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📕 Connecting an External Cart with Zapier: Your Step-by-Step Guide

Connect your checkout platform with your Hub using Zapier to automate access and to deliver a seamless post-purchase experience.

🔖 Be sure to bookmark this tab to refer back these instructions as needed!

🧰 Features Covered

  • Hub: your members' area for both your content and members

  • Free (or paid) Zapier account: A platform that connects your checkout system with your Hub, so things happen automatically behind the scenes.

  • Shopping cart or payment tool: This is the platform where people buy your product.

 

Guide Purpose

Connecting your shopping cart to your Hub is a powerful way to automate member access and create a seamless experience from the moment someone makes a purchase. Instead of manually adding members one by one, Zapier allows you to instantly grant access based on specific triggers to save time and reducing room for error. Whether you use ThriveCart, Shopify, PayPal, or another platform, Zapier acts as the connector that brings it all together.

This guide will walk you through each step required to set up your Zapier connection, providing links to detailed help articles to support you every step of the way.

Table of contents

➡️ Feel free to click on any link to dive deeper into what's being mentioned.

  1. What Can I Use This For?
  2. Create Your Checkout Page
  3. Create Your Zap
  4. Configure Your Zap Trigger
  5. Publish Your Zap

Part 1 - What can I use this for?

Learn more on how Zapier can be used in your business.

You can use Zapier to automate Hub access for anyone purchasing your products. The Zap will add your members to your account and grant them Hub access. Using this process, each member will receive an individualized welcome email that includes a link to finish signing up.

The exact Zap workflow you need to use depends on which shopping cart platform you are using. Each platform has its terminology reflected in the options available in the Zapier integration, but all platforms will generally have some equivalent of a "new successful purchase" inside Zapier.

If you're using Stripe to process payments, we recommend setting up Payments as it eliminates the need for Zapier.

Part 2 - Create your checkout page

Prep your shopping cart to accept payments.

Set up your checkout page in your shopping cart platform. We recommend using a platform that integrates with Zapier to simplify this process.

To send purchase information to Membership.io, you'll have to collect the following information on your checkout page:

  • Your audience member's first and last name

  • Your audience member's email

  • (Optional) Your audience member's phone number

Part 3 - Create your Zap

Begin building your automation by choosing your shopping cart as the starting point.

Access your Zapier dashboard and start creating your workflow by clicking + Create > Zaps.

Start creating your Zap workflow

You can use Zapier's AI search bar for a head start or the usual configuration to create your Zap if you already know your triggers and actions.

Use AI or configure triggers on your own

Part 4 - Configure your Zap trigger 

Choose the event that tells Zapier when to kick things off.

For your "Trigger", choose your shopping cart app (Kit in this example) to be connected with Membership.io. Then: 

  1. Select New Purchase for your Trigger event.
  2. Connect your app's account (authentication required)

Configure your Zap triggers

Check out the chart below to see which Zap Trigger Event you'll want to use to implement your automated Hub access in Zapier. 

Click Continue > Test trigger to ensure functionality and make changes accordingly. 

Configure your Zap action

For your "Action", choose Membership.io. Then: 

  1. Select Add or Update Audience under Action event.
  2. Connect your Membership.io account

Configure the Zap Action

Click Continue and fill out the fields necessary to configure your action. Please note that under Configuration: 

  • You will select one (or more) Hubs to grant your audience access to.

  • We recommend setting "Email Hub Login?" to Yes if you want your members to receive their Hub access email immediately after purchasing through your shopping cart platform.

Zap Action - Configure 


HINT: If inserting your audience's first and last name, add a space between the two fields to ensure the name is imported correctly instead of being formatted as FirstnameLastname.

Once you've filled out your "Zap Action" fields, click Continue and test your action to ensure that the right account and fields are set up. 

Part 5 - Publish your Zap

Turn on your Zap to start automatically granting access every time someone makes a purchase.

Once you have confirmed your Zap workflow automation testing is successful, you can Publish your Zap as soon as you're ready to accept new users into your Hub. Sweet! 😎

🏅 The "Publish" button will remain disabled, and a slide-out panel will open to remind you about any missed testing steps. This ensures that your Zap functions properly.