Shopify is an e-commerce website platform, but you can create more than just physical products with Shopify.

"Shopify" is actually quite suitable for running a membership-based content distribution site, and there are many things you can do with it!

Shopify is originally an e-commerce cart system, so it is very easy to link and manage payments. If you are thinking about content distribution, you should consider Shopify!

In this article

• What content is it suitable for?
• How do I make payment?
• Two real-life examples
• What else can it be used for?

I would like to explain it from this perspective.

What kind of content is it suitable for?

There are two main reasons why Shopify is best suited for delivering paid content:

• Blog Post
• Video Streaming

These two are easy-to-operate content delivery methods .

What's not so strong is content that requires two-way interaction.

There is a way to use the blog comment function, but the customer side cannot freely create threads, so if it is two-way, some other tool will be needed. If you use a somewhat forceful method, it might be possible to do two-way communication using LINE? I think, but it's hard to say that it is suitable.

Since Shopify was originally an e-commerce cart, it is extremely adept at managing customer information in accordance with their "purchases" !

Making the most of that capability, you can control what content is visible using apps or a code called liquid , so it's great for creating blogs that can only be viewed by paid members ! It's much easier to implement than using other CSMs like WordPress, so the cost is relatively low!

You can also take advantage of VIMEO's feature that makes it easy to control which pages and parts are shown, and you can quickly create a membership-based video distribution site using VIMEO.

VIMEO has a feature that YouTube does not have called "domain-restricted playback."

This is a feature that allows you to only play videos uploaded to VIMEO on specific domains, and also makes it impossible to download them.

"Shopify Control ✖ VIMEO Domain Restricted Playback"

By using this, that is, by making the page itself, which contains video content that can only be played on a unique domain, viewable only by paying members, you can quickly create a video distribution site that can only be viewed by paying members.

We will explain the above two points later using an example site where they have been implemented.

How do I make payment?

In the case of paid content

• One-time charge
• Monthly regular billing

Broadly speaking, there are two methods as mentioned above, but in both cases, the solution is closely related to an app called “shopify FLOW” that automates various things on shopify.

Click here to see what kind of app it is.

One of the things that can be automated with shopify FLOW is the action of "tagging customers."

Shopify allows you to add "tags" to customer information, which can then be used to segment customer information or set up pages that are " only visible to people with certain tags."

Therefore, if you use shopify FLOW to give a tag such as "member" to a customer when they purchase a product, you can treat the customer as a paying member.

In the case of one-time charges , the setup is not that difficult, and all you have to do is set up the system to assign customer tags according to the product purchased, so it's very easy. After that, you can customize the page a little, but this requires implementation using an app (which costs a monthly fee) or liquid, so you need to consider this based on your budget and what you want to do.

Additionally, for one-time purchases, you can select "the moment of payment" (Order Paid) as the trigger (the trigger for executing automatic processing) , so you can assign tags to members regardless of the payment method , whether it's credit card, AmazonPay, or convenience store payment!

On the other hand, if you want to be charged on a regular monthly basis (it doesn't have to be monthly, but every three months or so is also fine), shopify FLOW alone cannot handle the regular charges, so you will need an app that makes regular purchases (a subscription app).

However, not all subscription apps are compatible with Shopify FLOW, so you'll need to set it up in a compatible app.

For example, in the case of "MIKAWAYA Subscription" in Japan, the timing for activating the automatic processing function called a trigger is

• The moment you purchase a subscription
• The moment you cancel your subscription

In other words, it can be activated at both the entrance and exit.

Shopify FLOW can automatically process the following: " Add a tag when a purchase is made " and " Delete the tag when a purchase is cancelled ," making it possible to operate a subscription-based membership site.

By the way, FLOW also has a function called “wait,” which allows you to set things like “delete tags seven days after subscription is suspended,” so you can have a few days of grace after a subscription member cancels.

However, since subscription apps are designed to use Shopify Payment, payment methods are limited to credit cards.

Well, subscriptions are rarely available with anything other than credit cards, so I don't think it's a problem.

Now that we know what can be done and how payments are made, let's look at two implementation examples.

Actual implementation examples

This time, we will introduce two examples of implementation: "One-man EC Takuya Miura's Online Salon," which was implemented as a blog, and our company's community "Liquid Masters," which was implemented as a video distribution platform.

Implementation example 1: Solo EC Takuya Miura's online salon

Miura-san:

• Solo EC: Online store management that can greatly increase sales even for individuals
• The ultimate EC management technique to achieve monthly sales of 1 million yen

He is an extremely accomplished solo e-commerce industry writer , having also written books such as:
It's a fantastic book, having reached number one on Amazon's bestseller list .

She runs an online salon where people can practice solo e-commerce, and she uses her blog to distribute the content .

At first, you implemented a page that only paid members could see using an app, but you thought that if you had the ability to "read partway through" blog content, it would be easier to encourage people to upgrade to paid membership.

I suggested, "What about making it a blog that you can see part of the way through?" and we are now implementing it.

As an example of this implementation, the current blog looks like this:

As you can see, anyone can read the beginning of the blog , but non-members will see a link to "Read more."

When a member accesses the same page, the "To see more" section will not be displayed, and members-only content will be available below .

In addition, to make it easier for non-members to proceed to the "membership procedure" to become a member, there is a button link , which increases the transition rate and makes it much easier to understand than having the line to become a member make the entire page invisible.

Also, Miura's content is "monthly" content, so as introduced in the previous chapter,

MIKAWAYA Subscription ✖ shopify FLOW

This method is implemented by adding and removing tags to members.

Implementation example 2: Liquid Masters

This is a content run by our company exclusively for Shopify engineers, commonly known as "Rikimasu". The main contents are

• Course for Shopify engineers
• Join the Shopify engineer community

We provide content such as:

As for the content for engineers , it is a one-off purchase with individual sales of "Beginner," "Intermediate," and "Advanced," as well as a "All Courses Set" which includes all courses.

We have a system in place that automatically assigns tags to customers based on the content they purchase, so someone who only purchases the intermediate level can only see the intermediate level content , while someone who purchases all courses can see all content .

If you actually look at the content page, if you haven't purchased the course,

In this way, you cannot see the contents of the content, but if you access the same page after purchasing

This is how you can see the content.

You can also see the video content uploaded to "VIMEO" at the bottom of the image. This method allows us to sell our courses by adopting a system that ensures that the content can only be viewed by those who purchase the course .

The other is a paid community, which is actually run using the SNS app "Discrod," which is familiar to gamers. This is relatively easy to implement for one-time purchase content , but it is a bit more difficult to operate for monthly memberships .

In the case of one-time purchase content, Shopify has a way to deliver "messages exclusive to those who purchase a specific product" to buyers.

Therefore, we recruit members for Liquid Masters once every six months, and at that time we sell special membership registration products .

As usual, people who purchase the product will be given a "tag" so they will be able to view the course immediately after purchase, but they will also receive "special information" at the same time as the purchase.

This will also include information on how to register for Discord for paid membership, so all that's left for the person to do is register for Discord themselves.

We are getting by by having a system where invitation links are only sent to members.

However, this is possible because it is a one-time purchase .

In the case of monthly membership , how do you delete a member from "Discrod"? This causes problems, so it is difficult to make adjustments in that area. If the number of members is small, it may be impossible to deal with it manually, but if the number of members is large, it will be extremely difficult.

What else can it be used for?

So far I have written about "blog" and "video streaming" membership sites, but I would also like to consider what else can be done.

One of its most useful features is the ability to assign "tags" based on purchases, which is useful when creating a membership-based site with Shopify.

So, you just need to think about what you can do depending on the tag.

Membership-based shopping site

The kind of website you can imagine is something like an online version of Costco.

The method is to charge a yearly membership fee and sell the membership at a special price to members.

Speaking of apps that can change the product price depending on the customer tag, there are "Wholsales" type apps . Usually, these apps are used for "wholesale", but they can also be used for membership discounts even if you don't wholesale.

• Gold Member 20% off
• Silver Member 10% off
• Bronze Member 5% off

It is also possible to operate it like this.

LINE message delivery

The most useful function that customer tags can provide is customer segmentation.

I would like to have a function that allows me to segment only customers with a specific tag and issue messages or coupons to them. As for apps that can use this segment,

CRM PLUS on LINE

There is an app called ``,'' which has a segment delivery function.

In this example, only the standard segment is shown, but it is also possible to deliver to segments such as "Gold Members."

One drawback of LINE-based apps is that the linking of LINE with the store is left up to the customer, so you have to guide them to link their account via email or other means the moment they first register as a member, but anyone who becomes a paid member will definitely do this, so I don't think it's a big problem.

After that, by using features such as removing tags from subscription apps, it may be possible to run a community that allows for two-way communication!

summary

Since Shopify is an EC site platform, you may be tempted to use it to create an EC site, but it is actually quite versatile and can also be used to run a membership-based site like this.

• Blog content
• Video streaming content

As we have already introduced these two examples, they work extremely well together.

There are many other things you can do, so please consider using it. I'm sure there are many things you can do!