If you're looking to sell subscriptions for an online course or in-person workshop

you can set this up using the Ongoing app.

We'll go over capabilities and limitations.

Ongoing helps with the recurring billing aspect of memberships, in terms of giving access to the service, that would be the merchant's responsibility.

Let's say I wanted to offer a monthly online class that my customers can subscribe to.

How to set it up

Step 1: Create a new product on my Shopify store; call it something like "Monthly Online Class"

Add a price and some inventory.

Step 2: From Ongoing, create a monthly subscription plan & add the product you just created.

Step 3: Add the subscription widget to your theme. To make a subscription-only product, you can remove the one-time purchase option.

Will my subscriber get an email after they subscribe?

Yes, they will get an email welcoming them to the subscriber portal where they can manage their subscription to your workshop. They can pause, cancel, or make changes.

How do I send the video to my customer?

You can email them the link (we recommend using Google Drive or Dropbox for storing your videos in the cloud).

An automated welcome email gets sent out from Ongoing, and you can add this link to the email template.

Shopify apps that offer "digital downloads" such as:

Can I hide my videos from non-members?

This is not currently available out of the box. However, since we offer "customer tagging," you could implement an "access management" solution on your end to make this possible. We also offer API.

Can I have member-only content?

If you want members to access all of your online videos with a monthly membership, this is not currently available out of the box. However, since we offer "customer tagging," you could implement an "access management" solution on your end to make this possible. We also offer API.

Inside the Ongoing app, you can see a list of all active subscribers.

How do I know who is still paying ( active subscribers vs inactive subscribers)?

From Ongoing, you will see a list of subscribers with their status: active, canceled, and paused.

You can set up "customer tagging" on Ongoing. If they are paying, they have the tag, if they stop paying, the tag gets removed.

What if my class or workshop changes monthly (like a new theme)?

That's OK. You can have a new class or workshop every month. You would still need to use one Shopify product. Feel free to change the product title or product description to suit your needs. You would not create multiple products. The subscription will need to be tied to a single general product.

Will my customer be automatically charged?

Yes,

The workshop scenario would work similarly to the above example.

Let's say I wanted to offer a monthly workshop that my customers can subscribe to.

Step 1: I would create a new product on my Shopify store called "Monthly Workshop"

You add a price and some inventory.

Step 2: From Ongoing, create a monthly subscription plan & add the product you just created.

Step 3: Add the subscription widget to your theme. To make a subscription-only product, you can remove the one-time purchase option.

🚀 As always, email us at Ongoing if you have any questions!