Selling Unlimited Memberships

The most basic case of a membership product is that which once acquired, grants unlimited membership to one or more groups.

In this case, we will set up a membership product which grants unlimited membership to the Premium group.

This is an example display of what we would like our customers to see advertised in the shop … In the first half of the following video, you will see how easy it is to set up an unlimited membership product. You will find details on the steps involved below.

Adding the new Product

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As usual when creating a new product, go to Products > Add Product … We will name this product Unlimited Premium Membership or any name you find more suitable. We also add a sensible description for this example.

Choosing the Product Type

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In the Product data panel below the description:

• Product Type – Select Simple product as the Product Type if you want to offer membership based on a one-time fee. If you choose Variable product instead, you can select different groups per variation.
• Virtual – Check the Virtual box if this is not a tangible product – if you are just selling the membership and will not be shipping anything to the customer, the product would be virtual. But if you are setting up a tangible product that will be shipped to the customer and which also grants access to restricted content, do not check the Virtual box.

Choosing the Membership

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In the Product Data panel:

• General – Set up the product price in the General tab.
• Groups – Click the Groups tab and select the Premium group.

As this is an unlimited membership, we do not specify a duration and leave this setting at its default (empty).

Choosing Memberships per Variation

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For variable products and variable subscriptions, the memberships can also be based on the individual product variation that is purchased by the customer. This is in addition to the base membership(s) determined for the parent variable product in the Groups section of the Product data panel. Given a variable product which uses an attribute for variations, we can choose which group memberships should be applied for each variation. Below we are using an attribute called Access which we have created as an example. This attribute has two terms, Basic and Premium, and we will set the variations up so that a customer is assigned to corresponding groups of the same name. To determine group memberships for a particular variation, edit your variable product and go to the Variations section of its Product data panel. In our example, we will choose the Basic group membership for the variation that relates to the Basic term of the Access attribute. Please note that to follow our example, you must also create those groups as documented here before you can choose them. We also choose the Premium group for the Premium variation: We can also see these membership assignments for the product’s variations reflected when reviewing the product entry in the Products section: As we can see, the variation that is related to the Basic attribute term will assign Basic membership to the customer that buys the variation. Likewise for the variation related to the Premium term and group. The duration of the membership is determined by the duration of the variable product. In this case, the duration is unlimited. If we were to set a duration for the variable product, the duration of the memberships resultant from the groups set for its variations would be that of their variable parent product.

Publish and test it …

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With the essential parameters of the product defined, we can add it to our shop. Click Publish to create the new membership product and have a look at how it is displayed in the shop. To test it, visit the shop while you are logged out or use another browser. Go to the product page and add it to the cart. Once you have completed the checkout as a new customer and made the payment, your order status should be either Processing or Completed according to the chosen Settings. The new customer’s account should now reflect the unlimited membership.