Commerce
Commerce is the opt-in System for Startups that sell physical goods by dropship: catalog, Orders, upstream fulfillment and shipment tracking.
Commerce sells physical goods by dropship: the catalog, each Order, routing to the upstream supplier, and tracking passed through to the buyer. The supplier holds the stock and ships it; the Startup never holds stock.
Summary
| Part | This System |
|---|---|
| Group | Commerce and fulfillment |
| Status | Beta: it works, and its Verbs may still change |
| Shelf | Reference: documented, never offered first |
You can ask:
- “Sell physical products”
- “Ship this order”
- “Which orders still need to ship?”
What you get
| Part | This System |
|---|---|
| Starts | Opt-in: it wakes with the Product Templates that need it (Dropship store). |
| Built from | Payment rails, Integrations, Database, Workflows |
Nouns it owns
| Noun | Definition |
|---|---|
| Order | An Order is a Customer’s commitment to buy one or more Offers once, moving from placed to paid, fulfilled, and closed. |
Verbs
| Verb | Object | Approval | Event |
|---|---|---|---|
| Order.place | Order | None | Order.placed |
| Order.fulfill | Order | None | Order.fulfilled |
Events
| Direction | Event | How |
|---|---|---|
| Emits | Order.placed | By Order.place |
| Emits | Order.fulfilled | By Order.fulfill |
| Consumes | Order.paid | Acts on it |
States
The lifecycle of an Order:
| State | Meaning | Moves to |
|---|---|---|
placed (first) | The Customer committed, with the Offer Version and price fixed; nothing is charged yet. | paid by Order.pay; canceled by Order.cancel |
paid | Its amount is settled and its Entries posted; a Service Order’s work runs in fulfillment. | fulfilled by Order.fulfill; closed by Order.confirm; canceled by Order.cancel; refunded by Order.refund |
fulfilled | What it bought is granted: Entitlements for software and data, or a shipment for goods. | closed by Order.confirm; refunded by Order.refund |
closed | The Customer signed off, which earns the Startup its fee. | refunded by Order.refund |
canceled | Ended before fulfillment, with any payment returned in full. | None: it ends here. |
refunded | Its payment returned in full, with the reversing Entries posted; a partial refund keeps its state. | None: it ends here. |
Who operates it
| Part | This System |
|---|---|
| Accountable | Operations Lead |
| Team | Operations Team |
| Seat | A role agent holds it until a Human is seated. |
| Autonomy | supervised |
| Also calls its Verbs | Delivery Manager |
Approvals and limits
None.
Processes that use it
| Process | How it uses it |
|---|---|
| Delivery | A step calls Order.fulfill |
| Shipping | Runs on it |
Rail underneath
Stripe’s products (Stripe’s names): Payments, Checkout.
Views and dashboards
| View | Shows | Metrics |
|---|---|---|
| The Operations Lead’s view | The Metrics its accountable Role answers for. | Liquidity |
Access
What each Access level may call here.
| Access level | May call |
|---|---|
owner | Every Verb (6) |
admin | Every Verb (6) |
member | Every Verb (6) |
viewer | Read only (2 of 6) |
Import and export
None.
Fees and pricing
Each Order’s charge carries one platform fee, withheld before the money reaches the balance, the same as any other charge.
Availability and limits
| Part | This System |
|---|---|
| Status | Beta: it works, and its Verbs may still change |
Compliance notes
The platform records each Order and its fulfillment; product safety and shipping rules stay the founder’s.
Controls it carries:
Related Systems
- Billing
- Supplier onboarding
- Listings
- Matchmaking: also holds Order
Example
A Dropship store selling standing desks to b2c buyers takes an Order at 9pm. Commerce routes it to the supplier with the address and the paid total, and sends the buyer the tracking number by morning. A shipment late past its promised date opens a Task for the Operations Lead Agent.