Top EDD Marketplace Extensions for Boosting Sales

Enhancing Your WooCommerce and Easy Digital Download Stores

The world of eCommerce has become increasingly competitive, making it vital for online store owners to optimize their websites to meet customer needs and boost sales. This section delves into the various strategies and tools that can be employed to enhance WooCommerce and Easy Digital Download web stores. By implementing clever plugins and snippets, store owners can create a more engaging user experience and ultimately increase sales conversions.

Key Features to Focus On

To maximize the potential of your online store, it is essential to target specific features that can help streamline operations and improve customer satisfaction. Here are some crucial areas to consider:

  • Streamlined Checkout Process: Ensure that the checkout process is as efficient and hassle-free as possible.
  • Mobile Optimization: With an increasing number of users shopping on mobile devices, your store must be mobile-friendly.
  • Site Speed: A slow-loading website can deter potential buyers, leading to abandoned carts. Prioritize website performance.
  • Product Suggestions: Implementing upselling and cross-selling strategies can guide customers to additional products they may find enticing.
  • Personalization: Tailor customer experiences through personalized recommendations and targeted promotions.

Focusing on these key areas will help create a more effective shopping experience, encouraging customers to complete their purchases. Streamlining processes and enhancing personalization not only contribute to better customer satisfaction but can also significantly improve the overall sales performance of your store.

Utilizing Plugins for Optimization

WordPress plugins act as powerful tools to enrich your store’s functionality. Here is a brief overview of how the right plugins can elevate your eCommerce operations:

Plugin Name Functionality Key Benefits
WooCommerce Upsell Plugin Encourages customers to consider higher-value products Increased average order value, improved sales conversions
Easy Digital Downloads Enhanced Sales Reports Provides in-depth analytics on sales data Better decision-making based on data, improved sales strategies
Simple Page Access Restriction Controls access to certain pages based on user criteria Enhanced customer experience through targeted content delivery

By integrating these plugins, you will find that the functionality of your web store improves significantly. Leveraging plugins will not only streamline various processes but also enable you to make data-driven decisions to further optimize your sales strategies.

Investing time and resources into enhancing your WooCommerce and Easy Digital Download stores can yield substantial returns. By focusing on user experience, optimizing site performance, and utilizing powerful plugins, you can significantly improve sales conversions and operational efficiency. For additional insights on optimizing your store, feel free to explore our extensive resources tailored for eCommerce optimization, including our eCommerce plugin offerings.

Enhancing Your WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads Stores

In today’s competitive online marketplace, enhancing your WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads stores is essential for driving sales conversions and improving user functionality. Leveraging advanced plugins and snippets can optimize various features that are pivotal in enhancing the customer journey and ultimately increasing conversion rates. Below, we explore key enhancements that can be made to your online store, covering aspects such as user experience, product visibility, and marketing strategies.

Key Enhancements for WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads

To optimize your web store effectively, consider the following enhancements:

Enhancement Feature Description Benefits
Product Recommendations Customizable suggestions for upselling and cross-selling. Increased average order value and improved customer experience.
Email Automation Automated email campaigns to engage customers. Enhanced customer retention and reduced cart abandonment rate.
Inventory Management Plugins that streamline inventory tracking and management. Improved efficiency and reduced costs in stock management.

Incorporating these enhancements can significantly boost your store’s overall performance. The product recommendations feature allows you to tailor shopping experiences that resonate with customers, leading to increased sales. Meanwhile, email automation ensures consistent communication, encouraging repeat visits and purchases. Lastly, effective inventory management helps in reducing overhead costs while ensuring stock availability—critical in meeting customer demands.

Benefits of Using Snippets in Your WordPress Store

WordPress snippets are small pieces of code you can add to your website to extend its functionality without needing to install entire plugins. They can offer real-time improvements that enhance user experience and optimize sales conversions. Consider these advantages:

  • Quick Implementation: Snippets can be added rapidly without extensive coding knowledge.
  • Resource Efficiency: Snippets reduce overhead by adding only the necessary features as compared to whole plugins.
  • Customization: Provides the opportunity for tailored functionality suited to your specific business needs.
  • Improved Performance: Since snippets are lighter than plugins, they often result in quicker loading times for your web pages.

Using snippets offers a flexible way to enhance your website’s functionality without overwhelming it with multiple plugins. This approach is particularly beneficial for small to medium-sized stores that require swift adjustments to their operations. The simplicity of adding these snippets allows store owners to focus on core business activities while improving their site’s performance and usability.

Enhancing your WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads stores involves a strategic approach that integrates various plugins and snippets aimed at optimizing webstore functionality and improving the customer journey. By implementing targeted features such as product recommendations, email automation, and efficient inventory management, you can significantly boost sales conversions and customer satisfaction. The added flexibility of snippets also allows for tailored enhancements that can evolve with your business needs. For those looking to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of their stores further, exploring options such as WooCommerce can provide more insights and resources for maximizing potential.

Enhancing Your E-Commerce Experience with WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads

In the dynamic landscape of online shopping, both WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads play a crucial role in managing e-commerce stores effectively. These platforms provide robust features designed to optimize sales, enhance user experience, and streamline management tasks. Selecting the right features and enhancements can significantly impact store performance and customer satisfaction.

When leveraging WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads, it is essential to focus on specific functionalities and enhancements that can improve overall performance. Here are several key areas to consider:

Key Functionalities and Enhancements

To elevate the capabilities of your e-commerce store, consider the following enhancements:

  • Payment Gateway Optimization: Ensure a seamless checkout process by integrating multiple payment gateways tailored to your customer demographics.
  • Abandoned Cart Recovery: Implement tools that automatically send reminders to customers who leave items in their carts.
  • Enhanced Reporting and Analytics: Utilize advanced reporting tools that provide insights into sales data, customer behavior, and key performance indicators.
  • Product Upselling and Cross-Selling: Use plugins designed to intelligently recommend additional products to customers during their shopping experience.
  • Email Marketing Integration: Harness the power of email marketing by integrating tools that manage customer communications, promotions, and newsletters.

These enhancements not only optimize the shopping experience but also help in achieving higher conversion rates. By addressing the various aspects of the purchasing journey, you create a more engaging and streamlined process for your customers.

Specific Plugin Solutions

There are several plugins specifically designed to enhance your store’s functionality. Below is a table outlining some recommended plugins and their primary benefits:

Plugin Name Description Primary Benefits
WooCommerce UPSelling A plugin that helps in promoting additional products based on customer browsing patterns. Increased average order value, improved customer satisfaction.
Easy Digital Downloads Abandoned Cart Tools designed to recover sales from abandoned shopping carts. Higher revenue recovery, better customer engagement.
Enhanced Sales Reports Plugin Provides detailed analytics on sales and customer interactions. Better data-driven decisions, improved marketing strategies.

Implementing these plugins can revolutionize how you manage your online store, providing not only additional features but also insights that can help improve overall performance. Enhancements such as upselling recommendations, abandoned cart solutions, and detailed reporting can directly contribute to revenue growth and customer retention.

By carefully selecting and implementing these functionalities and plugins, you can significantly enhance the customer experience in your online store. Whether you are utilizing WooCommerce or Easy Digital Downloads, the right tools can empower you to drive sales, improve customer satisfaction, and optimize your operational processes.

Providing an exceptional online shopping experience is key to standing out in the competitive e-commerce marketplace. With the right plugins and enhancements, achieving this goal becomes substantially more attainable.

Improving Sales Conversions in Your Online Store

Online store owners are continuously seeking innovative ways to enhance sales conversions and overall functionalities of their webstores. As such, incorporating effective plugins and snippets can significantly contribute to achieving this goal. The right tools can help analyze customer behaviors, implement marketing strategies, and ultimately boost sales. Below, we will delve into some of the key strategies you can deploy to improve sales conversions on your WooCommerce or Easy Digital Downloads platforms.

Key Strategies to Enhance Sales Conversions

To effectively increase your online sales conversions, consider implementing the following strategies:

  • Optimize Product Pages: Ensure that product descriptions are detailed and persuasive. Use high-quality images to showcase your products effectively.
  • Incorporate Upselling Techniques: Use upselling and cross-selling techniques to encourage customers to purchase additional items.
  • Utilize Abandoned Cart Recovery: Implement abandoned cart solutions to remind customers of the items they left behind.
  • Enhance Customer Support: Provide multiple channels for customer support, such as chat features and comprehensive FAQs.
  • Monitor Analytics: Regularly check performance metrics to identify areas for improvement in your sales approach.

These strategies can make a significant impact on sales conversion rates. Product pages need to captivate the audience, and upselling encourages higher order values. By recovering abandoned carts, you are re-engaging potential buyers, while excellent customer support builds trust and loyalty. Lastly, monitoring analytics allows you to adapt your strategies based on real-time data and customer feedback.

Understanding Customer Behavior

Analyzing customer behavior is crucial in shaping a tailored sales approach. Here are some effective ways to monitor and evaluate customer interactions with your online store:

Behavior Type Analysis Techniques Potential Insights
Purchase Patterns Use analytics tools to track buying frequencies. Identify which products are popular and when they are often purchased.
Traffic Sources Evaluate where your website traffic is coming from. Determine the most effective marketing channels and campaigns.
Page Interactions Analyze user navigation paths across your site. Understand which page elements engage users and lead to conversions.

By adopting these analysis techniques, you can gain valuable insights into your customer’s preferences and decisions. Recognizing purchasing patterns can help you better forecast inventory needs and sales cycles. Additionally, understanding traffic sources clarifies which marketing efforts are succeeding, enabling you to allocate resources more effectively. Lastly, tracking page interactions ensures that you are creating a user-friendly online environment that encourages purchases.

For further exploration of techniques to maximize your sales conversions, you may want to consider utilizing plugins that are tailored to the unique needs of eCommerce platforms. These tools can help you streamline processes, improve user experience, and enhance customer interactions. Visit our collection of plugins designed for WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads to find solutions that align perfectly with your business goals.

In summary, enhancing sales conversions in your online store necessitates a multifaceted approach, incorporating optimization techniques, customer behavior analysis, and effective tools to facilitate improved user experiences. By leveraging these strategies, you are positioning your business for sustained growth and success in the competitive online marketplace.

Enhancing Your WordPress Webstore with Strategic Plugins

In today’s digital marketplace, effectively optimizing your WordPress webstore is paramount to ensuring it not only survives but thrives. Whether you are operating a single-vendor store or a multi-vendor marketplace, leveraging the right plugins can greatly enhance your user experience and improve overall sales conversions. Here, we will delve deeper into how these enhancements can be achieved and the specific functionalities that strategic plugins bring to your online store.

Key Benefits of Using Plugins for Your Webstore

Utilizing plugins in your WordPress webstore can provide invaluable advantages, including but not limited to:

  • Improved User Experience: Plugins can enhance the navigation and checkout process, resulting in a smoother shopping experience for customers.
  • Increased Conversion Rates: By integrating upselling and cross-selling functionalities, plugins can help maximize your sales potential.
  • Enhanced Analytics: Collect valuable data regarding customer behavior and sales performance to make informed decisions for your business strategy.
  • Customizability: Tailor your store’s functionalities and appearance to better fit your brand and meet the specific needs of your audience.

These advantages not only lead to better overall performance for your webstore but also foster a strong relationship with your customers, increasing their likelihood of returning for future purchases.

Types of Plugins Available for WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads

When it comes to enhancing your WordPress webstore, there are various plugin types designed to optimize specific features. Below is a table summarizing common types of plugins and their purposes:

Plugin Type Purpose Examples
Payment Gateways Facilitates diverse payment options for customers. PayPal, Stripe, Authorize.Net
Analytics Tools Tracks sales performance and customer interactions. Google Analytics, Enhanced Sales Reports
Marketing Automation Automates email campaigns and social media outreach. MailChimp, ActiveCampaign
SEO Optimization Enhances visibility in search engine results. Yoast SEO, All in One SEO Pack

Incorporating a variety of plugin types enables you to create a well-rounded and efficient webstore environment. By doing so, you can not only expand the functionalities of your store but also increase its appeal to potential customers.

Choosing the Right Plugins for Your Needs

With so many options available, selecting the appropriate plugins can sometimes feel overwhelming. Here are some essential factors to consider when making your choice:

  • Compatibility: Ensure that the plugins are compatible with your existing themes and other plugins.
  • Reviews and Ratings: Check the reviews and ratings to gauge the effectiveness and reliability of the plugins.
  • Support and Documentation: Opt for plugins that offer comprehensive support and documentation for easier troubleshooting.
  • Regular Updates: Choose plugins that are regularly updated to maintain compatibility with the latest WordPress versions and enhance security.

By taking these factors into account, you can better navigate the plugin landscape and select those that will serve your webstore’s unique needs most effectively.

In summary, leveraging the specific functionalities of high-quality plugins can significantly enhance your WordPress webstore’s performance. Whether it is through improved user experience, enhanced analytics, or tailored marketing strategies, the right plugins can lead to greater sales conversions and a stronger customer base.

For further insights on enhancing sales conversions, check out our specialized resources on Sales Optimization.

Strengthening Your WooCommerce Store’s Sales Conversions

In the competitive world of online commerce, optimizing your WooCommerce store to improve sales conversions is more crucial than ever. To maximize revenue, it is not only important to attract traffic but also to ensure that potential customers complete their purchases. Here, we discuss some effective strategies that can be employed to enhance the conversion rates of your WooCommerce store.

Key Strategies to Enhance Sales Conversions

Utilizing a range of strategies can significantly influence the effectiveness of your sales approach. Below are some essential tactics that can drive conversions:

  • Optimized Product Pages: Ensure that your product pages present clear images, compelling descriptions, and customer reviews.
  • Simplified Checkout Process: Reduce the number of steps required to complete a purchase to minimize cart abandonment.
  • Strong Call-to-Actions: Use persuasive language and strategically place call-to-action buttons to encourage purchases.
  • Personalized Recommendations: Implement upselling and cross-selling techniques to increase the average order value by suggesting related products.
  • Retention Strategies: Use email marketing and loyalty programs to keep customers engaged and encourage repeat purchases.

By incorporating these strategies, you can create a more streamlined purchasing process that encourages customers to buy. Each tactic addresses specific points in the sales funnel, effectively guiding potential buyers toward completing their transactions.

Utilizing Analytics to Drive Decisions

Understanding the behaviors of your customers is vital for enhancing conversions. Utilizing data analytics allows store owners to gain insights into customer preferences and shopping patterns. Consider monitoring these key performance indicators:

Key Performance Indicator Description
Conversion Rate The percentage of visitors who make a purchase after visiting your store.
Cart Abandonment Rate The percentage of customers who add items to their cart but do not complete the purchase.
Average Order Value The average amount spent by customers in a single transaction.
Customer Lifetime Value The total revenue expected from a customer throughout their relationship with your store.

These metrics are crucial for gauging the effectiveness of your strategies and pinpointing areas in need of improvement. With consistent analysis, you can refine your approaches to match customer expectations better.

Enhancing User Experience and Trust

A great user experience is critical for keeping visitors on your platform long enough to convert them into customers. Here are a few suggestions to enhance their shopping experience:

  • Mobile Optimization: Ensure your website is fully responsive to cater to mobile users, who represent a significant portion of online shoppers.
  • Trust Signals: Incorporate trust badges, secure payment options, and customer reviews to build credibility.
  • User-Friendly Navigation: Implement a straightforward menu and intuitive search functionality to help customers find products easily.
  • Fast Loading Times: Optimize site speed, as slow-loading pages can lead to abandoned visits.

By prioritizing user experience, you elevate the likelihood of conversions. When customers feel supported and confident while navigating your site, they are much more inclined to make a purchase.

Leveraging Marketing Techniques

To deepen engagement and foster impulse purchases, employing effective marketing strategies can be worthwhile. Implementing these techniques can significantly uplift your conversions:

  • Email Marketing: Send newsletters and promotional emails to inform subscribers of new products or upcoming sales.
  • Social Media Advertising: Utilize targeted advertising on social media platforms to reach specific customer demographics.
  • Influencer Collaborations: Partner with influencers to leverage their audience and enhance brand visibility.
  • Retargeting Strategies: Use pixel tracking to re-engage visitors who left your site without making a purchase.

Engaging your audience through consistent marketing efforts cultivates awareness and keeps your brand at the forefront of their minds. This not only boosts sales conversions but also cultivates a loyal customer base over time.

By implementing these diverse strategies aimed at improving sales conversions, you can take significant steps toward optimizing your WooCommerce store. A well-rounded approach that combines user experience, analytics, and effective marketing tactics will not only enhance your store’s performance but also lead to lasting customer relationships.

Enhancing the sales conversion rates of your WooCommerce store involves a multifaceted approach. By assessing customer behavior, streamlining the purchasing process, and implementing effective marketing strategies, you can significantly heighten the effectiveness of your online store. Prosperity in the realm of eCommerce is possible with the right tools and insights.

Enhancing WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads Sales Conversions

In the competitive landscape of online sales, the goal of every store is to maximize conversions while delivering an exceptional customer experience. With the right tools and strategies, you can significantly improve sales conversions for your WooCommerce or Easy Digital Downloads store. This section explores various enhancements that you can implement to your online shop, leading you toward better conversion rates.

Key Strategies for Improving Sales Conversions

Utilizing effective strategies is critical for enhancing sales conversions. By adopting various techniques and tools, you can create a more engaging shopping experience for your customers. Below are some key strategies to consider:

  • Optimize Product Descriptions: Craft compelling and informative product descriptions that highlight the benefits, features, and uses of your products.
  • Use High-Quality Images: Showcase your products with attractive, high-resolution images that reflect their quality and appeal.
  • Incorporate Customer Reviews: Display customer reviews prominently to build trust and encourage new customers to make a purchase.
  • Implement Upselling Techniques: Use upselling strategies to recommend related products at checkout, encouraging customers to spend more.
  • Streamline the Checkout Process: Simplify your checkout process to minimize cart abandonment and provide a seamless shopping experience.

These strategies are not just theoretical; they can lead to tangible results in conversion rates. By optimizing product descriptions and including high-quality images, your products will resonate more with potential buyers. Customer reviews are a potent tool for building trust, making them invaluable for decision-making. Incorporating upselling techniques can seamlessly boost your average order value, while a simplified checkout process can significantly reduce the barriers that lead to cart abandonment.

Utilizing Plugins for Enhanced Functionalities

In the realm of eCommerce, leveraging the right plugins can make a world of difference in enhancing sales conversions. These plugins can streamline various processes and enrich your store’s functionalities. Below is a table that showcases some must-have plugins and their main functions:

Plugin Name Main Functionality
UpsellMaster Facilitates upselling by suggesting related products to customers during checkout.
Enhanced Sales Reports Offers in-depth insights into sales performance and trends.
Abandoned Cart Recovery Recovers lost sales by sending reminders to customers who leave items in their cart.
Mailchimp Integration Streamlines email marketing campaigns and customer outreach.

By integrating these plugins into your WooCommerce or Easy Digital Downloads store, you can address multiple facets of the customer journey. For instance, the UpsellMaster plugin can significantly enhance your sales by effectively promoting additional products. Enhanced Sales Reports will help you make data-driven decisions to further refine your sales strategies. Moreover, by utilizing the Abandoned Cart Recovery plugin, you can potentially reclaim lost revenue and cultivate a repeat customer base.

Fostering Customer Engagement and Retention

Customer engagement plays a critical role in driving sales conversions. When customers feel connected to your brand, they are more likely to make repeat purchases. Here are some effective ways to enhance customer engagement:

  • Email Marketing Campaigns: Utilize targeted email marketing to keep customers informed about promotions and new arrivals.
  • Loyalty Programs: Implement a customer loyalty program to reward frequent buyers with discounts or exclusive offers.
  • Social Media Interaction: Actively engage with customers on social media platforms to cultivate a community around your brand.
  • Personalized Recommendations: Use data to provide personalized product recommendations based on customer interests and past purchases.

Enhancing customer engagement is essential for establishing lasting relationships with your buyers. Through email marketing, you can maintain regular communication and keep your products top-of-mind. Loyalty programs not only reward customers but also create an incentive to return to your store. Social media engagement can foster a sense of community, and personalized recommendations can provide customers with tailored shopping experiences that feel relevant and appealing.

Incorporating these strategies and tools will allow you to not only enhance your sales conversions but also create an environment where customers feel valued and satisfied. As you fine-tune these approaches within your WooCommerce or Easy Digital Downloads store, you will likely observe an upward trend in your conversion rates and overall sales performance.

For more insights on enhancing conversions, consider visiting our dedicated page on WooCommerce Plugins.

Enhancing Your WooCommerce and Easy Digital Download Store

In the competitive landscape of online commerce, optimizing your store’s functionality and conversion potential is crucial. Whether you are utilizing WooCommerce or Easy Digital Downloads, there are multifaceted strategies to enhance your sales outcomes. Below, we explore a variety of innovative plugins and snippets that can significantly improve your web store capabilities, boost user experience, and maximize conversion rates.

Key Features and Benefits of Optimization Plugins

Utilizing optimization plugins and code snippets can lead to an array of advantages that directly impact your store’s performance. Here are several key features that these tools can provide:

  • Improved User Experience: Cleaner interfaces and intuitive navigation can lead to higher customer satisfaction.
  • Increased Sales Conversions: Tailored strategies for upselling, cross-selling, and more can significantly increase order values.
  • Enhanced Performance Insights: Detailed analytics provide vital insights into customer behavior, helping you refine your strategies.
  • Streamlined Operations: Automation of tasks can free up your time to focus on growth strategies.

Taking advantage of these features can dramatically change the performance dynamics of your WooCommerce or Easy Digital Downloads store. Numerous customers have reported increased conversion rates and overall improved user engagement, illustrating the tangible benefits of integrating these optimization tools.

Choosing the Right Plugins for Your Store

Selecting the appropriate plugins is vital to ensure the smooth operation of your eCommerce site. Use the following criteria when evaluating options:

Criteria Description
Functionality Ensure the plugin meets your specific needs, such as upselling, customer management, or analytics.
Compatibility The plugin must be compatible with your existing website themes and the main platform you are using.
Support and Updates Look for plugins that offer robust customer support and regular updates for security and functionality improvements.
User Reviews Check feedback from other users to understand the plugin’s performance and reliability in real-world scenarios.

It is critical to assess plugins using these criteria to ensure optimal functionality and to avoid disruptions in your store’s performance. Well-chosen plugins can significantly alter the operational effectiveness of your eCommerce platform, making it essential to approach this decision with careful consideration.

Maximizing Sales Through Strategic Implementations

Implementing efficient strategies for increasing sales conversions involves understanding the customer journey and responding accordingly. Here are some tactics that can help you achieve higher sales performance:

  • Utilize A/B Testing: Test different versions of your product pages to see which elements convert better.
  • Leverage Upselling Techniques: Encourage customers to purchase more expensive items or add-ons.
  • Optimize Checkout Processes: Simplify forms and reduce steps during checkout to minimize cart abandonment.
  • Enhance Product Descriptions: Use compelling and succinct language that clearly outlines the value of your products.

These strategies not only help in driving sales but also improve customer satisfaction, which can lead to repeat business. A well-implemented approach to upselling and product presentation can create significant revenue streams that are sustainable over time.

In the competitive world of eCommerce, optimizing your WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads store is not just beneficial but essential for success. By utilizing the right plugins, focusing on user experience, and employing strategic sales techniques, you can effectively enhance your store’s performance, thus leading to increased conversions, customer satisfaction, and overall profitability.

Understanding WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads

WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads are two of the most popular plugins for building eCommerce stores on WordPress. Both plugins serve different needs, but they excel in helping webstore owners enhance their sales and improve user experience. Below is a detailed breakdown of each platform, elucidating their core functionalities, benefits, and ideal use cases.

WooCommerce Overview

WooCommerce is a robust eCommerce plugin for WordPress that transforms any WordPress site into a fully functional online store. It provides a variety of features that cater to both physical and digital product sales. Here are some of the standout characteristics of WooCommerce:

  • Wide Range of Products: Supports both physical and digital products, which allows for a versatile inventory.
  • Numerous Payment Gateways: Integrates with a multitude of payment processors, making it easier for customers to checkout.
  • Extensive Customization: Offers numerous themes and plugins for further tailoring your store’s appearance and functionality.
  • Multi-Vendor Support: Can expand to support multiple vendors with added plugins, allowing for a marketplace-type store.
  • Advanced Reporting: Provides various reports on sales data, helping users track performance and sales trends.

With an extensive library of add-ons and themes, WooCommerce can adapt to nearly any online retail scenario. Its flexibility makes it the preferred option for businesses of all sizes, from small startups to large enterprises.

Easy Digital Downloads Overview

On the other hand, Easy Digital Downloads (EDD) specifically focuses on selling digital products such as software, eBooks, and other downloadable files. This dedicated nature makes it an attractive option for businesses prioritizing digital product sales. Here’s what makes EDD stand out:

  • Streamlined Digital Sales: Designed exclusively for digital products, providing a seamless purchasing experience.
  • User-Friendly Checkout: Optimized checkout process that enhances user experience, minimizing cart abandonment rates.
  • Comprehensive Reporting: Detailed sales reports and analytics that offer insights into customer behavior and sales metrics.
  • Effective Licensing: Built-in support for software licensing, enabling easy management of licensed digital products.
  • Customization and Extensions: A variety of add-ons available to enhance functionality, including payment gateways and marketing tools.

Easy Digital Downloads is ideal for businesses that exclusively deal with digital products, ensuring that features and functionalities are tailored specifically for such sales scenarios. It empowers users to manage their digital inventory efficiently while maximizing overall profitability.

Choosing Between WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads

When deciding between WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads, consider the following factors:

Criteria WooCommerce Easy Digital Downloads
Product Type Physical and digital products Digital products only
Payment Options Extensive options and flexibility Effective for digital sales
Ease of Use Requires more setup for complex needs User-friendly for digital inventory management
Extensions & Customization Wide variety of themes and add-ons Specialized add-ons for digital sales

Each platform has its own unique strengths that cater to different types of businesses. Whether you need a solution for selling tangible goods or digital files, it is essential to evaluate your business model and choose the plugin that best aligns with your objectives. Understanding these nuances can lead to increased efficiency and sales conversion in your webstore.

How to start your Digital Downloads eCommerce WordPress Website

eCommerce has truly become a booming industry engaged by a lot of entrepreneurs, business owners, developers, marketing experts and others. There are plenty of industry giants like Amazon, Alibaba, eBay and other web stores selling almost everything under the sun including physical and digital products. Regardless of such large players, there are still many niches untapped and launching your own eCommerce website is actually not that hard to do anymore with off the shelf eCommerce store solutions.

eCommerce Websites using WordPress versus Other Website Builders


WordPress, by far, is the most popular open source Content Management System (CMS) Link: https://wordpress.com/

One of the best parts about entering the eCommerce world is that it turns out easier to setup and operate than ever before. Either you can opt to use one of the hosted eCommerce store solutions such as Shopify or choose to use an Open Source platform such as e.g. WordPress based WooCommerce or Easy Digital Downloads.

There are actually a lot of Website Builders we can use besides WordPress such as Drupal Commerce, Magento, Squarespace, Shopify, Wix or Weebly which are all quite simple and flexible to work in. Some are hosted solutions (e.g. Shopify) while others are Open Source platforms.

eCommerce websites using WordPress offer the advantage that WordPress, by far, is the most popular open source Content Management System (CMS). While it started as a blogging tool, it has evolved throughout the years into a very powerful website builder. WordPress is used by 65.2% of all the websites whose content management system we know. This is 42.4% of all websites on the Internet, including those without CMS or with a custom-coded CMS.

On WordPress, today there are more than 55,000 WordPress plugins available which enhance the functionalities of WordPress websites. This is just by counting the number of plugins on the official directory and not counting the many WordPress plugins offered on private websites. Your WordPress eCommerce digital products store can be created when you install an eCommerce plugin to your WordPress website. For selling digital products, we recommend installing Easy Digital Downloads and combine it with some of the many other plugins available in the WordPress eco-system.

Just choose the right ones which suit your business needs and voilà! – You are now up to a very good start of your journey with your tailor-made eCommerce store based on an Open Source platform.

Selling digital products can be much easier than selling physical products (see Article here). In this article, we will review what steps are actually needed to setup a Digital Downloads eCommerce website using WordPress.

Step 1: Choosing your Domain Name and Web Hosting Provider

Choosing a user-friendly Domain Name

The very first step to setup your digital products eCommerce store is that you must come up with a domain name (URL) for your new eCommerce store. It is the internet address where Internet users can access your website. It can be any combination of letters and numbers and can be used in combination of the various domain name extensions, such as .com, .net and more.

Important to note is that obtaining a .com domain is still considered the best choice today, especially if you intend to scale up your business internationally. However, finding available short domain names is getting tough today. Short domain names are easier to remember than long names.

Another aspect is that it can only help if the domain name also includes the target keywords of the website. It is, therefore, more valuable from a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) perspective.

Registering domains will cost about $10-15 per year, depending on registrar and top-level domain (TLD). Common domain registrars are the following:

Nothing feels more perfect than having your own and original domain name which helps to attract traffic!

Selecting a Web Hosting Provider

Another important thing besides choosing your domain name is selecting a suitable web hosting provider.

Here’s a list of some select web hosting providers that you can use:

Web hosting providers are needed to keep your digital products eCommerce store online. Important here is to choose a web hosting provider not only for the price but also page speed, support and additional services to ensure the website will not suffer any significant downtime. The important differentiation when it comes to choosing a web hosting provider is to decide whether to use a shared server or a virtual private server (VPS):

  • A shared server means you will have to share the web server with other parties. This also means that the resources of the server are shared, so if one user uses a lot of memory and processing power, it can affect your server as well.
  • A virtual private server means the resources of that server are dedicated to your website only. Important here is to choose a service where you can add more memory and processing power as your website grows and that you are not limited by the server.

Most web hosting providers offer additional services which can be very beneficial and helpful in keeping your website up and running. Additional services can be daily backups, software maintenance services to benefit from the latest updates, support, etc. You just need to choose the services which you really need and be ready to re-evaluate your provider as the website develops and receives more traffic.

Step 2: Decide what Digital Products to sell

Why sell digital products?

A digital product is simply a product or tool that can be created once, and distributed repeatedly online in digital form. In digital downloads eCommerce, products are delivered digitally to your customers, and therefore the beauty is that it has an infinite inventory and you will never run out of stock. Digital products often come in the form of downloadable or streamable files. See this article here which covers the difference between selling digital and physical products.

Here are some great benefits when deciding to sell digital products:

  • No inventory needed. Digital products never run out of stock!
  • No shipping required as files are delivered via download link immediately after purchase. This saves hassle and costs for both the customer and the seller. The customer immediately receives the product without having to wait
  • Every product is unique and it is easier to differentiate the product than e.g. selling a standard product like clothes or shoes
  • Selling one product or selling two products, the fixed costs are nearly the same. For stores with high sales, this means low overhead costs which can potentially lead to attractive profit margins
  • Additional services and support can be offered

The trend to digitalization and using more and more digital services, including social media, are strong drivers which will lead to further growth in digital products online. Many people like businessmen, entrepreneurs, bloggers and other people are joining and taking advantage of the trend and establish new stores to sell digital products every day.

Sample Digital Products to sell online

The following are some examples of digital products you can consider selling online:

eBooks

If you are good at writing, there is huge potential for you to be creating and selling eBooks. eBooks continue to be the most popular digital products being sold online and is starting to have more sales than physical books. eBooks are very simple and flexible to create and market. As long as you got the passion and required skills and knowledge in marketing, you will have a good chance to prosper on your own.

WordPress Themes and Plugins

Software Developers are taking advantage of the current fast growing eCommerce industry as people use more and more open source platforms such as WordPress. Today, different plugins, themes, code snippets and extensions for WordPress are available online which can enhance the functionalities of WordPress websites. If you have the skills and knowledge in developing WordPress plugins or codes, this can become a perfect business for you!

Software

The software industry is huge and is continuously growing, especially also with many businesses selling their software as a service (SaaS). How to sell digital products such as Software? The software can either be sold online by either providing access to an online website service or by downloading the software upon purchase. In addition to selling software, related services can be offered as well.

Documents and Templates

Documents and templates are another popular categories to sell online. Here the main objective is to provide standard templates which allow customers to significantly save time and money while allowing a more professional work output. Examples include e.g. report templates, resume templates, application letter templates, presentation templates, spreadsheet templates or templates related to any other software. There are a lot of document types that can be created and be sold online, depending on your market needs.

Music and Audio Files

Music and audio files are very popular items to be sold online. Songwriters can simply sell their songs on their own web shops in case they are not interested to use any of the large platforms where the terms are mainly dictated by Spotify and others. There also exist markets for selling audio tracks only as in today’s online marketing world, many people required background music for their videos, etc.

Design, Graphics and Digital Arts

Selling design, graphics and digital arts are perfect for people that are both creative and passionate with art and design. It encompasses a lot of product types such as design templates, business logos, drawings, sketches, photos, arts but also animated or edited pictures. The key to being successful here depends mainly on your creativity and design skills. Good designs are surely worth selling online!

Online Courses and Videos

One other interesting product category to sell online are online courses and videos. Videos sold on e-commerce shops are mostly educational and the reason why people are buying them is that they want to acquire a new skill. If you consider yourself an expert on a particular topic, creating a video explaining a topic in detail can become a great way to package that knowledge and sell it to others looking to learn via an online video course.

Professional Services

Another category of digital products to sell online are actually services sold as single projects or gigs. Such services which are likely being offered online for sale are virtual assistance, creative writing, proofreading, legal, marketing, different kinds of consulting services, translations and many more. Offering such services will mainly depend on your focus set of skills and market knowledge in order to address an unmet demand by the market to help other people.

These are just some of the examples of digital product types consider selling online. For sure there are even more digital product types which you can consider selling online depending on your niche and focus.

Step 3: Sourcing Digital Products to Sell Online

When it comes to selling a digital product, an important question is from where do you get the actual products? There are different ways how you can source digital products to sell online. Here are some examples what you can do:

Create your own digital products

Whether you feel ready or not, it’s time to start building. To many, this is the hardest part of the entire process. So one simple solution actually can be by creating the digital product yourself. This is especially an option for market niches where you have superior skills so that you can offer high-quality and unique products which cannot be matched that easily by somebody else. When creating a digital product you may ask yourself the following:

  • How will your products help your target markets?
  • What value can you offer your customers?
  • Why will they buy it?
  • What can you offer different than anybody else?

You might think it takes a lot of time and effort to create a sellable product, right? Indeed, it is, but if you conclude that actually there might be demand for your own created products, the benefits of creating your own digital products might actually be very high in the long run and it’s worth finding out. Therefore, better not to wait too long and better actually to get started to find out!

Reselling digital products of third-parties (“Resellers”)

If you don’t want to go the route of creating digital products yourself (which can be quite time-consuming), another way is to simply resell digital products of third-parties. In general, third-parties are always interested in resellers as they constantly look for new ways to sell their products. In some cases, this can be a faster route and you can also focus on selling products which you know they already sell. Here the business model is that you resell third-party products with a simple profit-margin mark-up. The way to get started here is to develop a concept of your eCommerce store and then to contact select third-party suppliers to find products to sell. Such third-party suppliers in the case of digital products e.g. can be:

  • Software Developer
  • Graphic and Video Editors
  • Course providers
  • Etc.

Some suppliers might ask for exclusivity which might restrict you to sell products from competitors etc. This needs to be factored in in your analysis and concept. The main value you can bring to the table is market-knowledge and access to a new market. In addition you can also consider adding your own services to make the product more valuable to customers, by e.g. offering local support, maintenance or custom development services. Choosing the right digital product from a third-party supplier therefore also depends mainly on your own expertise. So make sure to utilize your skills and knowledge well to gain more profit and be the best on your own field in the long-term.

Become a marketplace operator for digital downloads eCommerce

Another way to source products is to actually become a market-place and sell third-party products from various suppliers. Examples of this are:

  • templates from different suppliers
  • services from third-parties
  • courses from third-parties

Such eCommerce shop concepts are mainly a marketing task as your job will be to attract traffic to your webshop and maximize sales for your marketplace overall.

Step 4: Market Research for Digital Products eCommerce Stores

After you have selected a digital product to sell it is very important to first do a thorough study of the market. This is to avoid any basic mistakes and helps you provide a solid basis when formulating the strategy and concept of your eCommerce store. Market research includes a study of the market, its trends, opportunities and threats, customer segments and their needs and the competitive situation. As a trick, we recommend to first start with a review of all competitors as this normally leads to a quicker understanding of the market.

Competitor Research

The first step in doing competitor research is to define the target market niche. You should try to be as specific as you don’t want to end up in a market where you compete with thousands of competitions online. Some important steps in conducting a Competitor Research are the following:

  1. Shortlist: Research and list down all those webstores that are currently offering similar products you are intending to market. Try to especially focus on the top 10 or top five ones and thoroughly research their profiles to understand what and how they are exactly doing.
  2. Sources of Traffic: Where do they get their traffic from? All e-commerce websites rely on receiving traffic. Therefore, to understand each store a bit better, it’s important to understand how and how much traffic they get from.

In principle there are the following sources of traffic possible:

  • Direct traffic
  • Organic search traffic coming from search engines such as Google, Bing and others
  • Social media traffic coming from social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, etc.
  • Referral traffic coming from links placed on other (third-party) websites and blogs
  • Email traffic coming from email campaigns
  • Traffic from paid ads which includes normally ads from Google, Facebook but also from other social media platforms.

What you can do here is to check the Alexa Ranking, check on SEO tools how many keywords are indexed in Google and how many backlinks each competitor has. You should then also check the social media profiles of each competitor and check how many followers they have the level of engagement they receive. Doing this analysis will give you more information about the marketing strategies and tactics of each of the competitors.

Analyze Price and Value offered

You will need to analyze the content of each competitor’s website by thoroughly examining their websites. Take note of things such as the kinds of products they sale, their pricing and the value they offer to the customer. Important is also to check the reviews from customers (if available) to better understand what exactly customers appreciate or not about this service.

Analyze Size of each Competitor

If possible also try to estimate how much revenue you think each e-commerce store generate by estimating monthly traffic, likely sales conversion rates and average order values.

Pros and Cons 

You will need to figure out the pros and cons of using each of the competitors. What are the reasons that I would buy from them? What problems would still remain unsold when purchasing a product from them. This will give you a clearer picture about the strengths and weaknesses of each of the competitors and can be very helpful to identify a market gap and opportunity for yourself.

The competitor research now can form the basis for your market research, as by now we have already obtained a first understanding of the market.

Market Research

The market research should now help us to understand the results from the competitor research in light of the overall market itself. Normally market research is split into two parts:

  1. A desktop research reviewing all publicly available data and information
  2. In-depth research based on interviews with market experts, competitors, customers or other important stakeholders

Important aspects to clarify in our market research are the following:

  • Definition of the market and its segments –  How do we exactly define each target market segment? What are the characteristics of customers and demand in each of the segment?
  • Geographies –  Which geographies do we focus on? As we are selling a digital product, we potentially can sell worldwide. However, to be practical we will have to focus our marketing efforts on a first country to start with. Therefore we should focus our market research primarily on the first target country where we aim to launch our service.
  • Market size – how big is the market? How many potential customers are there to be served potentially? Can we break down the market size in different niches?
  • Market needs and trends – What kind of products and services does the market demand and why? What are the trends? Which segments will grow, which segments will decline in the future?
  • Regulations – Which are the important laws and regulations which need to be adhered to in each market? How do these regulations impact eCommerce store owners selling digital products?
  • Market niches – What characteristics does each market niche has? In which niches do competitors operate? Which niches are attractive? Which ones are less attractive?
  • Opportunities – What gaps exist in the market? Where are customers underserved? What problems are not solved yet today? What are the opportunities to be taken advantage from the point of view of digital products eCommerce store?

Our market research should provide us with a clear conclusion about a market opportunity of which we can take advantage of. In case we cannot identify a market opportunity for us, it might be better to abort and find a new product idea by starting this exercise from scratch.

Step 5: Preparing a Business Plan for Digital Downloads Stores

eCommerce marketing strategies and tips, helps you how to bring in traffic to your site, build relationships with your customers, and get back those lost sales.

After all those data researching and gathering, you now have a better idea and understanding of what your markets and competitors are doing. The next step is to think about execution in the form of a short business plan. Here we don’t require a formal document we can also just put a summary of bullet points together with the key elements of our business plan and our marketing strategy.

The most important element for any e-commerce shop is the marketing plan. A marketing plan should focus on how to do it.

Here are some steps in developing a strategic marketing plan:

Vision and Objectives

You will need to provide a vision for your eCommerce store. This e.g. can be becoming the leader for certain niche templates or any other objective you view as important to achieve. You can also list down all your long term and short term goals for your eCommerce store.

Define your Competitive Advantage and USP

You will need to exactly define what is your competitive advantage and your unique selling proposition (USP) of your eCommerce store. The purpose is to differentiate our digital products stores from competitors and give customers a reason why they should buy from us and not from somebody else.

Analyze your situation (SWOT Analysis)

SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis is a process where the management team identifies the internal and external factors that will affect the e-commerce store in the future. This refers the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats for your webshop in the future.

Marketing Strategies and Tactics

You will need now to outline how you plan to launch the e-commerce store and how you plan to market your products:

  • How do you source new products?
  • How do you market each product?

The first item of your marketing strategy is to clarify how you like to position your product(s), do you go for price or quality. 

Successful marketing for eCommerce stores requires creativity and persistence. You will also pretty quickly have to define where your website traffic should come from. Here are the common channels to consider:

  • SEO – optimizing your websites for search engines and acquiring backlinks normally takes a long time but will lead to the lowest cost for acquiring traffic in the long run. Marketing activities also in this sense also include press releases and posting quality articles on external sites.
  • Paid Ads can offer to bring you traffic quickly but it’s very costly. Same as for any other e-commerce store, using paid ads for digital downloads stores only makes sense if the lifetime profit of a new customer outweighs the marketing costs.
  • Social Media Marketing can offer another way to attract traffic but it takes time to grow social media accounts unless you have a large budget for paid ads.
  • Affiliate marketing works in situations where you can afford paying third-parties a commission on every sale so that they can bring you traffic. However, you will need to identify good bloggers and other parties and at the beginning when you don’t have many sales it might be difficult to convince them participating in your affiliate program. Nevertheless its worth evaluating this as potentially it can help you to scale up faster with a great affiliate marketing program.

Email marketing not only includes building an email list and sending out monthly newsletters but also setting up automatic email marketing campaigns to educate users, systematically following up on purchases and gather reviews and feedback.

Project Plan and Smart Goals

Once you have successfully defined your business plan and marketing strategies you might want to define a project plan to roll out the project and define the goals you want to achieve by when. In setting your goals and objectives, you can follow the structure called S.M.A.R.T. It means that you need to conform to the criteria in creating your goals. Those must be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Timely. Keep in mind, establishing a new digital downloads store will take time and therefore a realistic time plan should reserve sufficient time until the store can be grown.

Review the Budget and Financial Plan

Another aspect you might want to consider as part of your business plan is your budget and your financial plan. Luckily, software such as Easy Digital Downloads is not very expensive and also as you don’t need any inventory, costs are pretty minimal. However, in the beginning, you will need to spend time and effort (or money) developing products and marketing them. Therefore, you will need to better check how much money you are ready to invest and might also like to figure out how much sales you need so that your ongoing costs can be covered and your store operates profitable or at least at break-even.

Step 6: Setting up WordPress, eCommerce Digital Products Store

Now it’s time to get your website up and running. The first thing you’ll need to do is install WordPress to your domain. Almost every reliable and well-established web hosting provider has integrated a 1-click-installation for WordPress. Nevertheless, you might have to read up how to install it. Contact your web-hosting provider if you need help.

In WordPress, WooCommerce is the most popular eCommerce plugin used for creating online stores. However, WooCommerce was developed to sell physical products and not digital products. We, therefore, recommend using Easy Digital Downloads. You may check out our previous blog which talked about EDD Stores Vs. WooCommerce – which one Excels at Selling Digital Downloads?

After you have successfully installed WordPress, you’ll see a standard, clean website template. In this case, we surely all wanted to be unique and different among your competitors. A Theme is a design template in WordPress containing the styles and layout of your webpages. Therefore, you will need to select a Theme which gives your website a more professional design and makes your store credible. Please check the article which reviews the WordPress themes available for Easy Digital Download store. You will need to install the Theme and work through the configuration settings of your digital products store, then your WordPress eCommerce digital products store will be ready to go.

Step 7: Putting up your Digital Products

Now that you’ve configured all the necessary settings, you’re ready to add your digital products to your eCommerce store. In Easy Digital Downloads go to Downloads » Add New. This shows several sections about your products that you have to fill up such as product name and description, prices, images and afterwards upload the digital product file itself. You can set up a file download limit and configure other button options. Also, you can see categories and tags for your digital download and add appropriate tags and categories as required. Keep in mind you will need to write a detailed product description in order that the customers will correctly understand your product.

Follow the simple steps enumerated above on How to add Digital Products to your own eCommerce store.

You will also work through the rest of your website then create an about us and contact section. If you sell WordPress plugins or software you might also have to install a ticketing solution for support and FAQ section with answers to frequent problems. Good customer support is key to keep customers coming back to you.

Step 8: Execution and Optimization

All elements are now in place to setup your new digital products store. Your website is ready as well as your marketing plan. It now comes all down to execution. In order to best monitor all things that are going on in your webstore, it’s important to setup a regular tracking system for all the key performance indicators (KPIs). Key performance indicators for a digital product store should not only include the monthly sales and profits but also indicators related to the sources of traffic.

E.g. You might want to install Google Analytics from the start in order to measure the amount of traffic you get, from where the traffic comes from and even measure sales conversion. But we also recommend looking at other indicators such as e.g. the Alexa Ranking of your page, number of indexed keywords and pages on Google (e.g. via SEO tools such as Rankactive), the number of followers on your social media channels. Tracking your KPIs on a regular basis will lead you to ask the right questions why the traffic is improving or not and it will help you to figure out a solution to make your digital products store grow.

Conclusion: Starting a Digital Products Store via WordPress is simple

Starting to sell a digital product is one of the simplest ways to get you started with eCommerce. The technical issues are easy to overcome as you can rely on well-tested content management systems such as WordPress and e.g. Easy Digital Downloads for eCommerce. What will be a bit more challenging is to implement a solid marketing strategy to make your store become successful. It’s worth to think through your concept first before you start to give your digital products store the best chance of becoming successful.

Physical or Digital Products – What to sell in your Online Stores?

eCommerce has come a long way since Amazon sold its first book: “Fluid Concepts & Creative Analogies: Computer Models of the Fundamental Mechanisms of Thought” in year 1995 (source: mashable.com. At the same time Mark Fraser bought eBays’ first item which was a broken laser device in the year 1995 (Source: mashable.com) In the recent years, while eCommerce is growing steadily despite economic fluctuations, more and more products and services are being made available online. With more and more people seeing the benefits of buying and selling online you might be one of those who is thinking about opening your first eCommerce store or simply reevaluating what you are currently selling online.

Before we begin to talk about what products to sell, be it digital or physical products, one must first have the proper avenue for selling and for most beginners you don’t even have to be a techno-geek to build your first online store and start. As of today, there is a wide range of open-source eCommerce solutions available

Best Open-Source eCommerce Platforms for WordPress

There was a time when creating your own website was an expert’s job. However, in 2003 when WordPress, a free and open-source content management system (CMS), was launched it made creating a website so much easier and today as of April 2018 30% of all websites are run by it. WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads are the most commonly used eCommerce solutions for WordPress and both also benefit from countless of templates and plugins developed by a wide range of third-party developers.

In the world of online selling your business’ success and failure, coupled with your marketing strategy, depends on how sellable your products are. Although physical goods still dominate the world of eCommerce, digital products are on the rise and choosing between digital or physical is going to come down to the amount of time you will invest in the business and of course the passion that you have for a specific product.

Selling a Physical Products

Not everyone who wants to become an online entrepreneur is a great writer or a genius software developer. If truth be told there is only a small percentage of people who can produce intellectual digital products about their expertise. Physical products are products that are tangible and real. From the time eCommerce has taken flight physical products such as shoes, bags, babies’ clothes and women’s apparel still hold the majority of all online purchases (Source richdad.com)

The PROS of Selling Physical Products

So what are the main arguments why you would consider selling a physical product? – Here are our collection of the most commonly used arguments:

  • Easy to Start – online retailing has been made easy as suppliers are readily available to find. Once you find a reputable supplier of the goods you intend to sell you can immediately start selling in your online store.
  • You don’t have to be an expert – unlike selling software, apps, eBooks or tutorials, selling physical products is a matter of finding the right supplier and the perfect niche in order for you to have goods to sell.
  • Physical Products have greater Perceived Value – with tangible products that the customer can physically hold, physical products are perceived as real and are seen with a greater or higher value than products that are intangible.
  • Easier to Market – physical products are easier to market in a sense that they are easy to explain. Products like clothing, housewares and the likes often does not need any further demonstration as to its usage and purpose as these things are straightforward.
  • You can sell consumables that people need to reorder again and again – although selling consumables mean that you would have to compete with other sites selling the same thing you can still succeed with competitive rates and great customer experience and service.

The CONS of Selling Physical Products

Selling a physical product not only has advantages but also comes with some disadvantages:

  • Capital Investment in Inventory – When selling physical products, you require inventory unless you run a dropshipping business where you only do the marketing and inventory and delivery is handled by a third-party supplier. Stocking inventory requires capital invested which can make it more expensive to start your own webshop. Therefore, having to invest in inventory can put you at a disadvantage compared to selling e.g. a digital product which does not require any physical stock.
  • Shipment & Logistics – You need a well-functioning inventory and shipment system to ensure you have sufficient products available to fulfill customer orders. If you run out of products you will need a quick solution to replenish your stock. In addition, you need a shipping solution to handle all purchases and to make sure that your products arrive safely at your customers. This can be quite time-consuming and is one of the most difficult part of selling physical products. There are a lot of shipping companies out there but one must be able to use an affordable shipment supplier to ensure shipping can be tracked and that they indeed arrive at your customer’s home. Shipping is also an added cost and sometimes no matter how much cheaper it is to buy online, at the end, when shipping fees are added to the purchasing costs, a customer might end up leaving the item in the cart because of outrageous shipping fees and long delivery times.
  • Limited Markets WorldWide – The number of countries you can sell your products to is heavily limited by the availability of cheap shipping services, shipping times and costs for customs. Each country has different custom tariffs, meaning it can be too expensive for customers to buy and import your products in a certain country.
  • Fragility of Items – Some items are fragile, have a limited shelf-life and cannot be shipped which limits the range of products you can sell online.
  • Product liability & Returns – you will need to comply with applicable product liability laws in each country you sell to and also offer a solution to return or even replace damaged products.
  • Competition – competition is heavy, especially for commodity products which can be sold by anyone. With everyone wanting to join online retailing you have to be adept with the best marketing strategies to make sure than you are able to compete with all the online stores selling the same products are you are. In this sense you have to be highly competitive with regards to your marketing tactics, your pricing and customer service.
  • Price Points – Especially if you run a small eCommerce store with a brands customers are not familiar with, you have to face an ongoing challenge for credibility and winning the trust of your customers. On average, customers are only willing to buy products online from an unknown store with products priced up to $40 per item or purchase. Having products with higher price points is very difficult. Selling high priced items will require you to create additional trust and credibility among your customers.

Why not Selling a Digital Product?

A typical product to sell online would be an eBook such as the products sold at eBooks.com.

But selling a digital product is not only limited to eBooks. There is a wide range of possible digital products available which can be sold online. These include video courses and tutorials, podcasts, software, plugins, themes, templates, audio files, pictures, fonts, services, gigs and many more. In many cases, if you have something in your mind that you think others would be interested in hearing or learning about you can turn it into a digital product and sell it online. For WordPress, there are two solutions to sell digital goods, either via an additional plugin installed to WooCommerce or by installing Easy Digital Downloads. Easy Digital Downloads appears a bit leaner as the software has no legacy for shipping workflows. Check previous article: EDD Stores Vs. WooCommerce – which one Excels at Selling Digital Downloads?

The emergence of selling digital products online has paved a way for influential public figures, writers, top professional bloggers and technological developers to make a living out of their expertise by producing products with the use of their computers and laptop and even at times only their mobile phones.

The PROS of Selling a Digital Product

The main arguments for deciding to sell a digital product instead a physical product are the following ones:

  • No Inventory Needed – since you do not have something physical to keep, selling digital products does not need inventory, and since it is digital, you never run out of stocks.
  • Shipping – one of the greatest pain of selling a physical product is having to deal with shipping and handling, the logistics and the fees relating to it. By selling digital products you do not have to worry about shipping cost or worry about your customer not getting the product on time as delivery is almost immediate once payment has been received. Easy Digital Download or EDD Stores make it easy to transact business.
  • Sell WorldWide – as long as your customers have access to the internet, there are no borders or customs which makes it impossible to sell your product to certain markets. Therefore you can benefit from selling your digital products worldwide and you are not limited by available shipping options and excessive shipping times.
  • Updates can be sold – since digital products can easily be updated you can sell updates to your customers in order for them to always be up to date. Software’s for example often need updating to newer versions. This means you have an option available to transform your business model from a one-time sales model to a subscription based model, generating recurring revenues.
  • Services can be sold – In addition to selling a digital product or product updates, training, eCourses, podcasts even vouchers and etickets are considered services that you can sell online as well, on top of your other income.
  • Overhead cost – Since Digital products are produced without raw materials and can usually be done at the comfort of your home using your computer or laptop, digital products are basically cheap to make which also makes it easier to get a good Return on Investment (ROI).
  • Independence – in selling digital products one can be totally independent where they do not need to depend on other people to have goods to sell. Products can be easily managed and third-party suppliers can be taken out of the equation if wished so.
  • No Depreciation Cost – unlike other goods, selling digital products online are not subject to depreciation cost. Digital products do not go through wear and tear and the likelihood of it being return for damage is null. Digital products can always stay up to date with automatic upgrades hence the value remains the same if not increasing.

The CONS of Selling Digital Products

Since choosing to sell digital products or services is low risk and requires minimal capital there is honestly very little cons to it but here are a few that comes to mind that can even be easily provided with solutions.

  • Require Expertise – since digital products are mostly intellectual products, one must be an expert in order to produce quality content. However, some of the creation of digital products in some cases can be outsourced like writing eBooks, apps and software. As an entrepreneur it is not necessary for you to also be the creator of these products but you can simply be the distributor of the one selling it and assemble a quality team of authors and creators who might lack the marketing skills.
  • Products don’t become depreciated – most digital products can be used for a lifetime and does not diminish in time or with use hence reorder is most of the time does not happen unless you are able to produce a better and a more updated content or your digital product has a limited use license.
  • Can be copied and distributed – unlike physical goods, digital products can easily be forwarded, distributed or copied illegally in case there is no solution to protect them from unauthorized distribution. Although digital content protection is not 100% foolproof there are a number of ways to make intellectual theft much more difficult these days, especially when you are de-facto depending on obtaining latest product updates in case of selling WordPress plugins.

Conclusion

With the recent technological development it is quite easy to start an online store and takes so much less time than creating a traditional brick and mortar business. After learning the difference between the two main product types – physical and digital products – that can be sold online, it is a matter of your personal preference as to which products you decide to sell online in your eCommerce store. Based on the list we could obviously say that selling a digital product seems to offer quite some advantages, especially in terms of ease of transaction, risk, lower capital investment and opportunities to better differentiate the products compared to the competition. There is a growing market for intellectual content all over the world and it eventually can be quite attractive to sell a digital product which has no purchasing costs and offers additional opportunities to add product extensions and services. There are already quite a good number of Easy Digital Downloads (EDD) Stores available that have proven business models and could generate great success stories.

We hope we could shed some additional light on the impact of the different types of products you can sell online. Let us know your thoughts on the best products to sell or your experiences with selling products in your own online stores in the comments section.