Subscribe to unlock

Subscribe to unlock asks a visitor to enter their email address, then grants access once they subscribe (or, for a Klaviyo segment, once the app confirms they’re already on your list). It’s an action-based rule — like Passcode and Confirmation prompt, it doesn’t have an If/Unless toggle, because the shopper unlocks the content by completing the subscribe step rather than by matching a yes/no condition.

Sami B2B Lock, Password Protect supports three email services for this rule. You pick one per rule:

• Shopify — uses your store’s native email marketing consent. No extra account or API key needed. This is the default option and has no additional cost.
• Mailchimp — connects to your Mailchimp account with an API key so you can subscribe visitors straight into one of your audience lists.
• Klaviyo — connects to your Klaviyo account with an API key so you can subscribe visitors into a list, or check membership against a segment.

Add the rule

1. Open Locks and create a new lock, or open an existing one to edit it.
2. Choose the content you want to protect. See Access rules overview for how rules fit into a lock.
3. Click the Unlock rules tab, then in the Condition type dropdown, select Subscribe to unlock.

Select Subscribe to unlock from the Condition type dropdown on the Unlock rules tab.

4. Choose an Email service: Shopify, Mailchimp, or Klaviyo.

Shopify (default, no setup)

Shopify email marketing consent works out of the box — there’s nothing to connect. Once selected, the app shows a note that it remembers a subscribed visitor for their current browser session and won’t ask them to subscribe again until that session ends; to require re-subscription sooner or later than that, set a duration in the Grant access (optional) field below it.

Shopify email marketing consent requires no extra setup.

Mailchimp

1. Enter your Mailchimp API key (an API key with audience access, generated from your Mailchimp account) and click Check connection.
2. Once connected, select which audience list the visitor should be subscribed to.
3. Set an optional Grant access duration, the same as with Shopify.

Connect Mailchimp with an API key, then pick the audience list to subscribe visitors to.

Note

Your Mailchimp API key is checked securely and is never exposed on the storefront. Once you save the lock, the key is stored encrypted.

Klaviyo

1. Enter your Klaviyo private API key and click Check connection.
2. Once connected, choose an audience type: List or Segment.
3. Select the specific list or segment.
4. Set an optional Grant access duration if you’re using a list (Klaviyo segments don’t use this field — see below).

Connect Klaviyo, then choose whether to subscribe visitors to a list or check membership in a segment.

Caution

List and Segment behave very differently — don’t mix them up.

• Choosing a list actually subscribes the visitor: they type their email, the app adds them to that Klaviyo list, and access is granted. This is the same “subscribe and unlock” behavior as Shopify and Mailchimp.
• Choosing a segment does not add a new subscriber at all. It’s a membership check only — the app looks at whether the visitor already belongs to that segment and grants access if they do. Because there’s no email field to type into for a segment check, the visitor generally needs to be signed in to their customer account for the app to identify them and check their segment membership.

Use a list when your goal is to grow a specific Klaviyo list through this lock. Use a segment when you want to gate content to people who are already members of a group you’ve built in Klaviyo (for example, an existing “VIP” or “wholesale” segment) without collecting a new email address.

Shopper-facing copy

By default, shoppers who hit a Subscribe to unlock rule see:

• Notification: “Content locked” / “Subscribe with your email to access this content.”
• Email input placeholder: “Enter email address…”
• Button: “Subscribe”
• Errors: “Please fill in field”, “Invalid email”, “Unable to subscribe. Please try again.”

All of this text is editable per lock and per storefront language. See Translate lock messages.

An unsubscribed visitor gets the subscribe card instead of the page.

Save

5. Click Save. The rule takes effect on your storefront as soon as the app embed is enabled.

Note

API keys for Mailchimp and Klaviyo are stored encrypted and are only ever used to check or add subscribers for this rule — see Permissions and data.

Related docs

• Access rules overview
• Combining rules
• Confirmation prompt
• Grant access duration