Yes, this is possible, and can be set up in just a couple steps. Here's a tutorial on how to set up these products.
The Subscription & Membership Products module will need to be activated in your store. This module is located in your store's administration area at: [Navigation Menu > Modules > Subscription & Membership Products]. Activating this module will add "scheduled billing" options to your store's Product Editor.
You will need to create two products in your store: The regular on-going product, and the "free trial" product. The free trial product will be purchased by the customer, and then after two weeks it will automatically change over to the regular on-going product, which will continue with its own billing cycle thereafter.
Part 1: Create the regular product
First, create the regular on-going product that the free product will change over to after the trial period ends. Open the Product Editor, located in your store's administration area at: [Navigation Menu > Products > Add a Product]. The product editor will start on the General Options tab. Complete the required fields on that screen, and then click over to the Scheduled Billing tab. (See item "A" in the image below.) The Scheduled Billing screen contains the options for setting up recurring billing.
On the Scheduled Billing tab, enter the billing term for the product. This is the billing cycle that will begin after the 14-day free trial period ends. In this example, the Regular Product bills on a monthly schedule, so I've entered "30" in the Product Billing Term field. (See item "B" in the image above.)
Next, set this product to restart its billing cycle after it is purchased. (See item "C" in the image above.) This will create an ongoing loop. After the customer's scheduled order for this product is processed, another scheduled order will be added to your Scheduled Orders queue, scheduled to be processed thirty days later. (The Scheduled Orders queue is located in your store's administration area at: [Navigation Menu > Orders > Search Scheduled Orders].) The thirty-day billing cycle will automatically continue until the customer's order is manually removed from your Scheduled Orders queue.
Part 2. Create the "free trial" product.
Return to the the Product Editor, and create a new product. This will be the free trial period product. Again, the product editor will start on the General Options tab. Complete the required fields on that screen, being sure to set the product's price to zero. (If it's not zero, it wouldn't really be a free trial, would it?) After saving the General Options, click over to the Scheduled Billing tab.
On the Scheduled Billing tab, enter a 14 day billing term for this product. (See item "D" in the image below.) This will cause fourteen days to pass after the free trial product is purchased before the next billing rule takes affect.
In the "Rescheduling Options" option, set the free trial product to add a new product to the Scheduled Order queue after this product is purchased. (See item "E" in the image above.) Enter the System ID number of the product you want to change over to in this field. In this example, I've entered "9" in this field, which is the System ID number of the regular on-going product. This will tell the store to change over to product nine 14 days after the free trial product is purchased. After that, product nine's subscription rules will take over, and the regular product will continue billing as itself every thirty days.
Part 3. What happens when a zero-dollar product is purchased?
Below is an example of a store checkout page in which a customer is purchasing the Free Trial Product. (See item "F" in the image below.) The product's $0.00 price does not prohibit the customer from placing their order. The customer can checkout and enter their billing address and credit card information as usual.
The customer will enter their credit card information as usual. (See item "G" in the image above.) Most payment gateways (such as Authorize.net, PayFlow, etc.) will decline an order with a $0.00 value. To prevent the free order from being declined, the store will submit the order to the payment gateway as a $0.01 "authorize-only" transaction. This will allow the payment gateway to validate the credit card, to ensure it is valid. The "authorize-only" nature of the penny transaction means that the customer will never actually be billed for the penny. The gateway is just authorizing the card, not charging it. The penny transaction will be listed in your payment gateway account records, but will expire after 30-90 days (depending on the gateway), and will remove itself from your gateway records after it expires. This penny authorization has no affect on your customer, order or scheduled order records in your Modular Merchant store.
Part 4. What will be recorded in my store's administration area?
After the customer places the order for the free trial product in your store, the transaction will be recorded like any other in your store's order records. (View your store's order records in your administration area at: [Navigation Menu > Orders > Search Orders].) On the Search Orders page, you'll find the $0.00 order for the free product.
Additionally, a scheduled order will be created for the regular product, set to be processed fourteen days from the free product's purchase date. View the queue of your upcoming scheduled orders in your store's administration area at: [Navigation Menu > Orders > Search Scheduled Orders]. On the Search Scheduled Orders page, click the magnifying glass icon to view the details page for a specific scheduled order. A list of the products included in the customer's scheduled order is among the information listed on the Scheduled Order Details page. (See item "H" in the image below.)
Viewing this customer's schedule order details, we find that the customer now has an upcoming order for the "Regular Product". In our example, the "Free Trial Product" was purchased on August 10, 2007. The Bill Date column shows us that this order is scheduled to be processed on August 24th; fourteen days after the purchase date of the "Free Trial Product". On the 24th, an order will automatically be placed for the "Regular Product". The Rebill As and Term column shows us that from then on, future orders for the "Regular Product" will continue to be placed every 30 days. The billing cycle will continue automatically, until altered by either the customer or store administrator.
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