How to Sell Digital Products & Downloads With Stripe

For several years, eCommerce has allowed business owners to run their stores online. The intriguing part is that products sold in eCommerce stores are not limited to physical products. Business owners in the creative industry can package their knowledge and skills and sell them as digital products and downloads.

Digital products and downloads usually exist only in electronic forms and can be accessed through mobile phones, iPads, laptops, or other electronic devices. They include videos, music, ebooks, audio, and more.

It’s not enough to upload your digital product on your website. You need to choose the right payment gateway to make accepting payments seamless. That’s where Stripe comes in.

In this article, we’ll walk you through the benefits of selling digital products and downloads. You’ll also see why we recommend Stripe as a go-to payment gateway for your digital store and how to use it to sell digital products and downloads.

So, let’s get right to it.

Why Sell Digital Products and Downloads?

Physical products have their advantages, but not all products are needed in the physical form. Just like physical products, digital products have their unique benefits.

First, digital product stores don’t require the typical running costs that a physical store would need, like raw materials, production, storage, and shipping.

In most cases, low running costs often translate to better chances of having a high-profit margin. All you’ll require to set things in motion is to build a website and market your products online. Interestingly, a physical store that desires visibility would also have to do the same.

Also, making digital products saves time. You get to cut down the time that would have been spent on sourcing raw materials, managing a physical store, and shipping products. Most of the processes are automated, and your primary task is creating your products and uploading them online.

Gaining global visibility for your business is another advantage of selling digital products. A physical store limits the extent to which you can reach potential customers. But with a store that’s visible on the Internet, you can attract customers from around the globe without worrying about shipping.

Now that you know why you should consider selling digital products and downloads let’s take a look at why you should choose Stripe as your payment gateway for your eCommerce store.

6 Benefits of Using Stripe Payment Method

Payment gateways are indispensable tools for any online business transaction because they allow individuals and businesses to make and receive payments online. Stripe is one such gateway.

Stripe is a payment gateway that allows you receive payments from customers in various currencies. It also offers features like mobile integration, subscription solutions, checkout, and more that make online financial transactions and management seamless.

Stripe is so trusted that top digital stores like Amazon use it. And in this section, we’ll tell you six reasons you should sell digital products with Stripe.

1. Easy integration and use

You can easily integrate Stripe with whatever eCommerce platform you use. Once activated, accepting payments is seamless because it allows payments from various payment sources.

2. Security

One of the most impressive advantages of Stripe is that it has the highest level of security certification. This means it can handle sensitive data, offering complete protection for customers’ card details, passwords, and account numbers.

3. Affordable pricing

Stripe doesn’t request any monthly or annual subscription fees. All that’s required is a fixed rate of 2.9% + $0.30 for every transaction.

4. Excellent user experience

With Stripe, all the transactions are done within your website, unlike with other payment gateways where customers are redirected elsewhere. This improves customers’ shopping experience on your website while giving you complete control over the transaction process.

5. Multiple payment forms and currencies

Stripe allows payments through direct deposit, credit and debit cards, and other payment sources. It also allows you to display product prices in more than one currency.

6. Support

Stripe offers customers technical support and product information updates through email and social media.

How to Sell Digital Products & Downloads with Stripe

There are several ways to sell digital products. Platforms like Amazon, Shopify, and Sellfy allow you to upload and sell eBooks, videos, and audio.

While these platforms are a good idea, selling your digital products with your WordPress website is still the best. That’s because it’s the most flexible when it comes to giving you complete control over your products and payments. It’s also beginner-friendly, so you don’t need any coding skills to use it.

Plugins like Easy Digital Downloads and WooCommerce let you easily sell digital products on WordPress. However, we recommend ProfilePress over those.

ProfilePress is a WordPress membership plugin that lets you sell digital products like eBooks, videos, music, plugins, etc., without hassles. Some of its powerful features are:

• Payment integrations
• Easy paywall setup
• Custom frontend forms
• Coupon and discount creation
• Customizable themes
• Add-ons that make for a richer user experience

ProfilePress gives you more control over your digital payments. The plugin allows members to manage their accounts and subscriptions. Admins can also view what products have been downloaded and who downloaded them.

An amazing fact about ProfilePress is that you can integrate Stripe with it to accept payments without stress. So, let’s show you how to do that.

1. Install and Activate ProfilePress

The first step to selling digital downloads on your WordPress site is to install ProfilePress. Once you’ve gotten your copy of ProfilePress here, you’ll be able to download the ZIP file. ProfilePress will also send you a license key.

Next, go to Plugins > Add New in your WordPress dashboard and select Upload Plugin.

Select the plugin’s zip file and click Install Now.

When the installation is done, click Activate Plugin.

After that, you must activate your license key to get updates. To do so, go to the plugin settings menu and click License.

Then, enter your license key in the License Key field and click Save Changes.

Lastly, go to Settings > Permalinks and click Save Changes to update the permalink.

2. Configure ProfilePress Download Settings

Go to ProfilePress > Settings > Payments > File Downloads in your WordPress dashboard.

Choose a file download method, the download limit, download expiry, and access restriction. To enhance your file’s security, check the box beside Append a unique string to filename for security. Save changes once you’re done.

The next thing is to set up protection for your uploads directory. WordPress does this by default. Unfortunately, this doesn’t provide complete security for your directory because it depends on the server’s setup. Check this article for details about protecting your uploads when using an NGINX server or Lighttpd.

3. Set Up Stripe Payment Gateway

Go to ProfilePress > Settings > Payments > Payment Methods. Click Configure beside the Stripe option. If you don’t want to go live immediately, activate the test mode.

Click Connect with Stripe to link ProfilePress with your Stripe account.

This will take you to Stripe.com to either create a new Stripe account or log in if you already have one.

You will be redirected to your website after you have completed the form.

Check the Enable/Disable box to enable the Stripe integration. Remember to include a title and description.

4. Upload Your Digital Product

To create a downloadable digital product, create a new membership plan or edit an existing one. Go to ProfilePress > Membership Plans > Add New Plan.

Under Plan Details, input the Plan name, Plan Description, Purchase Note, User Role and Price.

In the Subscription Settings section, choose the Billing Frequency, Subscription Length and Signup Fee. You can also enable or disable Free Trial.

In the Downloads & Integrations section, go to Digital Products. There, you can add a new file with the Add File option. If your product is hosted elsewhere, insert the URL.

If not, click Choose File and select the file from the Media Library or upload it from your device.

Next, Click Insert the URL at the bottom right.

You can also set the download limit and download expiry if you want.

When you’re done with the setup, click Save Plan at the top right, beside the Plan Details panel.

5. Manage Your Digital Product Downloads

To view or edit downloadable digital products attached to orders, go to ProfilePress > Orders.

To view what products were downloaded and who downloaded them, go to ProfilePress > Dashboard > Download Logs.

6 Top Digital Products to Sell

We’ve explained why you should sell digital products with Stripe. But if you’re still thinking of what digital products to sell, check out these top digital products you can sell to earn a good income.

1. Online courses

An online course is one of the most profitable digital products you can sell. With an adequately packaged quality audio or video course, you can attract thousands of buyers from across the globe. There are platforms to create and sell your courses. However, we recommend that you sell them on your website so that you have complete control over them.

2. Ebooks

These are one of the most popular and profitable digital products you can think of. Writing your ebook and editing and designing it may take a while. But once all that is done, you can upload it on your website and continue earning from it.

3. Membership services and recurring subscriptions

Membership services let you continually offer people information and educational resources, webinars, and training at a price. They can also pay subscription fees to access content on your website.

4. Templates

If you have pretty good design skills, consider designing templates for resumes, brochures, flyers, proposals, etc. Templates are cheap and easy to create. All you need is the design software. And once your design is ready, you can start selling.

5. Photos

If your photography skills are top-notch, consider publishing and selling them on stock photography platforms like Shutterstock. But, like for other digital products, we advise that you sell your photos on your website so that you can have complete control over them

6. Professional services

This may not necessarily sound like products, but if you have digital skills that are in high demand, you can offer them at a price, and you’d find people who are willing to pay for your services. You can sell services like editing, proofreading, consultancy, coaching, content writing, etc. You only need to have a good grasp of whatever service you want to sell to attract well-paying customers.

Maximizing Digital Product Sales With Stripe

Selling digital products and downloads is a surefire way to make money with very low capital investment. However, you need to use the right payment gateway to enable smooth and secure payment transactions.

We recommend Stripe because it’s a feature-rich payment gateway that caters to all your business needs when it comes to receiving payments.

In this article, we’ve shared reasons why you should start selling digital products and downloads. We also told you why you should sell digital products with Stripe and how to go about it. In case you had no idea what to sell, we mentioned 6 top digital products you could consider.

Has this article helped you to set up Stripe to start selling digital products in your WordPress eCommerce store? We’d like to hear from you.