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Members-Only Community for Shopify Stores

Updated 5 November 2026

A members-only community is a forum that only some of your customers can open. Stores use one for VIP customers, wholesale buyers, course students, subscribers, or a product's owners. This page shows how to set one up on Shopify with Champ, and how to give members access automatically.

Who it is for#

• VIP customers: an early look at new products, and a direct line to you.
• Wholesale buyers: order questions, price lists and stock news, away from retail customers.
• Course students: questions about each lesson, answered by you and by other students.
• Subscribers: a place to share how they use each box or delivery.
• Owners of one product: setup help and tips for people who bought it.

How access works#

Access is controlled with Shopify customer tags, the same tags you already use in your Shopify admin.

1. You give a customer a tag, for example vip.
2. You limit a forum in Champ to that tag.
3. When the customer signs in to your store and opens the forum, Champ checks their tags. With

the tag, they get in. Without it, they do not see the forum.

Remove the tag in Shopify, and their access goes too. You do not keep a second list of members.

Customers sign in with the account they already use at your store. There is no separate sign-up form and no second password.

Set it up in five steps#

1. In your Shopify admin, open Customers, choose a customer and add a tag, for example

vip.

1. In the Champ dashboard, open Forums and create a forum, for example "VIP lounge".
2. Under Who can view and post, choose Registered users with tag can view and post.
3. In Customer tags, type vip. To allow several tags, separate them with commas.
4. Click Save.

The members and access guide has every option, including forums that everyone can read but only tagged customers can post in.

Give access automatically#

You do not have to tag customers by hand. Shopify can add tags for you:

• Shopify Flow can add a customer tag when an order is placed, for example when a customer

buys a course or a membership product.

• Many subscription and loyalty apps can tag customers when they subscribe or reach a tier.

When the tag arrives, the customer can open the forum at once.

Mix public and private forums#

One Champ forum site can have both. For example:

• Questions — public, so anyone can read the answers and Google can find them.
• Show and tell — public, so customers' photos help sell your products.
• VIP lounge — only for customers tagged vip.
• Wholesale — only for customers tagged wholesale.

Private forums do not appear in Google, because Google cannot sign in. Keep general questions in public forums, so they still bring visitors. Read how a forum helps your store on Google.

Moderators from your community#

You can make trusted members moderators, without giving them access to your Shopify admin. Add the tag champ-moderator to the customer in Shopify. They can then approve, edit, hide, lock and move posts on the forum itself. The moderation guide explains the rest.

Common questions#

Can I hide the whole forum while I set it up? Yes. Champ can protect the whole forum with a password until you are ready.

Can a customer be in more than one private forum? Yes. Give them each tag. Each forum checks its own tags.

Do I pay more for private forums? No. Champ has one plan, $29 a month after a 14-day free trial, with no limits on forums, members or posts.