LemonStand Blog

Subscriptions Module Preview

3 | published by Aleksey Bobkov on Wednesday, October 13, 2010

During the the last few weeks we have been working on the subscriptions module. We're now close to completing it, and we'd like to share some information about the module with you.

Technical overview

The subscriptions module is an extension of the standard LemonStand Shop core. Like everything in LemonStand, the module is simple, powerful and flexible. With this module you can convert any product into a subscription by selecting a billing plan in the product configuration form. Once a product is converted into a subscription, it will begin following rules specified in its billing plan. The billing plan configuration includes:

• Renewal interval - number of days the subscription should run before next renewal.
• Trial period - number of days the subscription can be used before it is paid for the first time, optional.
• Grace period - number of days subscription will stay active after it has expired, optional.
• Renewal cycles - number of renewals before the subscription ends, optional.

With subscriptions you can:

• Create paid website membership - you can hide pages and even parts of pages from visitors who have not purchased a membership.
• Create subscriptions on your services.
• Create subscriptions on shippable or downloadable products.

LemonStand creates invoices for expiring subscriptions automatically. Alternatively, you can create an invoice manually from the Order Preview page.

Subscription chart

The subscription chart is a unique feature of the LemonStand subscriptions module. The chart displays all subscriptions belonging to a specific customer or order. In the chart you can see which invoices have been generated for the subscriptions, and easily recognize status of a specific subscription. The chart is interactive - if you click an invoice bar, it will open the preview page for the invoice. If you hover the mouse cursor over an invoice, it will display detailed information about the invoice.

First premium module

The Subscriptions module is a complex piece of software, and we are going to sell and distribute it separately from the standard LemonStand core. It will be a "premium" module. Once we finish, you can order the module from the My Account area and bind the module to any LemonStand license you own. The estimated introductory sale price of the module will be $50.

Beta testing

Before issuing the public version of the module we are going to conduct beta testing program. Please let us know if you would like to test the module and help us improve it.