CBSubsTM Plans
At the core of each CBSubsTM activity there is a CBSubsTM Plan involved. A Plan is basically a way to describe an offering. It has a number of attributes that further characterize it.
When creating a CBSubsTM Plan one must first decide the type of product that is offered. The product type can be one of the following:
- User Subscription
A 'User Subscription' plan is basically a service offering. It has a price tag associated with it and a validity period. Examples: 3 month access to template downloads for 20 Euros, 12 months access to expert forum for 100 Euros, etc.
- Merchandise
A 'Merchandise' plan is a one-time offering of a product entity. It has a price tag associated with it but no validity period. Examples: purchase our MyCommunity template product for a single website for 20 Euros, download our software package for 49.95 USD, etc. - Donation
A 'Donation' plan describes a one-time event where the associated price tag can be fixed or left open for the end-user to decide. There is also no validity period associated with a donation.
Each plan can have extra attributes associated with it to make it complete. A partial list of applicable attributes follows:
- Subscription plans may have trials with different price and different periods
- A subscription plan my have an allowable number of recurrences. E.g., you could have a free subscription plan that has a one month duration that can never be extended (so it's a one time deal)
- All plans can have personalized email messages sent to subscribed members on various plan activity events (e.g., activation email, termination email, etc)
- All plans can use any of the CBSubsTM integration plugins to perform additional integration tasks. E.g., buy a merchandise package and automatically gain access to support forums for life.
As you can see the previous concepts allow you to use CBSubsTM to fulfill many e-commerce scenarios.