If you run an online store for digital products (recorded courses, templates, ebooks, licensed software), you have no warehouse, parcels or couriers. What you have instead is a buyer who paid at midnight and expects the product straight away, without you having to be awake.
Many authors and developers begin by sending the files by hand, by email, once they see the money in their account. That works while sales are few and far between. Then come the links passed on to others, the licence keys kept in a spreadsheet and the buyers asking again for a file they have lost.
A file, a key or access: what you are actually selling
Almost every digital product fits one of the three patterns below, and the store is built differently for each.
A product can combine the patterns: a course with lessons in the account and worksheets to download, a program with a key and an installation archive.
- Downloadable file: a PDF, an archive of templates, an ebook, an audio pack.
- Licence key: a code that activates a program. It can be generated by the store or taken from a list supplied by the software’s maker.
- Access to content: video lessons or materials that are worked through in the account, without being downloaded.
Online store for digital products: what happens in the minute after payment
As soon as the payment processor confirms the payment, the order completes by itself and the email with the product goes out. WooCommerce, the store platform for WordPress, does this as standard for products marked as virtual and downloadable. For bank transfers, delivery starts when you confirm that the money has arrived.
The download link does not reveal the file’s real address. It is a personal link, tied to the order, which can have a limited number of downloads and an expiry date. The buyer finds it again in their account for as long as the access is valid, which spares you the “I’ve lost the email” messages.
Licence keys are assigned just as automatically. If your software checks the licence at start-up, we also build the service that answers the check (activation, deactivation, number of devices). For courses, payment opens access to the lessons, and we keep the video material on a video hosting service that allows playback only on your site.
Updates, and how far a file can be protected
A digital product changes after it has been sold: a new edition of the guide, a corrected version of the software. You replace the file, and those who bought it find the new version in their account and, if you wish, receive an email. For software, access to updates is often tied to a licence that is valid for a set period and renewed by subscription.
No system stops a buyer who is determined to pass the file on. What you can do is discourage it: personal links that expire, PDFs discreetly marked with the buyer’s name and email, video that cannot be downloaded directly, keys with a limited number of activations. Measures that are too strict mostly get in the way of the people who have paid.
VAT on sales to other countries and the right of withdrawal
When you sell digital services to private individuals in other European Union member states, VAT may be due in the buyer’s country, at the rate that applies there. Whether and from when this applies to you, which rates you use and what evidence of the buyer’s country has to be kept are questions for your accountant. We set the store up according to the answer: rates by country and data retained on the order.
The second question is for a lawyer. For digital content delivered immediately, the consumer’s right of withdrawal is subject to rules of its own, tied to the consent given by the buyer before delivery. The lawyer settles the wording and the moment at which consent is requested; we put it on the checkout page and keep the proof on the order.
Your own store or a ready-made platform
Not every seller of digital products needs a custom store. If you sell a single course or a few files, a subscription platform that takes care of payments and video hosting may cost you less. Your own store is justified when you want a larger catalogue, control over buyer data, a link to your own invoicing or licensing rules that the platforms do not have.
In that case we work with WooCommerce for selling, with a courses or restricted-access extension for the lessons (software that hides content from those who have not bought it) and with our own code for licences, where the existing extensions do not cover your rules.
- Product map: which pattern each one follows, what the buyer receives and where they find it.
- Delivery testing: successful payment, failed payment, delayed payment, refund (which withdraws the access or the key).
- Once live: we keep an eye on emails that fail to arrive, a common cause of “I didn’t receive anything”.
Frequently asked questions
Can I stop people passing on the files they have bought?
Not completely. Personal links, file marking and activation limits reduce the problem and help you see where a copy came from.
Can I sell physical products in the same store as well?
Yes. WooCommerce can hold products sent by courier and digital products in the same order; the digital ones become available after payment, and delivery is calculated for the rest.
What does the cost of a digital products store depend on?
On the patterns you sell: simple files are covered almost entirely by the standard functions, whereas licences with activation and courses with lesson-by-lesson progress need extensions or custom-written code. Selling to other countries and subscriptions also make a difference.
This is a typical project description: it shows how we usually approach this kind of work and does not present a project carried out for a particular client. Every real project starts from your company’s situation, and the stages, timescales and price are agreed after the initial discussion.