Stripe handles every renewal automatically — you never have to charge them again.
Right after signup the customer receives:
- A welcome email with their membership details.
- Their check-in QR code, if you enabled check-ins.
- Apple Wallet / Google Wallet links so they can save the QR to their phone for fast scanning at the door.
Manage your members
Open Memberships to see everyone who has joined. Each row shows their plan, signup date, next billing date, and current status — Active, Past due, Cancelled, or Paused.
Click into a member to:
- Open their customer portal link — the Stripe-hosted page where they (or you, on their behalf) can update the card on file or switch plans.
- Pause — the member keeps access through the end of the period they've already paid for, but isn't billed for the next one.
- Cancel — by default this stops billing at the end of the current paid period, so they keep what they paid for. Choose Cancel immediately to refund and remove access right away.
- See their check-in history (if check-ins are enabled), newest visit first.
Members can do all of this themselves in the customer portal — change plan, update card, cancel — which keeps "please update my card" emails out of your inbox. You can tune exactly what the portal offers from the Customer Portal settings in your Stripe dashboard, but most stores happily leave the defaults alone.
When a payment fails
If a member's card is declined at renewal, Stripe retries the charge on its own schedule and the membership shows as Past due in the meantime. The member can fix it themselves by updating their card in the customer portal. If check-ins are enabled, scans are blocked while the account is past due — so a declined card is caught at the door, not weeks later.
What happens on a refund
If you refund a membership order, the underlying Stripe subscription is cancelled immediately, the member loses access right away, and the payment is reversed to their card. If check-ins were enabled, the QR stops working on the next scan attempt. See Refunding an order for the full refund flow.
Cancelling at the end of the period and refunding are different actions. Cancel lets the member keep the time they paid for; refund reverses the money and pulls access now. Pick the one that matches what you promised the customer.