Configure Subscription Products Based on a Season

You can use the Subscribe Merchant Portal to include Products in your product catalog that recur based on the season.

• Use Case Number: 2-1-02
• Completed By: Business Manager
• Estimated Completion Time: <1 day

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Design Approach

A subscription offering consists of two main components. The Product, which includes pricing and entitlement formation, and the Billing Plan, which defines the frequency of recurrence. Billing Plans can be associated with a Season Set. When associated with a Season set, the start and end dates of the given Season are used to gate the recurrence frequency. Season Sets allow you to bill and provide active entitlements during a defined time-frame (a sport’s or TV content season), and not at other times of the year. For more information about Subscribe Products, see the Products chapter in the Subscribe Portal User Guide. For more information about Subscribe Billing Plans, see the Billing Plans chapter. And for more information about Season Sets, see Seasonal Billing Plans.

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Tasks

To configure season-based products, you must perform the following tasks:

• Configure Season Sets Using the Subscribe Merchant Portal
• Configure Seasonal Billing Plans Using the Subscribe Merchant Portal
• Configure Seasonal Products Using the Subscribe Portal
• Configure Season Sets Using the Subscribe Merchant Portal
• Configure Seasonal Billing Plans Using the Subscribe Merchant Portal
• Configure Seasonal Products Using the Subscribe Portal

Parent topic:Seasonal Subscriptions

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Configure Season Sets Using the Subscribe Merchant Portal

To configure a Season Set:

1. In Subscribe Merchant Portal 2.0, select your starting point from the following options:
   • To create a new Season Set, click the + New button and select Season Set.
   • To duplicate an existing Season Set, select the relevant existing Season Set (ID) from Catalog > Season Sets and click Duplicate.
   • To edit an existing Season Set, select the relevant existing Season Set (ID) from Catalog > Season Sets and click Edit.
2. Define the following season set fields in the Details Pane:
   1. In the ID field, enter a unique Season Set ID. This ID uniquely identifies the Season Set within Subscribe. An ID can’t be changed or reused.
   2. In the Description field, enter a meaningful text description for the Season (up to 255 characters).
   3. In the Start Date and End Date fields, enter the dates for the first and last day of the season. These are the dates Subscribe uses to grant and remove Entitlements.
   4. To add a new entry, click Add Season. Add a Season for each new year or season of league play. You can add as many Seasons as you want now or add additional Seasons later as needed.
3. Click Save or Update.

Parent topic:Configure Subscription Products Based on a Season

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Configure Seasonal Billing Plans Using the Subscribe Merchant Portal

Note the following:

• Completed By: Business Manager
• Estimated Completion Time: < 1 day

To configure seasonal Billing Plans:

1. In Subscribe Merchant Portal 2.0, select your starting point from the following options:
   • To create a new Billing Plan, click the + New button and select Billing Plan.
   • To duplicate an existing Billing Plan, select the relevant existing Billing Plan (ID) from Catalog > Billing Plans and click Duplicate.
   • To edit an existing Billing Plan, select the relevant existing Billing Plan (ID) from Catalog > Billing Plans and click Edit.
2. Define the following Billing Plan fields in the Details Pane:
   1. In the ID field , enter your unique Billing Plan ID. The Billing Plan ID uniquely identifies this Billing Plan within Subscribe. The value can be any alphanumeric value up to 255 characters.
   2. In the Description field, enter a meaningful description for the Billing Plan. The Billing Plan Description is a free form text field up to 255 characters long.
   3. For the Status Toggle, decide whether to set to Active or leave Inactive. Only an Active Billing Plan becomes part of the Product Catalog and can be used for subscriptions.
3. Define the following Billing Plan fields in the Billing Periods Pane:
   1. Set the Cycle Length to 1 and from the drop-down list, select Months for the subscriptions to recur once per month, or select Years to recur once per year.
   2. In the Repeat Cycle field, select the Unlimited radio button to set subscriptions to recur indefinitely.
4. Define the following fields in the Advanced Behavior Pane to select the predefined Season Set for use with this billing plan:
   1. Set the Use a Season Set toggle to Yes by moving it to the right.
   2. Select the desired Season Set from the Season Sets drop-down list. The entitlement will be set from the season’s start to end date.
   3. Optional To define a longer entitlement time period for the seasonal billing plan, select the Active __ Days Before Season Begins and ___Days after Season Ends radio button and specify the number of days before and after the season to keep the Entitlements active.
   4. Optional Alternatively, to allow Entitlements to remain active continuously, select Grant Entitlements Through Offseason radio button and specify how often to repeat season set prior to the season start date.
5. Click Save or Update.

Parent topic:Configure Subscription Products Based on a Season

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Configure Seasonal Products Using the Subscribe Portal

Use the following steps as a guide to creating your catalog of seasonal recurring Products. Create a different product for each product price. For example, if you have two different price points for seasonal subscriptions, such as $4.99 for basic access and$7.99 for full access, then create two products: one for Basic Access and another for Full Access. To configure the Products for the seasonal Subscriptions:

1. In Subscribe Merchant Portal 2.0, select your starting point from the following options:
   • To create a new product, click the + New button and select Product.
   • To duplicate an existing product, select the relevant existing product (ID) from Catalog > Products and click Duplicate.
   • To edit an existing product, select the relevant existing product (ID) from Catalog > Products and click Edit.
2. Define the following Product fields in the Details Pane:
   1. In the ID field , enter your unique product identifier. Also knows as a SKU, this value uniquely identifies this product in Subscribe. It can be any alphanumeric value up to 255 characters.
   2. In the Status field, use the toggle switch to set the status of the Product toActive by moving to the right or Inactive to the left. By default, set to Active.
   3. In the Tax Classification field, enter the required classification ​provided by your tax vendor for this product. For more details, see the Avalara Avatax System Tax Codes list. This field only appears if Taxation has been activated.
3. Define the following Product fields in theDescriptions pane:
   1. Click Add to add a description.
   2. In the Description field, enter a meaningful product description (up to 255 characters long).
   3. In the Language field, select the desired language for the description from the drop-down list.
   4. To add additional Description entries in different languages, repeat these steps. You can define multiple descriptions in different languages at this time or come back later to add additional descriptions.
4. Define the following Product fields in the Pricing pane: The Pricing pane governs the product price and associated currencies and Tokens:
   1. Toggle to define the Pricing Mechanism. Toggle right for currency/token Standard Pricing. By default, field is set to Standard Pricing.
   2. Select Add Currency/Manage Currencies to define the relevant currencies. The Manage Currencies dialog box appears. You can add multiple currencies for the product at this time or come back to do so later. Only one currency will be accepted for the customer’s full payment.
   3. Place your cursor in the selection box and select a currency using its ISO three-lettered currency code. For example, select USD for US dollars. When finished, click Submit.
   4. Select Add Token/Manage Tokens to define the relevant digital Tokens previously configured. The Manage Tokens dialog box appears. You can add multiple tokens for the product. Only one token will be accepted for the customer’s full payment.
   5. Place your cursor in the selection box and select a token using its defined ID. When finished, click Submit.
   6. Enter the desired price in the Amount field for the defined Currencies and Tokens. Identify the relevant currency by its national flag or hover over it to see its name.
5. Define the following Product fields in the Entitlements pane:
   • Select existing Entitlements by placing cursor in the Select field and selecting the relevant existing entitlement entries. Note: Each Product can have from 0 to N Entitlements. Subscribe uses the Entitlement Identifier to identify content to the CMS/OVP.
   • Create New Entitlement entries by entering an entitlement identifier in the ID field, a Description in the corresponding field and clicking Create. Note: The newly created entitlements are added to the Select entitlement list for the Product. They can also be reused for other products.
6. When you’re done, click Save or Update.
7. Repeat the steps above for each Product you want to define.

Parent topic:Configure Subscription Products Based on a Season