Decide what access actually means
Write down what a member gets that a non member does not: the files, the timetable, the price. That list is the product, and being specific is most of the work.
Memberships
Sell access, and let the payment decide who has it.
A membership renews the way a subscription does, but what renews is entry rather than a parcel. Paying opens it, lapsing closes it, and neither is something you have to remember to do.
14-day free trial. No card required.
Member since today
Delivered instantly
Delivered instantly
Payment received$420
How do I sell memberships online?
A membership sells access rather than a shipment. You charge on a repeating schedule the way a subscription does, but what renews is entry to something: a library of files, a class timetable, or a members only price on the rest of your catalog. In Crate a membership is a selling plan attached to a product that grants a digital entitlement, so paying unlocks what the member is entitled to and a lapsed payment closes it again without you keeping a list of who is current. Members reach what they bought through a private link tied to their own purchase. The customer record shows who joined, who renewed and who lapsed, so the list is a screen rather than a spreadsheet.
How to start selling a membership.
Getting started
Four steps, in order. Each one is a screen you can open on the first day, not a project.
Upload what sits behind it
Add the files, guides or recordings members get. They live against the product rather than in an outbox, so adding one later reaches everybody instead of only new joiners.
Set the plan and the price
Build a selling plan with the renewal period and the member price. An annual option or an introductory rate is a second plan, not a special case you maintain by hand.
Invite the customers you already have
Your customer list is already in Crate, so the first members usually come from people who have bought from you before rather than from strangers.
What is different about selling a membership.
What is different here
Every kind of product has a detail that decides whether the software fits. These are the ones that decide it here.
Access, not delivery
Nothing leaves a building. What the payment buys is entitlement, so the question is never where the parcel is, it is whether this person is entitled today. That is a different thing to fulfil and it is fulfilled differently.
Lapsing has to close the door by itself
A membership granted by hand is a membership somebody has to revoke by hand, and nobody does that reliably. Entitlement follows the payment, so a lapsed member loses access without a decision being made about them personally.
What you add later is the renewal
A subscriber who receives a box can see what they are paying for and a member cannot, so the reason to renew is whatever arrived since they joined. Files added to the product reach existing members, not only the next ones.
Your buyers are already in a thread.
Where you sell
Memberships are sold to people who already trust you, and that trust is usually built in a thread or on a profile rather than on a landing page.
In your market that usually means Your store, Instagram and In person.
Card, Apple Pay, Google Pay and bank transfer.
Getting paid
Joining and every renewal are taken by card, Apple Pay, Google Pay or bank transfer, using the method the member chose when they joined. Automatic payouts to your bank.
Money from card sales lands in your bank account on a rolling two-day schedule. Nothing to claim, nothing to withdraw.
- Card
- Apple Pay
- Google Pay
- Bank transfer
How the file reaches the buyer.
Delivery
There is nothing to pack. Paying grants the entitlement and opens a private link to whatever sits behind the membership, and that link keeps working for as long as the membership is current.
- The moment the payment clears, the buyer gets a link of their own. Nothing waits on you being awake.
- The link is tokenised and limited. It belongs to that order, it expires, and it cannot be forwarded around indefinitely.
- Upload a new version and the same buyers can fetch it again, so an update is a re-upload rather than twenty five emails.
- Large files are served directly, so a slow connection resumes rather than starting the download again.
What it costs.
One subscription covers the store, the catalog, the order queue, the customer records and the counter. There is no separate charge for selling in chat, and no charge per kind of product.
Priced and paid in US dollars. Every plan opens with a free trial and no card.
What you would actually use.
The product
Named plainly, and each one has a page of its own if you want the detail.
Payments and payouts
Take card, Apple Pay, Google Pay and bank transfer, the ways your customers actually pay....
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Customers
Every customer and their full order history land on file automatically. Group them into...
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Discounts
Codes, automatic offers and campaigns from one dashboard. Set a rule once, share a code or...
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Selling memberships, answered.
What is the difference between a membership and a subscription?
A subscription renews a delivery and a membership renews access. Both sit on a selling plan, but a membership grants an entitlement instead of creating something to ship.
How do members reach what they paid for?
Through a private link tied to their purchase. There is no separate members site to build and no shared password for you to hand out.
What happens when somebody stops paying?
Their entitlement ends with the payment, so access closes without you keeping a list of who is still current.
Can I add files after people have joined?
Yes, and that is the point of selling access rather than a one off download. What you add sits behind the same membership, so existing members get it too.
Can members get a different price on my other products?
Yes. A discount can be aimed at the customers holding the membership, so being a member is worth something beyond the files.
Can I offer monthly and annual?
Yes. That is two selling plans on one product rather than two products, so the member picks the period at checkout.
Where does the money land?
In your own payout account, in US dollars. Money from card sales lands in your bank account on a rolling two-day schedule. Nothing to claim, nothing to withdraw.
Selling something else?
Nearby
The same platform underneath, told in the language of the thing you make.