A mapping answers one question: when someone buys a product in your Shopify shop, what do they get in your MemberArea? Without a mapping, a purchase unlocks nothing. The order is still recorded and the buyer still gets an account, but without any access. A mapping only applies to orders that arrive after it exists.
You need a connected shop and a role with Manage Integrations. How to connect the shop is explained in Connecting your Shopify shop.
Open the wizard
For your first mapping, open the Shopify page at
/admin/settings/integrations/shopify. As long as nothing is mapped, the
Mappings tab shows "No product mapped yet".
- Click Create the first mapping.
If the shop needs to be reconnected, the tab shows "Reconnect the shop to use this." instead, and there is no button to start a mapping. Use Reconnect shop in the banner above it first.
For every further mapping:
- Open Settings, then Integrations.
- Open the row menu next to your Shopify shop.
- Choose Map a product.
Both open the same wizard, Set up Shopify, with three steps: Product, Access and Rules. The footer has Cancel in the first step and Back in the later ones, Continue to move on, Finish setup in the last step, and the link How this works. In the first two steps it opens this article, in the Rules step it opens Refunds and cancellations in Shopify.
Step 1: the product
Type part of the product name into Search product. Without a search term the wizard lists the first 25 products of your shop by title, and every search also returns up to 25 products, so type enough of the name to narrow it down. If nothing fits, you see "No product matches your search.", and an empty shop shows "This shop does not have any products yet." If Shopify cannot be reached, a message explains why, and Try again loads the list again.
Each product shows its number of variants, for example "3 variants". A product with more than 25 variants shows "25+ variants".
A product with several variants shows the switch All variants unlock the same access. Leave it on when every variant should unlock the same thing. Switch it off when "Basic" and "Pro" are variants of one product and should not give the same access, then tick the variants you want. Each ticked variant becomes its own mapping. A product with a single variant is always mapped as a whole.
For a product with more than 25 variants, only the first 25 are listed at first, and the wizard says so. With the switch off, Load more adds the next variants. With the switch on, the mapping covers every variant anyway, including the ones not listed.
If a product has one mapping for the whole product and another one for a single variant, a purchase of that variant uses the variant's mapping.
Continue saves the mapping right away, so the next step can attach access to it.
Step 2: the access
The step asks "What does the buyer get?" and shows the same access picker you know from your products in Payments. Groups are always there. Courses, hubs, forums, badges, calendars and single events appear when that part of MemberArea is switched on for your workspace. Every target you add is saved immediately. The picker needs both View Payments and Manage Catalog (Products, Prices, Coupons) in your role. Without them, the step shows "You are not allowed to change what a product unlocks." instead of the picker. You can still finish the setup, and someone with these permissions adds the access later with Edit access.
As long as nothing is picked, the step says "No target selected yet. Without a target the purchase unlocks nothing." You can still continue. The mapping then shows No access target in the list until you add something.
If you mapped several variants, this step sets the access for the first one only, and the wizard reminds you: "You mapped several variants. Set the access for each of them on the Shopify page." Do that with Edit access on each row, as described below.
Step 3: the rules
The box Standard flow sums up the basic rule: "A paid order unlocks the access automatically." Below it are three switches. The first time, all three are on. After that, the step shows what you last saved for this shop.
| Switch | What it does |
|---|---|
| Revoke access on refund | A refund in Shopify takes back the access that the refunded items unlocked. |
| Revoke access on cancellation | A cancelled order takes the access back. |
| Send a welcome email with a password link | A buyer who gets a new account here receives an email to set a password. |
Every buyer whose order carries an email address gets an account here. There is no switch for that. Buyers who already have an account are matched by their email address and do not get the welcome email. How refunds and cancellations play out in detail is explained in Refunds and cancellations in Shopify, and how to follow a test order in Checking what a buyer gets.
The rules are set per shop, not per mapping. Changing them in the wizard changes them for every mapping in that shop. To change them without running the wizard, use the Rules tab of the Shopify page, see below.
Under "Send your events back to Shopify" the same step offers ready-made automations, for example Course completed: tag the customer. None is ticked at first. Tick the ones you want, and Finish setup creates them and switches them on. Without Manage Automations in your role, the boxes are locked and the wizard shows "You are not allowed to create automations." The same automations sit on the Automations tab of the Shopify page, so you can add them later. What each one does is explained in Sending member events back to Shopify.
Finish setup saves the rules and closes the wizard.
Cancel the wizard or go back
The wizard cleans up after itself. The X in the header, the Escape key, a click outside the wizard and Cancel in the footer all close it and delete the mappings this run has created so far, together with any access you picked for them.
Back keeps your work. If you go back to the first step and pick a different product, the wizard first deletes the mappings it created for the earlier product. The same goes for the same product: if you untick a variant, or switch All variants unlock the same access on or off, the wizard deletes the mappings of this run that no longer match your choice. If you leave the choice as it was, nothing is deleted.
If you close the browser tab in the middle of the wizard, nothing is cleaned up. The mapping stays with No access target. Delete it, or give it access with Edit access.
Many variants
When you tick more than 100 variants, the wizard saves them in parts and shows the progress, for example "Saving variants 100 of 240." If saving stops partway, the wizard tells you how many made it: "Only 100 of 240 variants were saved. Continue again to save the rest." Click Continue again. Variants that are already saved are skipped, and the rest is added.
The mapping list
The Mappings tab lists the shop's mappings, newest first. Each row shows:
- The name of the Shopify product. For a single variant, the variant's name follows after a colon, for example "Online course: Small". Older variant mappings may show only the product name, because the variant name was not stored for them. To get the variant name there, delete the mapping and map the variant again.
- All variants, or "Variant" followed by the Shopify variant ID for a mapping of a single variant.
- A chip for each type of access with the number of targets, for example course access with two courses. A row without any target shows No access target.
- Paused for a mapping you paused.
- A sync badge where one applies, see the table below.
- The actions Edit access, Pause or Activate, and Delete.
A mapping you created in the wizard shows no sync badge as long as it is linked. The sync states only apply to products you push from MemberArea into Shopify, and No longer linked applies to every mapping.
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Not synced yet | A product from MemberArea has not been pushed to Shopify since its mapping was created or the shop was reconnected. |
| In sync | A pushed product matches its copy in Shopify. |
| Changed in Shopify | Someone changed the title or the price of a pushed product in Shopify. |
| Sync failed | The last push of this product to Shopify did not go through. |
| No longer linked | The mapping lost its link and unlocks nothing (see below). |
Pushing products is explained in Pushing MemberArea products into Shopify.
Change, pause or remove a mapping
To change what a buyer gets, click Edit access on the row. It opens the Access tab of the hidden product that belongs to this mapping. The button only appears when your role has both View Payments and Manage Catalog (Products, Prices, Coupons). The catalog route described at the end of this article leads to the same tab.
Pause stops new orders from unlocking anything without removing the row. A paused row shows the badge Paused and the button Activate, which switches it back on.
To remove a mapping:
- Click the trash icon (Delete) on the row.
- Read the confirmation Remove mapping: "Buyers keep the access they already paid for. New purchases of this product will not unlock anything."
- Click Remove.
Removing a mapping also removes its hidden product. Orders and the access already bought stay.
Removing or pausing a mapping only affects future orders. Members who already bought keep their access, so neither is a way to take access away from existing buyers. A refund in Shopify with Revoke access on refund switched on is.
Change the rules without the wizard
The Rules tab of the Shopify page, between Mappings and Sync, holds the same three switches as the last step of the wizard: Revoke access on refund, Revoke access on cancellation and Send a welcome email with a password link. You do not need a product or a mapping for it. Each switch is saved as soon as you change it. If saving fails, the switch flips back and the page shows "The settings could not be saved. Please try again." The tab appears once a shop is connected.
When a mapping reads "No longer linked"
A mapping shows No longer linked and stops unlocking anything when:
- The product was deleted in Shopify. The webhook log notes "Product gone in the shop, 1 mapping(s) detached. Bought access stays."
- Someone deleted the hidden product of this mapping in your catalog.
- The app was uninstalled in your Shopify admin. Reconnecting the shop in time brings these mappings back, see Connecting your Shopify shop.
A row in this state offers neither Pause nor Activate. Delete it and map the product again if you still need it. Access that buyers already received stays in every case.
What happens behind the scenes
Each mapping gets its own product in your MemberArea, carrying the name of the Shopify product, and for a single variant the variant's name as well, as in the mapping list. It is hidden, so it never appears in your own checkout or on a public product page. You find it in Payments, then Catalog, then Products, where its internal name starts with "Shopify: ". It exists so your MemberArea grants, takes back and records the access exactly as it does for a purchase made here. That is why a Shopify buyer appears in Payments, with an order and the access attached to it.
Leave that product where it is. Deleting it sets the mapping to No longer linked.