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 customer portal where they can update their card or cancel.
Selling memberships
A Zillo membership is a recurring subscription. Customers sign up on your storefront once and get billed automatically each month or year by Stripe. They manage their own billing — update their card, change plan, or cancel — through a Stripe-hosted customer portal you don't have to maintain.
Set up a membership plan
- Open Products and click New product → Membership.
- Fill in the plan basics: title, description, photo.
- Add pricing options. You can have one ("Monthly $20") or several ("Monthly $20", "Annual $200 — save $40", "Founding member $10/mo for life"). Each is a separate billing interval.
- (Optional) Add custom fields — extra info you want to capture at signup. Emergency contact for a gym, dietary restrictions for a meal plan, profile bio for a community.
- (Optional) Enable check-in QR — turn this on if members will check in physically (gym, studio, co-working). Each member gets a QR code they scan on arrival.
- Publish.
How a customer signs up
Your customer picks a plan on the membership's storefront page, enters their card details on Stripe Checkout, and is set up. Behind the scenes Stripe handles all the recurring billing — Zillo never has to charge them again.
After signup, the customer receives:
- A welcome email with their membership details
- Their check-in QR code (if you enabled it)
- Apple Wallet / Google Wallet links to save the QR to their phone
Managing members
Open Memberships to see your active members. Each row shows their plan, signup date, next billing date, and current status (Active, Past due, Cancelled, Paused).
Click into a member to:
- View their customer portal link — opens the Stripe-hosted portal where they can update their card or change plan.
- Pause — the member keeps access until the end of their current paid period but isn't billed for the next one.
- Cancel — cancels at the end of the current period by default. Use "Cancel immediately" to refund and remove access right away.
Members can do everything in the customer portal themselves — change plan, cancel, update card. You can configure what shows in the portal from your Stripe dashboard's Customer Portal settings. Most stores leave the defaults alone.
What happens on refund
If you refund a membership order, the underlying subscription is cancelled immediately and the member loses access right away. The customer's payment is reversed via Stripe. The member's check-in QR code (if you enabled it) stops working at the next scan attempt.