- Selling digital products with WooCommerce
can be much easier than selling physical stuff,
because all you need to get started is a computer,
and a Wi-Fi connection,
and if you're watching this video,
you most likely have both of those things.
It's simpler to run compared to a physical storefront,
and you don't have to deal with the hassles
of shipping and an inventory.
And no matter if you wanna sell PDFs, NFTs,
or Lightroom presets,
we're gonna show you how to set up digital products
on WooCommerce,
and the steps that you can take to optimize their sales,
while preventing any security issues.
- Digital commerce is a huge segment in of itself.
Some of the popular paths
for online entrepreneurs are ePublishing or eBooks.
So this will be like selling information in digital books
or PDFs.
And then there's online courses where you sell information
and protected content, and then SaaS products.
So software that you'd be selling on your actual website.
And if you'd like to know more
about selling digital courses specifically,
you can watch the video we did on that here.
- Now, if you need a little bit more convincing
as to why you need to start offering digital products
on your website,
let's start with high margins.
I mean, digital products can offer incredibly high margins,
and the cost to produce just one digital good
is the same as producing 100.
This means that once your sales ramp up,
your margins progressively increase as revenue rises,
while your costs remain the same.
Next up, simpler logistics.
With digital products
you don't need to manage any inventory,
so this means that your logistics are simplified
as you don't have to worry
about shipping items to customers, right?
Or ensuring that you have enough stock on hand
to satisfy your customers' demand.
- And then there's low overhead.
So when you sell digital products,
you're free from most of the overhead costs
typically incurred by brick-and-mortar stores,
and online stores selling physical goods.
For example, raw materials, rent, utilities,
and staff wages are common costs
to procure, store, process, and deliver goods.
None of these are necessary
when selling digital goods though.
The core of the business
revolves around creating and marketing the product,
and maintaining your website.
Simple enough, right?
- So let's talk about how to sell digital products.
WooCommerce defines digital products as virtual products,
and these products can either be downloadable, or not.
And because of this,
you can add both shipping and download details
to the same product,
enabling you to sell downloadable and physical products
from the same product listing, which is awesome.
So for instance,
you could sell an album
that comes up with both a physical CD,
and digital MP3 files.
This also means that you can sell digital products
that don't need to be downloaded.
Common examples are memberships,
services,
or coaching sessions.
- So before you create digital products,
you wanna define your settings for downloadable products
inside of WooCommerce.
So go to your WordPress dashboard,
and go to WooCommerce,
Settings,
and then Products.
Here, you'll wanna select downloadable products.
The file download method
will determine how customers can access their orders.
This is an important setting,
as protecting file access
is crucial to having a profitable digital download store.
If anyone can access your downloads,
you run the risk of someone distributing the files or links
to people that didn't buy the product.
With the force download option,
your servers will force downloads after the purchase
using PHP.
This method prevents direct linking,
but can also place strain on your server.
The other option is to use redirect links to the file,
and this method is less secure,
as the files are unprotected,
and anyone with the upload link can access them.
You also have the option to restrict downloads
to users that are logged into their accounts.
This can provide an extra layer of protection
to ensure that only registered buyers can see your products.
- As for the download limit,
it will depend largely on the types of products.
So for example, if you sell eBooks or audio files,
a high download limit is ideal,
as it'll allow customers to come on back
and easily access the files again if needed.
If you sell video games,
you will likely wanna limit customers
to a single or a few downloads,
and these and other products
may also warrant an expiration date.
Selling digital products,
is an effective way to grow eCommerce revenue,
without the challenges of traditional order fulfillment.
All right, that's a wrap.
Your journey doesn't have to end here.
We have over 300 videos for you to watch.
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Thanks for watching.
This is "The Journey."