Thinking about increasing membership prices? You’re not alone—it’s a natural and necessary step for growing businesses. Whether your costs have gone up or you’re offering more value than ever, price adjustments ensure your business remains sustainable and profitable.

But let’s be real—price increases can feel stressful for both you and your members. The good news? We’ll cover how you can implement a smooth transition, maintain client trust, and even encourage new sign-ups before the price change takes effect with the right strategy and tools.

When and Why to Increase Membership Pricing 💡

Businesses raise prices for many reasons, including:

Rising costs 📈 – Increased rent, payroll, or just plain old inflation!
More value for members 🏋️ – New service offerings, facility upgrades or better amenities.
Long-term business sustainability 💰 – Ensuring profitability while maintaining high-quality offerings.

The key is communicating the value behind the price change, so members feel they’re getting more, not just paying more.

How to Raise Prices Smoothly (Without Losing Members) 🚀

A well-planned membership price increase doesn’t have to be disruptive! Follow these strategies to keep members happy and encourage new sign-ups before the change:

1. Consider Grandfathering Existing Members ❤️

Let loyal members keep their current pricing while new members pay the updated rate. This rewards loyalty and reduces frustration.

2. Offer a “Last Chance” Discount ⏳

Before the increase, encourage sign-ups by promoting a limited-time opportunity for new members to lock in the current rate. This can be done via a special marketing campaign, your regular newsletter, client announcements or even in-studio flyers.

3. Communicate Early & Often 📢

Give members at least 60–90 days’ notice and create Client Announcements, and Marketing Campaigns (email, SMS, in-app push, and in-studio flyers) to keep them informed.

4. Prepare Your Staff for Questions 💬

Equip your team with clear messaging and confidence in handling client concerns. If members see your staff are informed and ready to speak to the value behind the change, they’ll feel more reassured.

In the next section, we’ll walk you through the step-by-step process of executing a price increase with WellnessLiving.

Creating your pricing strategy 📈

Before adjusting membership pricing, understand your business's current standing. WellnessLiving’s reporting tools simplify tracking key metrics like member retention, projected membership revenue, and service usage, giving you a clear business overview.

Member retention: Use the Memberships report to assess churn rate for the past several months using the formula (Lost Customers in a Period / Total Customers at the Start of the Period)×100. A monthly churn rate greater than 3-5% may signal risk in doing a price increase and suggest conducting a churn analysis or increasing value before proceeding.
Projected membership revenue: Use the Projected Revenue report to forecast how a price increase would impact your monthly or yearly cashflow.
Service usage: Use the Class Utilization and/or Appointment Summary reports to understand which services are in demand. Lopsided booking numbers may suggest restructuring your service or membership offerings as part of your price increase.

Apart from data available to you inside WellnessLiving, you can create member surveys using the built-in Forms feature to gauge member sentiment and conduct research on nearby competitors to give you confidence in your price increase strategy!

How to Adjust Membership Pricing in WellnessLiving 🔧

WellnessLiving gives you three flexible options for adjusting membership prices. Choose the one that works best for your business and strategy:

OPTION 1: Create a new membership & grandfather existing members✨

This option allows you to keep current prices and benefits for existing members only, while applying your new pricing to all future sign-ups only.

To create a membership, follow these steps:

Click the App Drawer button, then click Setup > Store Configuration > Purchase Options.
Click Create Membership.
Under Purchase Option Service Category, select the type of service to be offered by the membership.
Configure the membership settings as required.
Click Save.

Check out this article for more details on creating memberships.

To grandfather an existing membership option, follow these steps:

Click the App Drawer > Setup > Store Configuration > Purchase Options.
Select the Membership you’d like to deactivate.
In the General Information section, turn the Activate Item toggle to OFF.
From the Deactivate On calendar, select the Date you’d like the membership to deactivate on. This is effectively the date it will no longer be offered for sale in your Online Store.
Set the Usable by Clients Who Already Purchased toggle to YES.
(Optional but recommended!) Add “Legacy” to the Membership Name to indicate the membership will no longer be available for sale, but existing clients can continue using it.
1. This will make it easier to track in reports and client profiles among newer offerings.
Click Save to apply your changes.

OPTION 2: Convert existing members when it’s time for renewal 🔁

This option fully transitions existing members to the new pricing once their current membership expires at the end of their term. Use this option if the affected members are on contract-based terms that promised fixed pricing for the duration of their term.

To set a membership to auto-convert, follow these steps:

Click the App Drawer > Setup > Store Configuration > Purchase Options.
Select the Membership you’d like to modify.
Scroll to the After Expiration section
Click Auto-convert.
From the Convert To dropdown, select the new membership purchase option.
From the Conversion Type dropdown, select Upgrade.
Click Save.
A confirmation step will appear with the following warnings:
1. Click the link for Affected Clients, which will open a report in a new tab for all the clients that will be affected by this change.
  1. Carefully review this list against your Memberships report to ensure it is accurate and complete.
  2. (Optional but highly recommended) Select all the clients in the report and add them to a Client Group titled “<Date> Price Increase”. This will allow you to easily reference and communicate with the affected clients later, and avoid prematurely increasing their prices again in the near future.
Click Update.

OPTION 3: Edit the price of an existing membership ✏️

This option updates the price for all existing owners of the membership, effective as of their next scheduled auto-payment. Use this option to immediately increase prices for members mid-term or those on month-to-month renewing memberships.

To edit the price of an existing membership, follow these steps:

Click the App Drawer > Setup > Store Configuration > Purchase Options.
Select the Membership you’d like to modify.
Edit the Price to the desired amount.
Click Save.
A confirmation step will appear with the following warnings:
1. Enable ‘Apply current price to past purchases’
  1. The new price listed in brackets will be updated for future auto-payments in existing membership payment schedules and past payments will not be affected.
  2. (Optional) Enable ‘Apply to client purchases that have been edited’ to overwrite any one-off membership changes that may have been made to individual client’s profiles. Leave it OFF to not affect one-off membership changes for individual clients.
2. Click the link for Affected Clients, which will open a report in a new tab for all the clients that will be affected by this change.
  1. Carefully review this list against your Memberships report to ensure it is accurate and complete.
  2. (Optional but highly recommended) Select all the clients in the report and add them to a Client Group titled “<Date> Price Increase”. This will allow you to easily reference and communicate with the affected clients later, and avoid prematurely increasing their prices again in the near future.
Click Update.

After the Price Change: Keep Clients Happy! 🎉

A well-managed price adjustment can strengthen relationships and boost member satisfaction. After implementing new pricing:

Use Quick Contact to send personalized thank you emails to your affected members. ✅
Use Purchase Campaigns to offer welcome messages to new sign-ups. ✅
Use WellnessLiving’s reports to monitor retention & revenue to gauge the success of your increase. ✅

🚀 Your members trust you—keep the momentum going!

💡 And if you need help, check out our Help Center or contact support.

Memberships

Client types

View or adjust a client’s membership payment schedule

Create, modify, or duplicate a membership

Change the price of an individual client’s membership