In this article, we’ll cover how to sell digital downloads with WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads, as well as how to use subscription downloads to protect your files. The following are some additional tips to make the process easier. You should also consider what your customers’ experience is like when they’re shopping for a mixture of digital and physical goods. This is particularly important for digital downloads, since they are more susceptible to theft and copyright claims.
Easy Digital Downloads
If you’re thinking about using Easy Digital Downloads to sell your digital products, then you’ve come to the right place. Designed for digital products, Easy Digital Downloads offers a variety of features, including discounts for multiple downloads. Customers can also create discount codes and pay with credit cards through Stripe, Apple Pay, Google Wallet, and PayPal. Moreover, you can use additional payment gateways and extensions with this plugin. Depending on your budget, Easy Digital Downloads will cost you $99 per year.
When it comes to selling physical products, Easy Digital Downloads is not a great choice. WooCommerce has been designed for selling physical products and added functionality for digital products only afterward. While these are great choices, they have different advantages. WooCommerce is best for selling physical products. Easy Digital Downloads is a better choice for digital products, while WooCommerce is best suited for selling physical products.
WooCommerce
To sell digital downloads on your eCommerce store, you need to create products in the Downloads section of the Product Management area. You can upload the digital product files in various sizes and assign the relevant pricing. When a customer wants to purchase a download, they can paste the purchase shortcode on any page or location of the store. You can also assign a featured image to your product. After creating a product, you can then display it on your eCommerce site.
While WooCommerce is capable of selling digital products, it doesn’t have a lean, clean setup process for this type of product. The dashboard feels bloated with several dozen settings and options, and you need to use a host of extensions to power digital sales. This can be a significant time investment for those who don’t want to waste time configuring your store. Fortunately, there’s a workaround for this issue.
Subscription Downloads
Subscription Downloads is an extension of WooCommerce that allows you to sell downloadable products linked to subscription products. Subscription Downloads is an excellent way to add value to subscription-based products without investing a ton of money. Here’s how to add these products to your store in three easy steps. The best part about it is that it’s free to use! You can also use it with any other WordPress plugin for subscriptions.
Variable products can be downloadable, virtual, or physical. Just like physical products, variable products can have download limits and expiration dates. These products can be ordered and sold simultaneously with physical products. Similarly, downloadable products without physical components have a virtual option. If you’d like to sell subscription downloads, follow these steps. Afterwards, you’ll be able to create product variations.
Protecting file access
You need to protect your files before you can sell them, as unauthorized access to these products can be detrimental to your business. You should consider placing your products behind a login, where customers can use a username and password to access their downloads. This is an effective way to discourage online pirates and keep your product secure while allowing you to track how many downloads your customers make. It also helps prevent search engines from indexing the content. File-sharing software such as Memberful, aMember, or MemberPress can be installed onto your website.
In order for this plugin to work properly, you must use the “Redirect only” option. This will force customers to log in to the website before downloading the file. This prevents users from sharing the downloadable link with other people. You must select the product that contains the file and then make sure that the customer or admin role is set to “protected”. The slug of the protected file is automatically updated with “_pda” (or similar) as soon as the purchase is made.
Analysing customer retention data
As the popularity of ecommerce grows, more businesses are focusing on analyzing customer retention. Customer retention is the key to growth and stability. Using data from your ecommerce store, you can understand how well you’re serving your current customers and attract new ones. Here are two free and easy ways to analyze your customer retention:
Once you’ve set up the analytics for your digital download store, you can begin to analyse your customer’s behavior. By analyzing their purchase history, you can identify the problems they may be experiencing and offer solutions. If your customers are buying a single-time product, you may be able to upsell them to other products. You’ll also have better inventory management, since customers usually buy items outside of their subscriptions. That way, you’ll never have a problem with excess inventory or a deficit. And you’ll develop a long-term relationship with your customers.
