This article was first published on E-Commerce Times. Read the full article here, an excerpt copied below.
Until recently, becoming a subscription provider was a big and expensive task. To get into the game, a vendor needed to build a subscription business model right next to its traditional businesses, so to speak, which typically involved building an e-commerce Web store and member site, organizing an online price list and catalog, and figuring out how to handle subscription business receipts, as well as shipping and dealing with returns.