Tiers and Pricing

What Are Tiers?

Tiers are the different membership levels within your club, membership or program. They let you offer multiple options under one offering so members can choose the level that suits them best. MemberZone calls them tiers, levels or plans to match your business; this guide says tier.

For example, a "Sunset Wine Club" might have three tiers:

• Explorer - A lighter commitment with three bottles per shipment at a lower price
• Connoisseur - The standard selection with six bottles per shipment
• Collector - A curated collection of your best wines at a premium price

Each tier has its own pricing, bottle count, billing frequency, description, and rewards. Members pick the tier they want when they join your club.

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Tier Fields

You set up each tier in its own editor, from the "Set up your tiers" screen of your program setup (see How to Create, Edit, and Manage Your Programs). The main fields:

• Name (required, Basics step) - The name members see when choosing a membership level (e.g., "Explorer", "Connoisseur", "Collector")
• Short description (Basics step) - What the tier includes and why a member should choose it
• Price (Billing step) - The total price per billing period, in dollars. This is the full amount charged each period - it is not a per-item price. For example, if a 6-bottle tier costs $150 per quarter, the price is $150. An optional enrollment fee can be added. Release tiers set the price range members can expect instead.
• Billing frequency (Billing step) - How often members in this tier are billed, and the day the charge lands (subscriptions only - see below)
• Items per delivery (Contents step) - How many items members receive each time. Access-only tiers have no items and no Contents step.
• Who picks the items (Contents step) - You curate them or Members choose (see Inventory Control Mode)

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Billing Frequency

Billing frequency determines how often members are charged. The available frequencies depend on how your program runs.

Subscriptions (Items on a Schedule or Access Only)

For subscriptions, each tier has a billing frequency. The available options are:

Frequency	How Often Members Are Charged
Monthly	Every month
Every Other Month	Every two months
Quarterly	Every three months
Semi-Annually	Every six months
Annually	Once a year

Tiers can also bill Weekly or Every 2 Weeks. On a program with items, the billing frequency has to fit how often the items go out: a whole number of deliveries per bill, and weeks never mix with months. A program fulfilled weekly takes plans billed weekly or every 2 weeks, one fulfilled every 2 weeks takes plans billed every 2 weeks, and one fulfilled monthly or longer takes plans billed monthly or longer. Plans billed by the week on a shared schedule renew every Monday (every other Monday for every 2 weeks), so they have no billing day or month, and their cancellation deadline can be at most 6 days. See Weekly and Every-2-Weeks Programs.

The billing frequency is set per tier, so different tiers within the same program can have different frequencies if needed. Once a member joins, they're automatically billed at the tier's frequency until they cancel or their membership is paused.

Releases

Release programs do not have a billing frequency. Members are billed per release - they're only charged when you create and send out a release. There's no fixed schedule. You decide when to create a release, and members are charged at that time.

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How Pricing Works

The price you set on a tier is the total amount charged per billing period. It is not calculated per bottle.

Example for Subscription tiers:

• A "3-Bottle Monthly" tier priced at $75 means the member pays $75 every month and receives 3 bottles.
• A "6-Bottle Quarterly" tier priced at $180 means the member pays $180 every three months and receives 6 bottles.

Example for Release tiers:

• A "6-Bottle" tier priced at $120 means the member pays $120 each time a release is created.

Example for access-only tiers:

• A "Gold" tier priced at $25/month means the member pays $25 every month for rewards and benefits, with nothing shipped or picked up.

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Inventory Control Mode

Each tier has an inventory control mode that determines how items are selected for each delivery. In the tier editor's Contents step it is the answer to "Who picks the items?": You curate them is Exact Set, and Members choose is Customer Choice.

Mode	How It Works
Exact Set	The winery pre-selects the exact wines and quantities in each shipment. All members receive the same curated selection. Members have no choice.
Customer Choice	The winery defines a pool of available wines. Members choose which ones they want up to their tier's bottle count. A choice cutoff deadline limits when members can change selections.

The inventory control mode is set at the tier level and applies to all templates created for that tier. See the Templates guide for details on setting up Exact Set and Customer Choice templates.

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Rewards Per Tier

Rewards are attached to tiers, not to the program as a whole. This means different tiers within the same program can offer different rewards. For example:

• Your Explorer tier might include a 10% discount on additional wine purchases
• Your Connoisseur tier might include a 15% discount plus "Free tasting for 4"
• Your Collector tier might include a 20% discount, free tastings, and "Early access to new releases"

Reward types include:

• Percentage discounts - A percentage off purchases (e.g., 10% off, 15% off)
• Fixed discounts - A dollar amount off purchases (e.g., $10 off, $25 off)
• Text-based benefits - Freeform rewards you describe in your own words (e.g., "Free tasting for 4", "Complimentary shipping on reorders", "Invite to annual harvest dinner")

This lets you create clear value differences between tiers and give members a reason to choose a higher level. See the Rewards and Discounts guide for configuration details.

The Rewards Step

When you set up a club, membership or program, each tier has a Rewards step, headed "What members unlock" ("Choose the rewards members of this tier receive."):

• Tick the rewards this tier includes, and drag the ticked ones into the order members see.
• A reward already on the tier that has been switched off stays listed, marked Inactive, and stays on the tier when you save.
• New reward opens the same three-step reward editor as the Rewards page (What, Limits, Where, with a live preview). On a saved tier the new reward is created on that tier; on a tier you haven't saved yet, it's attached when you save the tier.
• A tier billed weekly can't carry a reward that resets Each membership week, so the editor doesn't offer that cycle there. Tiers billed every two weeks can.

See Rewards on a Tier for details, including what happens to rewards when a club, membership or program is deleted.

Loyalty Program Participation

Each tier has a Participates in loyalty program toggle (default on) on its Access step. When your business has an active Rewards Program, members of participating tiers also accrue points and can redeem points-priced rewards at the POS in addition to their tier rewards. Turn this off if a tier already includes everything the program would offer and you don't want overlap.

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Choosing a Tier at Signup

When a new member joins your club, membership or program, they see all available tiers and choose the one they want. Its public page displays each tier's name, price, items per delivery, description, billing frequency, and rewards so members can compare and decide. Tiers turned off under Visible to customers (on the tier's Access step) aren't shown.

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Tier Template Assignments

Every tier in a Subscription or Release club has two template "slots" that determine what members receive:

• Enrollment Template - Used for the initial purchase when a new member joins. The Templates page shows an In Use pill next to whichever template is assigned here.
• Default Fulfillment Template - Used for each new cycle (Subscription clubs). Releases don't prefill from it: you pick each release's templates when you create the release. The Templates page shows a Default pill next to the template assigned here.

You manage these assignments from the Templates page using Use as enrollment template and Use as default template in the template sidebar footer.

Required vs optional assignments:

Club Type	Enrollment Template	Default Fulfillment Template
Subscription	Optional (welcome package)	Required
Release with Requires Initial Purchase	Required	Required
Release without Requires Initial Purchase	Optional	Required
Access only (no items)	Optional (welcome gift)	Not used

If a tier has Requires Initial Purchase enabled, you cannot clear its enrollment template - you must assign a different one first or disable the initial purchase requirement. This safeguard prevents members from enrolling on a tier that expects an initial wine selection without a template to fulfill it.

For per-release or per-member overrides, see Templates.

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Changing a Member's Tier

Members can be moved between tiers after they've joined. You can change a member's tier from their profile under People > Contacts, and members can change their own tier from their member portal.

The behavior depends on the club type:

Subscription Clubs

For subscription clubs you choose when the new tier takes effect:

• Apply at next billing cycle (default for members and the recommended choice for merchants) - The new tier takes effect when the current period ends. The member finishes the current cycle on their original tier; their next invoice and next order are on the new tier. No proration. No order changes during the current cycle.
• Apply immediately (prorate) (staff only) - Stripe prorates the difference between the old and new tier and the current cycle's order is updated to the new tier on the spot. The order's template, bottle count, and estimated subtotal change immediately.

Release Clubs

For release clubs, the tier change is always immediate - there's no recurring billing schedule to defer to. When you change a release member's tier:

• The membership flips to the new tier right away.
• Any open release that has not yet charged checks whether the new tier has a template configured. If so, the member's current order is updated to the new tier's template, bottle count, and estimated subtotal. If not, the change applies to future releases only.

The Change tier sidebar shows a preview banner before you confirm, telling you exactly what will happen to the current open release.

If the member has an unpaid order in a release that is open for selections, has closed selections or is charging, and that release doesn't cover the new tier (it was created for only some tiers), the change is refused: skip them from that release first, or change the tier after it is charged. See Releases for Some Tiers.

Tier Change Impact Preview

For release-club members with an open release, the sidebar displays one of these banners:

Situation	Banner Color	Message
Current order will be updated	Blue	Shows the release name, new template name, new bottle count, and estimated subtotal so you can sanity-check the change
Order has been customized	Amber	Customized orders are protected - the items you (or the member) hand-picked will not be overwritten. The membership still moves to the new tier; future releases use the new tier
Charge run is in progress	Gray	A bulk charge job is running for this release; tier changes for the current release are locked until the job finishes
Already charged	Gray	The order is past the charge phase; tier change applies to future releases only
No open release	Gray	The membership moves to the new tier; the next release will use the new tier
New tier has no template on this release	Gray	The release's template map has no entry for the new tier; future releases use the new tier

After you confirm, a toast confirms what happened - whether the open order was updated, kept customized, locked by a charge job, or moved forward to future releases only.

What Always Changes

Regardless of club type or timing:

• The member's price, bottle count, and billing frequency match the new tier going forward.
• Any rewards associated with the old tier are replaced by the rewards on the new tier.
• The change is recorded in the membership's history with the staff member (or member) who made the change.

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Pending Tier Changes

For subscription clubs, when you (or a member) chose "Apply at next billing cycle," the membership carries a Pending Tier Change until the current period ends. You can cancel a pending tier change from the member sidebar - the membership stays on its original tier and the pending change is removed. The member keeps the price and billing schedule they had before the change was scheduled, even if that tier's price or billing frequency has changed since they joined; cancelling never moves them onto the tier's current price.

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Shipping Cost Configuration

Shipping costs can be configured at the tier level or at the business group level. The system resolves which shipping option to use based on configuration priority - if a tier has its own shipping cost settings, those are used. If not, the business group's default shipping settings apply.

Cost Types

For each shipping speed, you choose one of these cost types:

Cost Type	How It Works
Free	Shipping is free for members. Your business covers the full shipping cost.
Flat Rate	Members pay a fixed shipping fee that you set, regardless of the actual carrier cost.
Cover Up To	Your business covers shipping costs up to a dollar amount you set. If the actual cost exceeds that amount, the member pays the difference.
Customer Pays	The member pays the entire actual carrier shipping cost on top of their membership price.

This flexibility lets you offer free or subsidized shipping on premium tiers as a benefit while keeping costs manageable on lower tiers.

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Deleting a Tier

A tier can't be deleted while an unfinished release (one that isn't Completed or Cancelled) was created for only some tiers and names it: "Can't delete "{tier}" because 1 unfinished release covers it. Complete or cancel it first, or switch this tier to Hidden instead."

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At Least One Tier Required

Every club, membership or program must have at least one tier, and every tier must be complete, before you can continue past the tiers screen and publish. You can add as many tiers as you need.