Before you get started with your SubscriptionBridge account, it makes sense to spend a few minutes reviewing some of the terms that you will find both in this User Guide and in the SubscriptionBridge Merchant Center interface. Terms such as store, package, feature, subscription, etc. have specific meaning in the SubscriptionBridge system.

A list of terms frequently used in the SubscriptionBridge documentation and in the pages generated by the system (administration and customer service pages).

• SubscriptionBridge areas
  • Merchant Center: the area that contains the tools Merchants use to create stores, subscription products, plans, features, and view reports on transactions, subscription activity, customers. etc.
  • Customer Center: the area that a Customer may use to view/update/upgrade/cancel his or her subscription(s). This is always used when the Simple Integration method is used. It may not be used when Advanced or Shopping Cart Integration is used. That's because in these two cases the third-party systems may contain pages that allow customers to perform the same tasks within their interface (so a customer would not leave the e-commerce store powered by a certain shopping cart to add a new feature to a subscription, for example).
• Users of SubscriptionBridge
  • Merchant: a company that uses SubscriptionBridge to help it run one or more subscription-based businesses
  • Account: Merchant staff that has access to the SubscriptionBridge Merchant Center
  • Customer: a Merchant's customer, who subscribed to one or more of the Merchant's products
• Stores, Products, Subscriptions etc.
  • Store: a Web site that sells subscriptions and provides customer service on those subscriptions via SubscriptionBridge. A Merchant can manage unlimited Stores via SubscriptionBridge.
  • Product: a subscription product or service (e.g. a gym membership)
  • Plan: a specific billing arrangement (e.g. monthly, with a 30 day free trial)
  • Package: a combination of a product (e.g. gym membership) and a plan (e.g. monthly billing).
  • Package Link: a clickable link that can be added to any HTML, web site, blog, or newsletter. Clicking the link adds the product/service to the cart. >> more
  • Feature: additional features that can alter the price of the Product sold (e.g. “towel service” available for an extra fee). Features are associated with Packages. They represent additional options that subscribers can add/remove to/from a package (e.g. adding “towel service” to a monthly gym membership).
  • Subscription: a unique combination of package/feature(s)/customer. For example: Mr. Smith (customer) may subscribe to a monthly gym membership (package) with a locker (feature) and towel service (feature).
• Integrations
  There are three ways to connect your Web site to SubscriptionBridge:
  • Simple Integration: based on adding a “Buy” button to your Web pages. SubscriptionBridge takes care of everything else.
  • Advanced Integration: based on using the SubscriptionBridge API to integrate any existing Web application with the SubscriptionBridge engine.
  • Shopping Cart Integration: ready-to-go integrations with popular shopping carts. Features and functionality varies depending on each shopping cart.

We'll use four examples of subscription-based businesses and how the definitions described above apply to each scenario.

• An e-mail marketing service that your business subscribes to for $30/month to send e-mail newsletters
• A gym membership
• A newspaper delivery service
• An organic fruit basket delivery service

• The e-mail marketing service could be available with monthly or quarterly billing. A discount could be provided with quarterly billing.
• Your gym membership could be available as a 5-day or 7-day membership (different subscription price), both paid monthly
• The newspaper delivery service could include weekend-only or every day service, both paid quarterly
• Fruit baskets could be available for 3-person vs. 5-person households, paid monthly or yearly (total of 4 plans)

• E-mail marketing service: You could upgrade the number of messages that you are allowed to send every month
• Gym membership: you could add to your subscription “Towel Service” or “Locker Rental” for an additional fee
• Newspaper delivery: you might want “Early morning” delivery, which increases your subscription amount
• Fruit basket: you could add “Fresh cookies” to your fruit basket

All of the above comes together in SubscriptionBridge:

• Merchants can easily create products, plans, and features, and sell any combinations of them
• Customers can subscribe and (when applicable) change plans, add/remove features, etc.

SubscriptionBridge takes care of all of the “behind the scene” work to make both the Merchant and Customer experience more satisfactory.