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Overview

This guide explains the core subscription lifecycle at a business-process level. It focuses on how subscription data flows through Dough Dog from initial Shopify purchase to recurring order creation, algorithm assignment, payment, and fulfillment.

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Lifecycle Stages

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1) Plan Setup and Publishing

Before customers subscribe, merchants configure subscription plans in Dough Dog:
  • Define the subscription structure (plan, frequency, eligible products/product types, themes).
  • Configure merchandising controls such as assortments and product drops.
  • Publish plans so Shopify can present subscription purchase options.
At this point, Shopify is ready to sell the subscription offer.

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2) Customer Purchase in Shopify

A customer buys a subscription-enabled product in Shopify checkout. High-level result:
  • Shopify records the subscription purchase.
  • Dough Dog receives the relevant subscription/order signals through integration events.
  • Dough Dog maps that data into tenant-aware subscription records.

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3) Subscription Creation in Dough Dog

Dough Dog creates or updates internal subscription records with the key context needed for recurring operations:
  • Customer and shipping address
  • Payment method reference
  • Frequency and plan linkage
  • Product type/theme preferences
  • Assignment options (for example, size)
These subscriptions become the source of truth for recurring order generation.

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4) Upcoming Order Generation and Grouping

For each upcoming cycle, Dough Dog generates internal recurring orders. When possible, subscriptions are consolidated into a shared order group to reduce billing and operational overhead. At a high level, grouping depends on matching customer, shipping, payment method, and shipment timing. This stage creates the operational order shell that will later be finalized for fulfillment.

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5) Placeholder-Based Assignment Preparation

Recurring orders start with placeholder subscription line items. Why placeholders exist:
  • The final product/variant choice may depend on timing, inventory, and merchandising rules closer to ship date.
  • This keeps order planning flexible while preserving customer and cycle commitments.

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6) Algorithm Assignment (Product and Variant Selection)

Near processing time, the assignment algorithm resolves each placeholder into a concrete product variant. It evaluates high-level business constraints such as:
  • Product drops (including default fallback behavior)
  • Assortments and related assortments
  • Theme/product-type eligibility
  • Customer assignment options (like size)
  • Inventory availability and assignment strategy passes
Outcome:
  • Each eligible placeholder is replaced with an assignable product variant, or surfaced for retry/failure handling when no valid option exists.

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7) Inventory Reservation and Order Finalization

After successful assignment:
  • Inventory is reserved for selected variants.
  • Order totals and line items are finalized.
  • The order is prepared for billing flow.
This is the transition point from “planned recurring order” to “charge-ready order.”

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8) Payment Processing and Shopify Order Alignment

Dough Dog processes payment attempts for finalized recurring orders and keeps Shopify state aligned. At a high level:
  • Grouped subscription orders can produce a combined billing attempt.
  • Payment outcome drives downstream order state transitions.
  • Integration updates keep systems consistent for support and customer visibility.

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9) Fulfillment and Post-Order Visibility

Once paid, orders move through fulfillment and shipment lifecycle states. Customers and support teams can then see:
  • Upcoming vs past orders
  • Assigned items
  • Shipment status progression
This closes one cycle and sets up the next recurring cycle automatically.

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Ongoing Lifecycle Operations

Subscription lifecycle management is continuous, not one-time. Between cycles, customers and admins can update core attributes that affect future runs:
  • Frequency changes
  • Theme/product preference updates
  • Address updates
  • Payment method updates
  • Pause, cancel, unpause, or reactivate actions
These changes flow into the next order-generation and assignment cycle.

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Failure and Fallback Model (High-Level)

The lifecycle is designed to degrade gracefully when ideal conditions are not available:
  • Assignment falls back from regular drops to default drops where applicable.
  • Related assortments can expand eligible product pools.
  • Queue-based processing and retries support resilience for transient failures.
  • Unresolved issues are surfaced for operational follow-up.

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Summary

At a high level, Dough Dog subscription lifecycle management follows this path:
  1. Configure and publish subscription plans
  2. Capture Shopify subscription purchases
  3. Create and maintain internal subscription records
  4. Generate and group recurring orders
  5. Resolve placeholders through algorithm assignment
  6. Reserve inventory and finalize orders
  7. Process payment and sync order state
  8. Fulfill shipment and repeat for the next cycle