Membership V2: Auto-Assign a Membership Plan by Customer Tag
Introduction
A membership plan in Membership V2 can be sold, imported, or handed out automatically. Until this release, only one automatic route existed: On signup, which enrols every new customer the moment their account is created. That is all or nothing. It gives you no way to say "this group of customers, and only this group, should hold the membership" — and no way at all to enrol a customer who signed up months ago.
This release adds a second trigger. When the customer has a tag enrols any customer carrying a tag you nominate — vip-member, say. The tag can already be on the customer when the rule is set up, or it can be added later; either way the customer is enrolled. Tagging is something you already do in Shopify to mark VIPs, wholesale buyers, early-access groups and the like, so the membership now follows a grouping you keep anyway.
This article shows you where the setting lives, how to turn automatic assignment on, how to choose the tag trigger and enter the tag, what the one-plan-at-a-time rule means in practice, what the optional cancel-on-upgrade option does, and where to check that the enrolment worked.
What's New in Membership V2
• A second auto-assign trigger — When the customer has a tag now sits beside the original On signup option, under Automatically assign this plan to customers.
• A tag to match — a Customer tag to match field takes the one tag that decides enrolment, such as vip-member.
• Existing customers are included — the customer does not have to be new. A tag added to an existing customer enrols them just the same.
•
An optional cancel-on-upgrade rule — Automatically
cancel this membership when the customer buys a paid membership ends the
free auto-assigned membership as soon as the member pays for another one.
Note: There is nothing to switch on. The tag trigger is already live on every account with the Membership V2 module enabled.
Before You Begin
• The Membership V2 module must be enabled on your account. If it is not in your left navigation, add it from the Customize modules panel at the bottom of the menu.
• The automatic assignment settings appear only under Manual renewal mode. Selecting Auto renewal mode hides them entirely, so choose the mode first.
• Only one plan in the whole store can be auto-assigned at a time — on signup or by tag. If another plan already holds it, setting it on this plan takes it away from that one.
• Decide on the tag before you start, and check how it is actually written on your customers. The tag you enter has to be a tag your store sets; it cannot be a tag AiTrillion adds to members itself.
•
The rest of the plan form still applies — plan name,
customer tag, membership product and renewal cycle all have to be filled in
before the plan will save.
Step 1: Open Membership Plans
Go to Membership
V2 › Membership plans in the left navigation. Expand Membership V2
if the group is collapsed.
Figure 1: Expand Membership V2 and open
Membership plans.
The page lists
every plan on your store under Active plans, with the renewal mode shown
as a badge beside each name and the date it was created underneath.
Step 2: Create a Plan, or Edit an Existing One
The tag rule is
part of the plan itself, so it is set while creating a plan or while editing
one. Click Create new plan in the top right of the card for a new plan,
or Edit on the row of the plan you want to change.
Figure 2: Create new plan, and the Edit
link on an existing plan — the setting is reached either way.
Note: Editing a live plan changes the rule for everyone it applies to from that point on. If a plan is already selling, consider putting the tag rule on a separate free plan rather than on the one customers are paying for.
Step 3: Choose Manual Renewal Mode
The form opens
on Choose membership mode with two cards, Auto renewal mode and Manual
renewal mode. Select Manual renewal mode.
Figure 3: Choose membership mode. The
automatic assignment settings appear only under Manual renewal mode.
This is not a
cosmetic choice. Under Auto renewal mode there is no Automatically
assign this plan to customers checkbox at all — the section is not
rendered. If you cannot find the setting, this is almost always why.
Step 4: Turn On Automatic Assignment
Below the two
mode cards, tick Automatically assign this plan to customers.
Figure 4: Automatically assign this plan
to customers — the checkbox that reveals the trigger options.
The line underneath states the rule that governs the whole feature: enrolled customers receive the plan’s benefits automatically, and only one plan can be set to auto-assign at a time.
If another plan
already holds the setting, a confirmation appears as soon as you tick the box.
It names the plan that holds it and says what will happen.
Figure 5: The confirmation shown when
another plan is already auto-assigned. It names that plan.
Click Yes,
use this plan to move the setting to the plan you are editing, or Cancel
to leave things as they are. Moving it does not cancel the memberships the
other plan has already granted; it stops that plan from granting any more.
Step 5: Choose the Tag Trigger
Two options
appear under the checkbox. Select When the customer has a tag.
Figure 6: The two triggers. When the
customer has a tag is the new one.
• On signup — the original behaviour. Every new customer created in your store is enrolled automatically, and existing customers are untouched.
• When the customer has a tag — any customer carrying the tag you nominate is enrolled, whether the tag was already on them when they were created or was added later.
The two are
alternatives, not a combination. Selecting one deselects the other.
Step 6: Enter the Customer Tag
Choosing the
tag trigger reveals a required Customer tag to match field. Type the tag
exactly as it appears on your customers — vip-member in this example.
Figure 7: Customer tag to match, holding
the tag that decides enrolment.
• One tag, not a list. The field takes a single tag. Matching on several tags, or on a combination of tags, is not available from this screen.
• Spelling has to match. Enter it as it is written on the customer, hyphens and all. A customer tagged vip member is not matched by vip-member.
• Case does not matter. Matching is not case-sensitive, so vip-member and VIP-Member are treated as the same tag.
• It has to be your own tag. The field will not take a tag that AiTrillion adds to members itself — that would have the rule enrol from its own output.
Take care not
to confuse this field with the Customer tag field further down the form,
in the Create membership plan section. They do opposite jobs.
Figure 8: Customer tag to match (top)
decides who is enrolled. Customer tag (bottom) is the tag the plan applies to
its members.
• Customer tag to match is an input to the rule — the tag AiTrillion looks for on a customer in order to enrol them.
• Customer tag is an output of the plan — the tag the plan gives to the customers who hold it, for use in segments and elsewhere in your store.
Note: Do not set the two fields to the same value. A plan that matches on the very tag it also applies would be enrolling from its own tagging rather than from yours.
Step 7: Decide What Happens on a Paid Upgrade
The last option
in the section, Automatically cancel this membership when the customer buys
a paid membership, is optional and off by default.
Figure 9: The optional cancel-on-upgrade rule.
Tick it and an
auto-assigned member who later buys any other paid membership has the
auto-assigned one cancelled for them. Leave it clear and the member keeps both
— the free membership from the tag and the paid one they bought. Tick it for a
free tier that a paid tier is meant to replace; leave it clear when the two are
genuinely separate benefits.
Step 8: Fill In the Rest of the Plan and Save
The automatic
assignment section is only part of the form. Below it, Create membership
plan still needs the plan name and customer tag, Membership product
needs a product id, and Membership manual plan needs a renewal cycle and
duration. Complete those, then click Save in the top right.
Figure 10: Save, in the top-right corner of the plan form.
On an existing plan the same button reads Update. Nothing is applied until it is pressed — selecting the tag trigger and typing a tag changes nothing on its own, and leaving the page without saving discards it.
Step 9: Check the Enrolment
Enrolment
happens as customers are matched, so the place to confirm it is the member list
rather than the plan. Go to Membership V2 › Members, which lists
everyone holding a membership along with the number of active memberships each
one has.
Figure 11: The Members list — where a
customer enrolled by tag shows up.
Note: Email
addresses are blurred in this figure. Your own list shows them in full.
If a customer you expect is missing, check the tag on their customer record in Shopify first. The rule can only match what is actually written there.
What to Use It For
Running a VIP tier from a tag you already keep
If your team already tags top customers, point the plan at that tag. The membership and its perks then follow the tag, and nobody has to remember to assign the plan by hand.
Giving a membership to a group that never bought one
Wholesale accounts, staff, beta testers, event attendees — tag the group in Shopify and they are enrolled without a transaction.
Moving an existing customer base into a membership
On signup only catches customers created from that moment on. A tag catches the customers you already have, which makes it the practical choice for rolling a membership out to people who signed up long ago.
Running a free tier underneath your paid plans
Combine the tag trigger with the cancel-on-upgrade option. Tagged customers get the free tier, and it steps aside automatically the day one of them buys a paid membership.
Important Notes
Note: One plan at a time, store-wide. The limit covers both triggers. A plan set to auto-assign on signup and a plan set to auto-assign by tag cannot both be active — setting one removes the other.
Note: The setting lives under Manual renewal mode only. Switching a plan to Auto renewal mode takes the whole automatic assignment section off the form.
Note: One tag per plan. The field takes a single tag, not a list.
Note: Matching ignores case but not spelling. vip-member matches VIP-Member. It does not match vip member or vipmember.
Note: The tag has to be one your store sets. A tag AiTrillion adds to members cannot be used as the tag to match.
Note: Customer tag to match and Customer tag are different fields with opposite jobs. One decides who is enrolled; the other is applied to members.
Note: The screen describes enrolment, not removal. It states that a customer carrying the tag is enrolled; it does not say the membership ends when the tag is taken off again. If a membership has to stop, end it from Memberships rather than assuming the untagging did it.
Troubleshooting
I cannot find the automatic assignment settings
The plan is on Auto renewal mode. The section only exists under Manual renewal mode — switch the mode and the checkbox appears beneath the two cards.
"Only one auto-assign plan is allowed" appears when I tick the box
Another plan already holds the setting, and the message names it. Click Yes, use this plan to move it to the plan you are editing, or Cancel to leave it where it is.
The tag field is marked required and the plan will not save
Customer tag to match carries a red asterisk. Choosing When the customer has a tag and leaving it empty leaves the form incomplete. Enter the tag, or switch the trigger back to On signup.
Customers with the tag are not being enrolled
Compare the tag on the customer in Shopify against the tag in the field, character by character. Spaces and hyphens are the usual culprits. Then confirm the plan was actually saved with the trigger selected — reopen it and check the radio button is still on When the customer has a tag.
The wrong plan is being assigned
Open the plan you expect and confirm its checkbox is still ticked. If auto-assign was set on a different plan afterwards, this one lost it — the confirmation dialogue moves the setting rather than sharing it.
A member bought a paid membership and still holds the free one
That is the default. Automatically cancel this membership when the customer buys a paid membership was left clear on the auto-assigned plan. Tick it to have the free membership stand down on a paid purchase from then on.
The tag was removed from the customer but the membership is still there
The screen only describes enrolment. Cancel the membership from Membership V2 › Memberships if it has to end.
Next ⏭️
• Membership Plans: Creating and Managing Plans
• Membership Perks: What Members Get
• Import Members into a Membership Plan