The Commerce application, give you the ability to sell subscriptions to your users. This may be to give a higher status to your users, give access to more sections, change usergroups or anything else you decide within the product. These can become an important revenue stream for your community, and promote social engagement though the ability to give multiple tiers to your community.
Creating a new subscription item can be done from the following location within your ACP
Commerce -> Subscriptions -> Subscription Plans
From here you can see any subscriptions which already exist, along with how many active and interactive subscribers are currently using that package (with revenue, of course). You can edit any of these by selecting the pencil icon, and even add a subscriber manually to that package using the + icon (note manually added members would not be paying for that subscription).
Subscription Package List
Clicking on 'Create new' in the top right, will give you the setup screen for a new subscription. Here you will see a variety of options you can use for that particular subscription, including the renewal periods (if required), any benefits the subscriber gains by changing or adding to that members group, and other payment options such as the payment and tax methods to be used.
Subscription Setup
Within the following location in your ACP, there are various settings which apply to the subscription system over all.
Commerce -> Subscriptions -> Subscription Plans -> Settings
From here you can set overall options for upgrading/downgrading on the subscriptions you have set up, such as whether or not to charge a difference, prorate, or not charge at all for a change. You can also set up protected groups which would not be affected by any group changes, which can be helpful to ensure that moderators and admins groups are not amended.
Subscription Setings
If you click on any of the numbers in the main Subscriptions page, you can also get a list of subscribers which are currently set up on the system.
Subscriber List
Users can purchase a subscription from the front end, by visiting the subscriptions section. These can also be shown on registration if set up within the subscription settings, or even shown anywhere on your site with a block available within the block manager.
Subscriptions Front End
Users can change their subscription at any time fro the upgrade/downgrade/cancel buttons provided within the subscriptions screen. They will be asked to confirm this, and also shown any changes to costs which may occur.
Changing Subscriptions
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