Membership V2: Organize Plans into Membership Groups with Flexible Rules

Membership V2: Organize Plans into Membership Groups with Flexible Rules

Introduction

Many stores sell more than one kind of membership — for example, a ladder of tiers such as Silver, Gold and Platinum, a free plan, and a separate VIP or exclusive-access plan. Until now, every plan worked on its own, so there was no way to say “a customer can only be on one of these tiers at a time” or “don’t let a Platinum member drop back to Silver”.

Membership Groups in AiTrillion Membership V2 solve this. You put related plans into a group, set rules for that group, rank the plans inside it, and then choose how memberships in different groups affect each other when a customer buys a new plan. AiTrillion then handles the upgrades, blocked downgrades and cancellations for you.

This article shows you how to create a membership group, set its rules and plan priority, choose the cross-group behaviour for your store, and manage your groups day to day.


What's New

•   Membership groups — organise your plans into separate groups, for example Group A for Basic and Premium, Group B for Gold and Platinum, and Group C for Exclusive memberships.

•   Plan priority within a group — drag plans into order; the top plan has the highest priority.

•   One active plan per group (exclusive) — a customer can hold only one active plan from the group at a time.

•   Prevent downgrades — a member on a higher-priority plan can’t move to a lower-priority plan in the same group.

•   Allow or protect cross-group cancellation — decide, per group, whether buying a plan from another group may cancel this group’s plans.

•   Cross-group behaviour — choose Latest purchase or By priority to decide which group wins when a customer has memberships in several groups.


Before You Begin

•   The Membership V2 module must be enabled. If it is not in your left navigation, add it from the Customize modules panel.

•   Create your membership plans first (Membership V2 › Membership plans). A group is built from existing plans.

•   A plan can belong to only one group. Plans that are already in a group do not appear in another group’s plan list.

•   Decide on your structure before you start: which plans belong together, which plan ranks highest in each group, and whether newer purchases or a fixed group ranking should win across groups.


Step 1: Open Membership Groups

In the left navigation, expand Membership V2 and click Membership groups. The Plan groups page lists every group with its plans, rules, cross-group setting and status. Click Create group to start a new one.


Figure 1: Open Membership V2 › Membership groups and click Create group.


Step 2: Name the Group

Under Group details, enter a Group name — for example, Membership tiers. The name is only a label for you; customers never see it.


Figure 2: Enter a group name under Group details.


The group name is required. If you click Save without one, the field turns red and shows Group name is required.

Figure 3: Saving without a name shows “Group name is required”.


Step 3: Set the Rules for This Group

The Rules section controls how a customer’s memberships behave inside this group.

One active plan per group (exclusive)

Turn this on so a customer can hold only one active plan from this group at a time. When a customer buys a different plan from the same group, the plan priority you set in Step 4 decides which plan wins.

Prevent downgrades

Turn this on to stop a member on a higher-priority plan from moving to a lower-priority plan in the same group — for example, a Platinum member cannot drop to Silver. This keeps your membership ladder intact and makes sure customers follow the upgrade path you intend.


Figure 4: Turn on One active plan per group, then Prevent downgrades.


Note: Prevent downgrades is greyed out until One active plan per group is turned on. If you later turn off One active plan per group, Prevent downgrades is turned off with it.


Step 4: Decide Whether Other Groups Can Cancel These Plans

The third rule, Allow this group’s plans to be cancelled by other groups, is on by default. While it is on, when a member buys into another group, this group’s plans can be cancelled according to the cross-group behaviour you choose in Step 7.

Turn it off to protect this group’s plans: they will stay active even when the customer buys a plan from another group. This is useful for plans you never want replaced automatically, such as a paid VIP or exclusive-access membership.


Figure 5: Leave this on to let other groups cancel these plans, or turn it off to protect them.


Note: Cancellation includes paid subscriptions. When a paid plan is cancelled this way, the subscription is cancelled on Shopify immediately, and no refund is issued.

Step 5: Add Plans and Set Their Priority

Under Plans & priority, open the Add a plan dropdown and select a plan. Repeat for every plan you want in this group. The list shows only plans that are not yet in a group.


Figure 6: Select each plan from the Add a plan dropdown.


The added plans appear in a list below. Drag a plan by its handle (⠿) to change its position — the top plan has the highest priority. In this example, Platinum ranks above Gold, and Gold ranks above Silver. To take a plan out of the group, click Remove; it returns to the Add a plan list.

Figure 7: Drag the plans into order — the top plan has the highest priority.


Step 6: Save the Group

Click Save (at the top right or at the bottom of the page). AiTrillion shows Group saved. and returns you to the Plan groups list, where your new group appears with its number of plans and its rules.


Figure 8: The saved group appears in the Plan groups list.


Repeat Steps 1–6 for each group you need. The Rules column shows each group’s rules as badges, so you can compare groups at a glance:

•   ONE ACTIVE PLAN — One active plan per group is on.

•   NO DOWNGRADE — Prevent downgrades is on.

•   NO PAID PLAN CANCEL — Allow this group’s plans to be cancelled by other groups is off, so the group is protected.


Figure 9: The Rules column shows each group’s rules as badges.

Step 7: Choose the Cross-Group Behaviour

At the top of the Plan groups page, Cross-group behavior decides what happens to a customer’s plans in other groups when they buy a plan in one group. This setting applies to all groups. Open the dropdown and choose one of the two strategies.


Figure 10: Choose Latest purchase or By priority under Cross-group behavior.


A. Latest purchase (default)

The group the customer bought from most recently takes precedence. When a customer buys a plan from another group, their active plans in the previously purchased groups are cancelled, and the eligible plans in the newly purchased group stay active.

Example: a customer has active memberships in Group A and Group B, then buys a plan from Group C. Result: Group A — cancelled, Group B — cancelled, Group C — active.


B. By priority

You rank the groups, and the highest-priority group takes precedence over lower-priority groups, regardless of the order in which the customer bought them. When you select By priority, a Priority column appears with a rank (#1, #2, #3…) for every enabled group. Drag a group by its handle (⠿), or use the ▲ and ▼ arrows, to change its rank. AiTrillion confirms each change with Priority updated successfully.


Figure 11: With By priority selected, rank the groups in the Priority column.


Example: Group A is priority 1 (highest), Group B is priority 2 and Group C is priority 3 (lowest). A customer with memberships in Group B and Group C buys a plan from Group A. Result: Group A — active, Group B — cancelled, Group C — cancelled. Even if the customer later buys a plan from a lower-priority group, the higher-priority group’s membership keeps precedence.


Note: A group whose Allow this group’s plans to be cancelled by other groups rule is off (badge NO PAID PLAN CANCEL) is never cancelled by either strategy.

Managing Your Groups

Turn a group on or off

Use the Status switch on a group’s row. An enabled group takes part in the cross-group rules. A disabled group is fully excluded: it won’t cancel other groups’ plans, and its own plans won’t be cancelled. Disabled groups show a dash (—) in the Priority and Cross-group columns.


Figure 12: Use the Status switch to enable or disable a group.


Edit a group

Click Edit on a group’s row. The Edit group page opens with the same sections as when you created it. Change the name, rules, plans or plan order, then click Update.


Figure 13: Change the group on the Edit group page and click Update.


Delete a group

Click Delete on a group’s row, then Yes, delete it to confirm. The group’s plans become ungrouped, so they are free to add to another group. Deleting a group does not cancel any customer’s membership.


Figure 14: Confirm the deletion. The plans are ungrouped and no memberships are cancelled.


Add a plan to a group from the plan itself

When you create or edit a membership plan (Membership V2 › Membership plans), the optional Membership group field lets you pick the group the plan belongs to. Leave it at No group to keep the plan outside all groups. Set the plan’s ranking within the group on the Plan groups screen.


Figure 15: Choose a group in the Membership group field of a membership plan.


Important Notes

Note: Cross-group behaviour is a store-wide setting. Changing it from Latest purchase to By priority, or back, affects every enabled group at once.

Note: Cancelling a paid plan because of a group rule cancels the Shopify subscription immediately and issues no refund. Turn off Allow this group’s plans to be cancelled by other groups on any group whose paid plans must never be cancelled automatically.

Note: Group rules are applied when a customer buys a new plan. Test a new group setup with a test customer before relying on it for live members.

Note: Plan priority (inside a group) and group priority (across groups) are separate. Plan priority is set on the Create or Edit group page; group priority is set in the Priority column of the Plan groups list and is used only when Cross-group behavior is By priority.


Troubleshooting

I can’t find a plan in the Add a plan dropdown.

The plan is probably already in another group — a plan can belong to only one group. Remove it from that group (or set its Membership group to No group), and it will appear in the list again.

“Prevent downgrades” is greyed out.

Turn on One active plan per group (exclusive) first. Prevent downgrades only works when a customer can hold one plan from the group at a time.

I don’t see the Priority column numbers.

Group ranks are shown only when Cross-group behavior is set to By priority, and only for enabled groups. With Latest purchase selected, or for a disabled group, the column shows a dash (—).

A customer’s plan in another group was not cancelled.

Check that the other group is enabled and that its Allow this group’s plans to be cancelled by other groups rule is on. Groups with the NO PAID PLAN CANCEL badge, and disabled groups, are never cancelled by a purchase in another group.

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Next ⏭️

Now that your plans are grouped, review each plan’s perks and renewal settings under Membership V2 › Membership plans, and keep an eye on member changes under Membership V2 › Memberships.