Markets

Subscriptions in Crystallize let you sell products and services on a recurring basis. Instead of a single transaction, customers subscribe to receive continuous access or recurring deliveries. This supports business models ranging from subscription boxes and digital memberships to complex B2B service agreements.

The subscription engine is built to be flexible and composable. You can define contract terms, billing cycles, and renewal rules, then connect them seamlessly with your product catalog, orders, and payments. This makes it just as easy to set up a simple monthly plan as it is to model advanced usage-based or multi-tier B2B agreements.

Customers are the entities (individuals or organizations) that transact with your store — via one-time orders, subscriptions, or both. They serve as a central anchor that links orders and subscription contracts to real-world identities. You can store as little or as much information as you like, depending on your use cases.

There are three main customer entity types:

• Individual - A single person (with name, email, address).
• Organization - A company or legal entity (can include multiple users or contacts).
• Group - A container or folder for organizing customers or sub-groups (useful for markets, project teams, internal segmentation).

You can nest Groups, Organizations, and Individuals in a hierarchical tree (up to 5 levels deep). This is especially useful in B2B contexts where companies have subsidiaries or multiple departments.

Order management in Crystallize gives you full control of the lifecycle of every purchase. From the moment an order is placed until it is fulfilled, all orders are stored and tracked in a central system. Orders can come from a one-time checkout, a recurring subscription, or be created manually.