FAQ: All

Question 1

What is a subscription model?

Accepted Answer

A subscription model is a sales method in which the customer does not have to make a new purchase each time. They sign up once, choose a frequency, and the store makes a delivery or renews access and processes payment at regular intervals. For the customer, this means convenience and usually a discount; for the store, it means recurring revenue that can be predicted in advance.
There are three types commonly found in online stores. A replenishment subscription regularly delivers the same consumable product, such as coffee or supplies. A curated subscription is a box that the store puts together for the customer at regular intervals, often with an element of surprise. An access subscription provides membership, discounts, or content in exchange for a fixed fee.
The subscription model works both ways. The customer commits to buying, and the store commits to delivering, so before launching, you need to set a loyalty discount, its upper limit, rules for changing orders, and the number of pauses allowed, as well as ensure adequate inventory and set up recurring payments.

Question 2

What are recurring payments?

Accepted Answer

Recurring payments, sometimes called recurring billing, allow you to charge a customer on a regular basis, for example, monthly or with each subsequent subscription delivery. The customer provides payment information and gives consent once, and subsequent charges occur automatically, without logging into the bank or re-entering card details.
They most often work with a payment card. The card details remain with the payment processor, and the store receives a token it uses to initiate subsequent charges. Recurring payments are offered by Polish payment providers, including Przelewy24, Autopay, Tpay, and PayU, but the specifics of their service - such as variable amounts or procedures for expired cards - vary among them.
For a subscription-based store, this is a must: without recurring payments, each delivery would require the customer to pay manually, and the regularity they pay for would turn into a series of reminders. At the same time, the customer must be able to withdraw their consent, and the terms and conditions should clearly state when and for what they will be charged.

Question 3

What is payment card tokenization?

Accepted Answer

Card tokenization involves converting a payment card number into a token - a string of characters with no value outside of a specific payment system. The customer enters their card details into the operator's form; the operator stores it on its side, and the store receives only the token. The store then uses this token to authorize subsequent charges.
In an online store, tokenization enables two things: one-click payments for subsequent purchases and recurring payments for subscriptions. The secure storage where the payment processor keeps card data is sometimes called a Vault.
The most important benefit for the store is that it does not store card numbers in its own database. A token leak does not grant access to the card, and the store does not assume responsibility for storing the most sensitive payment data. When choosing a payment processor, it's worth checking how its tokens behave when a bank issues a new card to a customer.

Question 4

What is Baselinker?

Accepted Answer

Baselinker is a tool for managing sales across multiple channels. It collects orders from online stores and marketplaces in one place, forwards them to warehouse and accounting systems, and assists with shipping through integrations with courier companies.
In a setup with a store and an ERP system, Baselinker acts as an intermediary: it periodically retrieves orders from one side and forwards them to the other, so the store and the ERP system do not need to communicate directly with each other. This solution works well when the ERP system already has a connection to Baselinker, and full direct integration would be too costly or unnecessary.

Question 5

What is cron?

Accepted Answer

Cron is a task scheduler on a server. Instead of running a script manually, you set when it should run: every hour, once a day at a specific time, or on selected days of the week. In online stores, cron handles tasks that must occur regularly but do not require human intervention.
Typical uses include exchanging data with other systems (retrieving price lists and inventory levels from ERP, shipping orders), refreshing search engine indexes, generating product feeds, and sending overdue notifications. If a cron job fails to run or ends with an error, the store will display outdated data; therefore, it’s a good idea to log the results in a history visible to the administrator.

Question 6

What is an API endpoint?

Accepted Answer

An endpoint is a data exchange point provided by a system, such as an ERP or an online store. Each endpoint is responsible for one type of information: one returns prices, another returns inventory, and yet another accepts orders. In practice, integrating an online store with an ERP system involves a set of such queries sent at regular intervals.
Endpoints belong to the system that provides them, so it is the system’s provider who decides how long they remain active. When the provider withdraws old endpoints and introduces new ones, the integration on the other side must be reconfigured; otherwise, the store will stop receiving up-to-date data. That’s why it’s important for the store owner to have control over the integration code so it can be modified quickly.

Question 7

What is an SKU?

Accepted Answer

SKU, or Stock Keeping Unit, is an internal product identifier assigned by the seller. Unlike the EAN code, which is global and assigned by the manufacturer, the SKU is created by the store or wholesaler itself, usually according to its own logic: category, model, variant.
Each variant that has a separate inventory level is assigned its own SKU. This ensures that the ERP system, warehouse, and online store know exactly which item is being referred to. In B2B sales, the SKU is also important to the buyer: regular customers know the numbers of the items they order, so B2B platforms allow them to place orders by entering or uploading a list of SKUs with quantities, without having to browse the catalog.

Question 8

What is a message queue?

Accepted Answer

A message queue acts as an intermediary between systems that exchange event data. The sender - for example, a store - places a message in the queue and does not wait for a response. The recipient - for example, an ERP or CRM system - retrieves messages one by one when it is ready. The queue is managed by a separate program, known as a broker, such as RabbitMQ.
The queue protects against data loss, but not against duplicates. A message is delivered at least once, so if the connection is lost, it may be delivered a second time, and it is up to the recipient to recognize that it has already been processed. Magento has a built-in queuing mechanism, but for production environments, Adobe recommends an external broker because a simple database-based adapter does not scale.

Question 9

What is PIM?

Accepted Answer

PIM, or Product Information Management, is a system for managing product information. Descriptions, attributes, photos, variants, and translations are entered into it, and from there they flow to the online store, marketplaces, and other sales channels. This ensures that the same product does not have to be described separately in each channel.
When integrating a store with an ERP system, PIM is typically responsible for product content, while the ERP handles inventory, purchase prices, and documents. This division must be established before implementation: if a description can be edited in both the PIM and the store, one of those changes will be lost after the next import. It also happens that the PIM is not the first link in the chain; instead, the catalog is created in another company system and is only transferred from there to the PIM, and then to the store.

Question 10

What is an identity provider?

Accepted Answer

An identity provider, or IdP for short, is a system responsible for user authentication. It stores accounts and passwords, verifies that the user is who they claim to be, and in return issues a token - a signed confirmation of identity. The store, mobile app, or business dashboard does not store passwords; instead, it verifies the token. Data exchange is handled using standards, most commonly OpenID Connect (OIDC) and SAML.
You can host the identity provider yourself - for example, using Keycloak on your own server - or purchase it as a service, such as Auth0. It is the heart of Single Sign-On: thanks to it, a single account works across multiple channels. The security of the entire system depends on whether applications fully validate the token - that is, its signature, validity, and the entity for which it was issued.

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