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Would it shock you to learn that over two billion shoppers purchased online products and services in 2020? It shouldn’t. With online shopping being an integral part of the retail industry worldwide, it is evident that e-commerce is here to stay. The ecommerce industry will continue to grow as technology constantly evolves to make shopping more convenient for everyone.
If you’re wondering what to sell, note that you don’t have to stick with physical items. Digital products are quickly becoming a trend in the online retailing industry and offer many advantages over physical goods. Whatever type of product you’d like to sell, WebLime is always available to provide complete ecommerce solutions to make the process a breeze.
This article will discuss all you need to know about selling digital products on Shopify. But, first, what do we mean by sell digital products on Shopify? Let’s find out.
What’s a Digital Product?
Digital products are intangible assets that you can only distribute or sell online because they only exist in digital formats. Unlike physical products, you can repeatedly distribute a digital product without stocking up on inventory.
This is because they are pieces of media that typically come in downloadable or streamable forms. Common examples of digital products include eBooks, software applications, photography, Zip files, videos, PDFs, etc. Who knows. You might be the next Steph Smith, who ended up earning $40,000 from her ebook “Doing Content Right” in under a month:
Why Should You Choose Shopify to Sell Digital Products on Shopify?
There are numerous online options to sell your digital products, like Shopify and Amazon. However, our focus in this article is Shopify, and the reason is simple — Shopify is the most adopted for selling and buying intangible goods.
Here’s why Shopify is the best platform to sell your digital products:
Low Subscription Fee
As a business owner, profit maximization and cost reduction will always be a priority. That’s precisely what Shopify offers. With affordable subscription fees, you can start selling your digital products quickly, even if you’re on a tight budget. In addition, despite the low start-up costs, you’ll still have access to many essential service packages.
Hosting Services
Shopify offers out-of-the-box hosting services, so you don’t have to worry about it. This allows you to focus on creating quality digital products, promoting them, and increasing your revenue.
Reliability
Regardless of how much of a diligent business person you are, setting up shop on an unreliable online marketplace provider will affect your credibility. So, to ensure that your shoppers maintain a positive image of your brand, use a trustworthy platform.
Shopify has been in business for over twelve years and has proven itself. It’s one of the most reliable and stable e-commerce platforms globally. Shopify is tested and trusted, so you can be confident of a smooth and hassle-free experience.
Support
Shopify doesn’t leave you to weather the storm all by yourself. Its support services are impressive. Apart from the support Shopify provides, there are third-party ecommerce solutions specialists you can consult to enhance your Shopify store’s functionality. For example, WebLime can handle the process of setting up your store on Shopify from start to finish.
Operationality
Shopify has one of the best content management system platforms with top-notch functionality to aid your digital product sales. In addition, you’ll enjoy an excellent user experience.
What Are the Benefits of Selling Digital Products?
Here’s why selling digital products is such a great idea:
Cost-Effectiveness
Selling digital products means reduced overhead costs. For example, unlike physical goods, you wouldn’t need to pay for raw materials, packaging, physical stores, shipping, etc. This means that you can begin selling digital products on a low budget.
No Need to Restock
Have you ever been excited about seeing an online product you’ve been craving only to find out it’s sold out? Do you remember how disappointing that moment was? Well, buyers who shop for digital products cannot relate to that experience.
With digital products, you don’t have to manage inventory. You’ll never run out of stock because it involves selling one product repeatedly. How exciting is that!
A Rapidly Growing Industry
If you’re wondering how fast your digital products can sell, the answer is “pretty fast.” There’s a rapidly increasing market for digital products. So you don’t have to worry about not making sales if you have a strong marketing strategy.
If you’re still in doubt, let’s look at the numbers:
- The USA recorded an estimated 191 million eBooks sales in 2020
- The stock photo industry is experiencing speedy development at an average growth rate of 5% annually
- America’s e-learning industry is also growing incredibly. Experts and stakeholders project a growing market that can churn in revenue of about $12.81 billion between 2020 and 2024
Instant Delivery
You can send digital products to your clients in an instant. There’s no need to process products for delivery or worry about distribution.
Higher Profit Margins
Since selling digital products is more cost-effective than physical goods, you can expect higher profit margins.
Scalable and easy to update
Finally, digital products are in theory infinitely scalable, because you don’t need inventory to keep selling. At the same time, they’re also easy to update or add new content to. This allows you to expand on previous versions and repackage the digital product in a way that will attract new customers.
How To Figure Out the Best Digital Products to Sell on Shopify
Have you made up your mind to sell digital products on Shopify? You’ve made a wise choice. But how do you know what digital product to sell?
Working out ideas for digital products can be overwhelming. Fortunately, we’ve come up with a 3-step guide to help you through this process.
Brainstorm
Start your brainstorming process by writing down all the digital product ideas you have. Ensure you put down everything that comes to mind — even the thoughts you think are silly. After writing, ask yourself if you have valuable information or insights to pass on to your clients. Also, ask yourself what you’re proficient at.
Match the answers to these questions with your brand’s core values to get an idea of the products you should be selling.
Research
Now is the time to research the problems your customers are having and how you can help. This ensures that you’re selling a valuable product that people need.
You can carry out your research on Reddit, Quora, Google, etc. Looking at your competitor’s product reviews and blog comments to find insights on painpoints can also help.
Validate
After brainstorming and researching, the next and final stage involves validating the ideas you’ve generated. Then, narrow your ideas to a few digital products and analyze how useful they’ll be to your customers.
To verify that your ideas are valuable enough, conduct a survey by asking your clients about products they like. You can also check out what’s trending on Google Trends and use keyword suggestion tools to research keywords in a niche.
Common types of digital products you can sell include:
- eBooks, online courses, and other educational products
- Content for leisure and entertainment like fun podcasts, digital music, and videos
- Sell Membership access to restricted premium content (blog posts, videos, etc.)
- Stock images
- Digital design services
- Licenses to your digital assets
- Applications and software
- Digital templates
How Can You Sell Digital Products on Shopify?
Sign Up to Shopify, Subscribe, and Build Your eCommerce Shop
The first step to selling digital products is to build your store. Your Shopify store is a website where your customers can view your products and contact you.
Since Shopify offers a 14-day free trial, you can leverage the opportunity to build your shop. Before doing this, ensure that you have your business name, logo, and pictures of your digital product.
After the free trial expires, you must subscribe to a plan to continue using the platform. Shopify has three options:
- Basic for $29
- Shopify for $79, and
- Advanced for $299.
Alternatively, you can subscribe to the Shopify lite plan. With this plan, you can add products to websites and blogs and accept credit card payments for $9 monthly. Whichever plan you choose, WebLime can help you with setting up your store and monitoring its performance so you get optimal results.
Create Digital Products for Sale
To do this, visit your Shopify dashboard, select “Products,” then “All Products.” Next, choose an added product or create a fresh one.
Finally, uncheck “This is a Physical Product” in the shipping section of the product page and save the changes. If you leave “This is a Physical Product” checked, Shopify will assume that you’re sending a physical product along with the digital goods.
One of the best ways to ensure that your product sells is to describe it convincingly as you create it. Then, give your customers compelling reasons to patronize your brand by showing how it benefits them.
Some Best Practices – Sell Digital Products on Shopify
Use a third-party app to create a link that enables your customers to download your digital products after purchase. You can use Shopify’s Digital Downloads app or search for any other suitable app on the Shopify App Store.
Create an email that explains how to access the purchased digital products to your clients. Finally, place a test order to verify that everything works fine.
When you place a test order, you’ll receive your digital products in a personal email. This gives you an idea of your customers’ user experience.
You can also test how your customers will pay for your intangible assets by enabling Shopify payments test mode. Here’s how to do it:
- Visit Shopify settings and select Payments
- Under the payments section, click on Manage
- Scroll till you find the test mode section
- Select “enable test mode” and save your changes
Note that you wouldn’t be able to use real credit cards to make purchases so long as test mode remains enabled.
Examples of Shopify Stores Selling Digital Products
These are examples of Shopify stores that are already making waves selling digital products:
Wintercroft — sells papercraft templates
PeachCréme — sells logos and business card designs
Into The Great Divide — sells digital album downloads
The Luxe Lens — sells digital products like online courses for photographers
Gauge Girl Training — sells eBooks and guidelines for meal planning
Relaxing White Noise — sells digital downloads of tracks
Life Is Messy and Brilliant — sells digital products for creative planners
Use These Shopify Apps to Sell Your Digital Products Conveniently
These Shopify third-party apps are the best options to sell digital products on Shopify:
SendOwl
With SendOwl, you can sell intangible products like audio, software, videos, etc., on Shopify. The app offers first-time users a 30-day free trial and allows for instant downloads.
If you want to use SendOwl, you’ll enjoy the reliability and incredibly speedy delivery. You’ll also be able to deliver multiple files per order and access Shopify POS.
Sky Pilot ‑ Digital Downloads
Sky Pilot is one of the most easy-to-use third-party applications to sell digital products on Shopify and offers a 14-day free trial. This app helps to improve sales and offers instant deliveries to buyers. One unique Sky Pilot advantage is the custom pricing feature to enable you to alter costs according to your needs.
FetchApp
This is one of the best applications for managing digital orders seamlessly. With FetchApp, you’ll get continuous improvements/updates, and a fast server with a feature that allows multiple users on each account.
Downloadable Digital Assets App
While Downloadable Digital Asset’s free trial is just seven days, you’ll find the paid version highly valuable. This third-party application boosts security and prevents fraud. With Downloadable Digital Asset, your customers wouldn’t be able to share downloads with others. It can also sell any intangible product regardless of file size.
Build Your Shopify Store and Reach Your Ideal Buyers With WebLime
As certified Shopify partners, WebLime has the necessary tools and technology to help you sell digital products conveniently. From bringing out your creative side to growing your audience and everything in-between, we’re your best bet to make it big on Shopify.
Do you wish to know more about our services? We’re always available and eager to speak with you. Get started today.
Can you sell digital downloads on amazon?
Yes, you can sell digital downloads on Amazon through their Amazon Digital Services. This includes products like e-books which can be sold through Kindle Direct Publishing, music via Amazon Music, and apps through the Amazon Appstore.
However, it’s important to note that the terms, conditions, and fees for selling digital products on Amazon may be different than Shopify.
Are there any fees for selling digital products on Shopify?
Shopify charges a monthly subscription fee that varies depending on your plan. While there are no specific fees for selling digital products, transaction fees may apply if you’re using a payment provider other than Shopify Payments.
Also, while Shopify’s Digital Downloads app is free, some third-party digital delivery apps may have their own separate charges.
Is it possible to sell digital and physical products together on Shopify?
Absolutely. Shopify allows you to sell both digital and physical products in the same store. You can create separate product listings for each type of product, or bundle a digital product with a physical one as a package deal.
What types of digital products can I sell on Shopify?
You can sell a wide variety of digital products on Shopify. This includes e-books, music files, video content, images, graphics, digital art, software, courses, PDF files, and more. The type of digital product you should sell largely depends on your skills, interests, and the needs of your target market.