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Shopify Tags for Membership Tiers

Understand the Shopify customer tags Rivo applies for membership tiers, when each tag is added or removed, and how to use them in Shopify Segments and Flows.

Stuart Chaney avatar
Written by Stuart Chaney
Updated this week

Shopify Tags for Membership Tiers

Rivo automatically applies tags to your Shopify customer records as customers move through your membership program. These tags let you use Shopify’s built-in Segments and Flows to create targeted marketing, exclusive discounts, and automated communications based on membership status.




Tags Rivo Applies

Rivo manages six distinct tags on each customer record. All tags are added and removed automatically — you do not need to manage them manually.

Rivo Subscriber

A human-readable tag that marks a customer as an active member in any tier. It is added when a customer joins or is moved into a membership tier, and removed when their membership ends.

rivo-membership-subscriber

A machine-readable companion to Rivo Subscriber. Both tags are applied and removed at the same time. Having two versions makes it easy to target members in either Shopify’s visual Segment builder or in custom logic.

Rivo Membership Tier: [Tier Name]

Identifies which specific tier a customer belongs to. For example, a customer in your “Gold” tier receives the tag Rivo Membership Tier: Gold. When a customer moves from one tier to another, Rivo removes the old tier tag and adds the new one automatically.

rivo-lifetime-member

Applied only to customers enrolled in a one-time payment (lifetime) tier. It is added when they join a lifetime tier and removed if their membership ends.

rivo-membership-pending-cancellation

Added when a customer requests to cancel and your store’s cancellation policy is set to End of billing cycle. The customer keeps their membership benefits until the end of the current billing period. The tag is removed when the membership fully cancels at the period end.

If your cancellation policy is set to Immediately, this tag is never applied — the membership ends right away and the rivo-membership-cancelled tag is used instead.

rivo-membership-cancelled

Added when a customer’s membership has fully ended. This includes immediate cancellations, end-of-period cancellations after the billing period expires, and membership terminations due to payment failure after all retry attempts are exhausted.

rivo-membership-payment-failure

Added when a subscription billing attempt fails. It is a signal that the customer’s payment method needs attention. Rivo will continue retrying payment according to your retry schedule. Once payment succeeds or the membership is cancelled, the tag is removed on the next tag sync.




Tag Lifecycle at a Glance

Event

Tags Added

Tags Removed

Customer joins a tier

Rivo Subscriber, rivo-membership-subscriber, Rivo Membership Tier: [Name] (+ rivo-lifetime-member for lifetime tiers)

Customer moves to a different tier

New Rivo Membership Tier: [Name]

Old Rivo Membership Tier: [Name]

Customer requests cancellation (end of period)

rivo-membership-pending-cancellation

Cancellation takes effect at period end

rivo-membership-cancelled

Rivo Subscriber, rivo-membership-subscriber, Rivo Membership Tier: [Name], rivo-membership-pending-cancellation

Cancellation is immediate

rivo-membership-cancelled

Rivo Subscriber, rivo-membership-subscriber, Rivo Membership Tier: [Name]

Subscription billing attempt fails

rivo-membership-payment-failure




The Sync Membership Tags Button

In your Rivo dashboard under Membership Program > Program Settings > Troubleshooting, you will find a Sync Membership Tags button.

What it does

Clicking this button queues a background job that re-evaluates and re-applies the correct tags to every customer who has ever had a membership tier enrollment. Rivo compares each customer’s current membership status against the tags on their Shopify record and corrects any discrepancies.

When to use it

  • After importing or migrating members — if you imported customers from another platform or used a CSV import, their Shopify tags may not yet reflect their membership status.

  • After a connection disruption — if there was a temporary error between Rivo and Shopify, some tag updates may not have gone through.

  • After changing a tier name — if you rename a tier, existing customers will still have the old tier name in their tag until a sync runs.

  • To troubleshoot a specific customer — if a customer’s tags appear incorrect in Shopify, running a sync will correct all members at once, including that customer.

Note: The sync processes all members in the background. For large stores it may take several minutes to complete. You can run the sync at any time without causing duplicate tags — Rivo clears existing membership tags before reapplying the correct ones.




Using Tags in Shopify Segments

Shopify Segments let you create dynamic lists of customers based on their tags. Here are common ways to use Rivo’s membership tags:

Target all current members:

customer_tags CONTAINS 'Rivo Subscriber'

Target members on a specific tier:

customer_tags CONTAINS 'Rivo Membership Tier: Gold'

Target lifetime members:

customer_tags CONTAINS 'rivo-lifetime-member'

Target members pending cancellation (win-back opportunity):

customer_tags CONTAINS 'rivo-membership-pending-cancellation'

Target customers with a failed payment:

customer_tags CONTAINS 'rivo-membership-payment-failure'

Target former members (cancelled):

customer_tags CONTAINS 'rivo-membership-cancelled'

You can combine these with other Shopify Segment filters — for example, targeting Gold tier members who have spent more than $500 in the past year.




Using Tags in Shopify Flows

Shopify Flows lets you build automated workflows triggered by changes to customer tags. Since Rivo updates tags whenever a customer’s membership status changes, you can use tag changes as Flow triggers.

Example: Welcome email for new members

  1. Trigger: Customer tag added — Rivo Subscriber

  2. Action: Send an email or a discount code welcoming the customer to your program


Example: Recover members with a failed payment

  1. Trigger: Customer tag added — rivo-membership-payment-failure

  2. Action: Send an SMS or email asking the customer to update their payment method


Example: Win back cancelled members

  1. Trigger: Customer tag added — rivo-membership-cancelled

  2. Action: Wait 3 days, then send a re-join offer with a discount code


Example: Reward pending cancellation members

  1. Trigger: Customer tag added — rivo-membership-pending-cancellation

  2. Action: Send a retention offer before their membership expires


Example: Tier-specific perks

  1. Trigger: Customer tag added — Rivo Membership Tier: Platinum

  2. Action: Grant early access or a VIP discount code




Frequently Asked Questions

Will Rivo remove tags I’ve applied manually?
Rivo only removes tags that it manages (the specific tags listed in this article). It will not touch any custom tags you have added to customers.

How quickly are tags updated?
Tags are updated in real time as membership events happen — sign-ups, tier changes, cancellations, and billing failures all trigger an immediate tag update. The Sync Membership Tags button is for correcting any historical gaps, not for ongoing updates.

Can I use the tier tag with Shopify discount codes?
Yes. You can create a Shopify discount code that is restricted to customers who have a specific tag, such as Rivo Membership Tier: Gold. This is one of the most common ways merchants deliver tier-exclusive benefits.

What happens to tags if I delete a tier?
Customers enrolled in a deleted tier keep their existing tags until the next membership event or manual sync. We recommend running a Sync Membership Tags after removing a tier to ensure tags are updated for all affected customers.

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