Silver / Gold Segmentation Pattern

This page explains a common tiered segmentation strategy:

Silver customers see Silver products. Gold customers see Gold products (and possibly Silver too).

You can expand this pattern to Bronze / Silver / Gold / Platinum later.

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1. When to use Silver / Gold segmentation

Use this pattern when:

• You have tiered pricing or catalog for different customer levels.

• You want:

  • Entry-level customers to see a limited set.

  • Higher tiers to see more or better offers.

• You still want everything managed in one Shopify store.

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2. Tag design

Create clear tier tags:

• silver

• gold

Optional extras:

• platinum

• vip

Make sure each customer has one main tier tag (or a clearly defined combination) based on your business rules.

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3. Catalog design options

You can structure products in two main ways:

Option A – Separate collections per tier

• Collection: Silver Products

• Collection: Gold Products

Option B – Mixed collections, products themselves indicate tier

• All products in one or few collections

• Use product tags or internal logic to group them by tier

• Use B2B Lock rules to hide/show product cards

Option A is usually easier to manage visually; Option B gives more flexibility but can be trickier to keep tidy.

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4. Rule setup – Silver only

Goal Silver customers should see only the Silver-tier catalog.

If you use collections:

Step 1 – Lock content

• Target: Hide collections

• Select: Silver Products collection

Step 2 – Control access

• Condition:

  • If the customer is tagged with silver

Result:

• Silver customers: see Silver collection.

• Everybody else: do not see Silver collection.

If you want Silver-only (no Gold access), you’ll choose later whether Gold customers also get Silver in addition to Gold.

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5. Rule setup – Gold (and optionally Silver + Gold)

There are two common ways to treat Gold customers:

Option 1 – Gold sees Gold only

• Gold has a completely separate catalog.

Step 1 – Lock content

• Target: Hide collections

• Select: Gold Products

Step 2 – Control access

• Condition:

  • If the customer is tagged with gold

Silver customers won’t see Gold collection; Gold won’t see Silver collection (unless you create additional rules).

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Option 2 – Gold sees both Silver and Gold

This is more common: Gold tier gets access to everything Silver gets, plus extra.

You can do this two ways:

Way A – Give Gold tag access to both collections

1. Lock: Silver Products

• Step 1:

  • Target: Hide collections → Silver Products

• Step 2:

  • Condition:

    • If the customer is tagged with silver OR gold

1. Lock: Gold Products

• Step 1:

  • Target: Hide collections → Gold Products

• Step 2:

  • Condition:

    • If the customer is tagged with gold

Result:

• Silver customers:

  • See only Silver collection.

• Gold customers:

  • See both Silver and Gold collections.

Way B – Use separate tags but a single rule per collection

Similar idea, just simplified:

• For Silver Products lock, use condition: tag is silver or gold.

• For Gold Products lock, use condition: tag is gold.

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6. Messaging & UX

In your lock messages and onboarding flows:

• Make it clear what each tier gets:

  • “Silver customers have access to Silver catalog.”

  • “Gold customers have access to Gold catalog (plus Silver catalog in some setups).”

• Use B2B Lock lock messages for unauthorized visitors:

  • “This collection is only for Gold tier customers. Please contact us if you’d like to upgrade your account.”

This helps customers understand why they do or don’t see certain collections.

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7. Extending the pattern

You can extend Silver/Gold logic to:

• bronze → limited introductory catalog

• silver → more products / better pricing

• gold → full catalog, best pricing

• platinum → custom or enterprise products

Each tier then gets:

• One or more collections

• One or more B2B Lock rules keyed off its tag

As long as you keep:

• Tag names consistent, and

• Collections logically grouped by tier,

you can scale your B2B segmentation without making your rules unmanageable.