What is Open LMS eCommerce?

Open LMS eCommerce enables you to sell access to learning experiences—including courses, programs, certifications, and sessions—through a centralized product catalog.

It allows you to:

• Monetize learning content
• Bundle multiple learning items into a single purchase
• Support multiple payment gateways
• Automate enrolments after purchase

How the System Works (At a Glance)

Think of eCommerce as a simple layered model:

Learning Content → Benefits → Products → Pricing → Catalog → Purchase → Access

• Learning Content: Courses, programs, certifications, sessions
• Benefits: Individual access units (what a user gets)
• Products: Bundles of one or more benefits
• Pricing: How the product is sold
• Catalog: Where users browse
• Purchase: Payment flow
• Access: Automatic enrollment or allocation

This structure allows you to design flexible commercial offerings without duplicating content.

⚙️ Before You Start

eCommerce is:

• A licensed feature (must be enabled by Open LMS)
• Configured at the Site Administration level

Once enabled, you will see Commerce settings in your admin menu.

Key Concept: Benefits vs Products

This is the most important distinction.

Benefits (What the user receives)

A benefit is a single entitlement, such as:

• Course enrollment
• Program allocation
• Certification assignment
• Session registration
• Access to a specific activity or topic

You do not assign pricing at this level.

Products (What the user buys)

A product is a commercial bundle of one or more benefits.

For example:

• A course + certification
• A program + multiple courses
• A session + course enrollment

This is where the learning experience becomes sellable.

A Simple Example

Imagine you’re offering a First Aid training:

• Course → Online theory
• Session → In-person workshop
• Certification → Completion credential

You can combine all three into a single product.

When a user purchases it:

• They are enrolled in the course
• Registered for the session
• Assigned the certification

All automatically.

🚀 Admin Setup Journey (End-to-End)

Step 1: Enable eCommerce & Catalog visibility

Go to:
Site Administration → General → Commerce → Commerce settings

Configure:

• Enable eCommerce
• Catalog visibility (public vs login required)
• Enable "Show user menu item.” 

Step 2: Add “Buy Products” to navigation

Go to:
Site Administration → Appearance → Manage advanced primary menu

Add: Buy Products (From drop-down menu)

Step 3: Prepare what you want to sell

Before creating products, ensure your learning items are ready:

• Courses → Enable Commerce enrolment
• Programs → Enable eCommerce allocation
• Certifications → Enable eCommerce assignment
• Sessions → Enable eCommerce within session restriction settings

Step 4: Create a Product

Go to:
Site Administration → General → Commerce → Create product

Define:

• Product name & description
• Select Benefits/learning items (courses/programs/etc.)

Step 5: Add Pricing (Critical Step)

After saving the product:

• Click Create price

Configure:

• Currency
• Cost
• Recurrence type:
  • One-time (perpetual access)
  • Subscription (time-based)
  • Recurring

👉 Without pricing, the product will NOT appear in the catalog

Step 6: Publish & validate

Once pricing is added:

• Product becomes available in Buy Products
• A direct product link is generated

👤 Learner Journey (What Your Users Experience)

Browse Catalog → View Product → Checkout → Payment → Access Granted

Step-by-step:

1. User clicks Buy Products/Product Catalog from the menu
2. Browse available products
3. Views product details (optional page)
4. Clicks Checkout
5. Completes payment via the gateway
6. Gets automatically:
   • Enrolled in a course or
   • Allocated to a program or 
   • Assigned certification

⚠️ Important Notes

• Products must have pricing to be visible
• Payment gateways must be configured before testing
• Some features vary by platform (e.g., sessions)

The Product Catalog Experience

You control how users interact with products:

• Public or login-required catalog
• Direct checkout OR product detail page before checkout
• Deep links for direct product access

Payment & Checkout

Open LMS supports multiple payment gateways, including:

• Stripe
• PayPal
• Authorize.net
• PayU Latam

Each gateway is configured independently and can be tested in sandbox mode.

📌 Detailed guides:
Stripe Setup

PayPal Setup

Authorize.net Setup

PayU Setup

Selling at Scale: Vouchers

Vouchers allow you to:

• Sell in bulk
• Distribute access outside the LMS
• Enable “buy for others” workflows

Example:

• A company purchases 100 licenses
• Distributes voucher codes to employees

📌 Detailed guide:
Managing Vouchers

Refunds (Payment Provider–Managed)

How refunds work

Refunds are not managed within the LMS. All refunds are processed and controlled by the connected payment provider (e.g., Stripe, PayPal). The LMS only facilitates access to initiate the request.

Subscription-Based Access (Optional)

You can require users to have an active subscription to access the site.

This is useful for:

• Membership-based platforms
• Paid learning portals
• Subscription academies

📌 Detailed guide:
Subscription Settings

Where to Start (Recommended Path)

If you’re setting this up for the first time:

1. Identify what you want to sell (courses, programs, etc.)
2. Enable them as benefits
3. Create a simple product (start with one benefit)
4. Add pricing
5. Test purchase using a sandbox payment gateway

What Makes This Powerful

• No duplication of content
• Flexible bundling of learning experiences
• Automated enrollment and allocation
• Scalable commercial models (B2C, B2B, subscriptions)
• Integrated with reporting and other Open LMS features

What’s Next

To proceed, choose one:

• Set up your first product → Creating Products
• Configure payments → Payment Setup