When you run a paid Membership, your members need to know when they've joined, when they've been charged, and when something needs their attention. Okendo includes four membership email templates that send automatically at each of these moments, so you can run your Membership program without setting up a separate email tool.
✅ Before you begin
Membership emails only send when you have an active Membership program. Set up a Membership program first if you haven't already.
In this article, you will learn about;
Membership email templates and when they send
Template | When it sends | What's included |
Join Membership Tier | When a customer purchases a membership tier | Tier name, billing amount and interval, next billing date, card last 4, perks list |
Billing Successful | After each successful renewal (not the first purchase) | Amount charged, billing interval, next billing date, card last 4, perks list |
Billing Failed - Action Required | Each time a renewal fails because the member needs to update their payment details | Tier name, amount, card last 4, next retry date |
Membership Cancelled | When a membership is cancelled, by the member or after final billing failure | Tier name, billing details, date membership ends, card last 4 |
💡 The Membership Cancelled email shows the date the member's access ends (the end of their current billing period), not the date they cancelled.
Set up a membership email
Go to Okendo Admin > Mail > Templates.
Under Loyalty, navigate to the Membership Emails.
Select the template you want to set up.
Click Create New Email to open the editor with the template pre-loaded.
Edit the header, body and button to match your brand.
Click Save, then make sure sending is enabled.
Every membership email includes a Manage membership link that takes members to their customer account to manage their billing. Shopify requires this link on subscription emails, so you can't edit or remove it.
💡 Use Preview to see your email before you enable sending.
Use variables in membership emails
Variables insert live member details at send time.
Variable | What it shows |
| Store's name |
| Customer's first name. Falls back to "valued customer" when unavailable. |
| Customer's last name. Falls back to "valued customer" when unavailable. |
| Loyalty program name |
| Membership tier name |
| Payment method |
| Billing amount |
| Next billing date |
Use membership events in your ESP
If you already run flows in an email or SMS platform, you can trigger them from membership events instead of, or as well as, Okendo's emails. Okendo sends these events to every ESP that's connected to Okendo Loyalty, such as Klaviyo, Attentive and Braze.
Event | When it's sent | Matching Okendo email |
Okendo Membership Activated | A customer purchases a membership tier | Join Membership Tier |
Okendo Membership Billing Attempt Failure | A payment fails and the member needs to update their payment details. Sent on each failed retry. | Billing Failed - Action Required |
Okendo Membership Billing Attempt Success | A membership payment succeeds | Billing Successful |
Okendo Membership Cancelled | A membership is cancelled | Membership Cancelled |
To use an event in Klaviyo:
In Klaviyo, go to Flows and click Create flow.
Choose Build your own, then select a trigger.
Open the Your metrics tab and select the Okendo Membership event you want.
Build your flow and turn it on.
💡 Use Okendo Membership Failed to start a win-back flow for members whose membership lapsed after a failed payment.
You can use Okendo membership emails or your ESP. When a customer buys or cancels a membership, Okendo won't trigger your existing loyalty Enrolled or Tier Changed flows, so members won't receive duplicate or conflicting emails.
⚠️ If you send membership emails from your ESP, disable the matching Okendo template to avoid sending two emails.
FAQs
Q: Will members get a loyalty welcome email as well as the membership email?
A: No. A membership purchase sends Join Membership Tier only, alongside Shopify's order confirmation.
Q: Does Billing Failed send for every type of payment failure?
A: It sends when the member needs to act, for example an expired, incorrect or removed card. It sends each time a retry fails.
Q: Why can't I see the membership events in Klaviyo?
A: An event only appears in Klaviyo after it has been sent at least once. Once a customer joins, renews or cancels a membership, the event shows under Your metrics.
Q: Can I turn off a single membership email?
A: Yes. Disabling sending on one template doesn't affect the others.