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Build a Customer Community on Your Shopify Store

Updated 5 November 2026

Some customers do not just buy from you. They make things with your products, wear them, grow them, catch fish with them, and want to show other people. A customer community gives them a place to do that on your own store. This page explains what a community does for a store, and how to start one.

What a customer community does for your store#

• Customers come back. A customer who visits to read new posts sees your new products too.
• Customers sell to each other. A photo of a finished project, posted by a real customer,

is often more convincing than your own product photo.

• You hear what customers want. Posts and polls show which products, colours or sizes

people ask for.

• New customers trust you more. An active forum shows that real people buy and use your

products.

Because the community lives on your store's own web address, the people who visit it are also on your store. Read how a forum helps your store on Google.

What members can do in a Champ forum#

• Post photos of what they made or bought. This needs a free Cloudinary account, where the

photos are stored. See image uploads.

• Start polls and vote in them.
• React to posts with emoji, and upvote the best posts.
• Mention other members with @, and send private messages.
• Follow a topic or forum, and get an email when there are new posts.
• Earn points and appear on a leaderboard. See points and leaderboard.

Customers sign in with the account they already use at your store, so joining takes no extra step.

Start with a few forums#

Too many empty forums make a new community look quiet. Start with three or four. For example:

Add more forums when one gets busy enough to split.

Get the first posts#

A new forum needs a push. These steps work well:

1. Post first. Start five to ten topics yourself before you announce the forum: a welcome

post, a "show us your setup" topic, a poll about your next product.

1. Invite your best customers first. Email your most loyal customers and ask them to post a

photo. A forum with real posts is easier to join.

1. Ask a question in every email. End your newsletter with a question, and link to a forum

topic for the answers.

1. Feature members. Share the best forum posts in your newsletter and on social media, with

the member's permission.

1. Reply to everything at the start. Early members who get a reply come back.

Keep it friendly and clean#

• Write a short rules post and pin it to the top of each forum.
• Make two or three trusted members moderators with the champ-moderator customer tag.
• Keep the built-in spam protection on. See anti-spam.

The moderation guide explains approval, hiding posts and locking topics.

A private club for your best customers#

You can also keep part of the community for some customers only, for example customers who bought a certain product, or VIP members. Read about a members-only community.

Next steps#

• See a live forum on our own Shopify store.
• Read how to add a forum to your Shopify store.
• Compare Shopify forum apps.