How to sell digital products on Shopify (plus a better option)

When it comes to ecommerce platforms for selling products, perhaps few are as well known and versatile as Shopify. The platform is famous for offering a powerful, yet user-friendly, solution for building online stores—with thousands of features and integrations, most without the need for advanced programming skills.

Despite being best known for its focus on selling physical products, Shopify has been increasingly integrating features that allow for the sale of digital products. If you are thinking of starting a digital products business, using Shopify may be worth it for you.

Keep reading to find out how to sell digital products on Shopify, as well as an option that may be better for your business.

What is Shopify?

Shopify is an online website builder that offers hundreds of options for creating and managing an ecommerce store. It includes customizable mobile-friendly themes for websites and landing pages, more than 8,000 apps for managing shipping, inventory, and even marketing, as well as many other features that make the tool a great choice for startups, medium-sized businesses, and larger enterprises.

But in addition to tools for creating and customizing a sales page, Shopify also offers solutions for sales support, growth, and fulfillment. Check out our in depth Shopify review for more information.

Shopify’s top features for businesses

• SEO and marketing tools: Tools that help your online store perform better in search engines by optimizing keywords and content within your page. Read our guide to SEO on Shopify.
• Shopify analytics: Integrated platform that offers detailed data on your business performance, as well as conversion rates and other data.
• Top-notch security system: Shopify ensures that your website is safe from malware, spam, or any digital fraud that could harm your operations. In addition, it has a system that protects data in accordance with all data protection regulations.
• Dropshipping support: Offers full support for businesses to sell products without holding inventory.
• Multilingual and currency support: You can sell to customers around the world with support for multiple languages and currencies.
• Shopify POS system: Allows you to sell in person with the point-of-sale system, and is best suited for businesses with online and offline presence.
• Abandoned cart recovery support: The platform helps you decrease cart abandonment rates with automated emails and other targeted features. 

Why sell digital products on Shopify?

As the choice of millions of businesses around the world, Shopify offers a variety of features to meet all needs, as well as multi-language support to ensure the best user experience for your customer base no matter where they are.

Even though the platform is not focused on selling digital products, it offers several advantages for online brands focused on selling this type of item.

Ease of use

Shopify is a user-friendly platform that offers simple drag-and-drop features for website building. Whether you’re looking to create a simple storefront or a more robust, feature-rich sales page, Shopify is designed so that even the least tech-savvy user can make full use of what the platform has to offer.

It’s customizable and scalable for any type of business

One of the best things about Shopify is the variety of options it offers. No matter what type of ecommerce business you plan to create, or even what product you want to sell, the platform offers support and customizable features that meet your business needs.

The tool is also highly scalable, with a robust app and extension ecosystem, strong optimization, and multiple sales channels, so you don’t need to worry about changing ecommerce platforms no matter how much your brand increases in reach, size, and customer base.

It has multiple payment methods for businesses

In terms of pricing, Shopify offers several payment plan options for business owners, ranging from “basic” (costing $19 per month) to “plus” (with prices starting at $2,300 per month) with specific features for each type of business.

This variety allows even starting companies without sufficient capital to use the platform. Another great advantage is that, in most plans, the first three months of using Shopify cost just $1 per month, giving your brand the chance to make a profit in the first few months before starting to pay the full price for using Shopify.

How to sell digital products on Shopify

Thanks to Shopify’s ease of use, built-in tools and app integrations, selling digital products on the platform can be as straightforward as it gets. Here’s everything you need to know about how to sell digital products on Shopify.

Set up your Shopify store

If you’re starting from scratch, the first thing you’ll need to do is create your Shopify store by making a Shopify account.

You don’t need to worry about any initial costs, since the platform lets you start with a free trial. When you create an account, you’ll have to answer a few questions, such as your level of experience in managing an online store, where you’ll be selling (whether on a marketplace like Amazon, on social media, or on an online store you’ll build with Shopify), and the type of products you plan to sell in your business—which in this case, will be digital products, of course.

After that, you’ll need to set up other basic information, such as your business location and email address. With this information settled, you’ll have your first Shopify dashboard ready.

The main difference between a store selling physical products and one selling digital products is that digital products are made available to shoppers directly after purchase through downloads, and Shopify doesn’t natively handle digital downloads, so you'll need an app to manage file delivery.

To add this feature to your store, you’ll need to extend the base functionality of Shopify by installing a digital product app.

Enable digital delivery

Shopify offers several apps that help simplify the sale of digital files directly from your Shopify store. 

We mentioned earlier that Shopify doesn’t natively handle digital downloads, so these apps help your brand by adding the “download” option when a customer buys a digital product for you. Without one of these, you would have to send the files yourself whenever a customer orders something.

Free options, such as Digital Downloads—offered by Shopify itself—provide basic features that allow your customers to safely download purchased files in formats such as PDF, JPEG, ZIP, and others.

Other more robust—and paid—options, such as Fileflare Digital Downloads, have many management features, also allowing you to target emails to specific customers with a strong focus on the security of data as well.

This type of app is essential for selling products online on Shopify as they are basically the bridge between your product listings and online shoppers. It's important to remember that more advanced apps may have their own payment plans that should be factored into your company's overall budget. 

Try looking for an app that offers the best support and features that best suit your brand’s needs at the moment. Apps offering email automation, sending files directly to your customer's emails after a purchase, is recommended.

Add your digital products

Regardless of where you plan to sell your digital products, adding them to your Shopify dashboard follows the same pattern for all types of products—digital or physical.

In the "products" tab, click on "add products". Then, fill in all the information relevant to the digital product you intend to sell, such as the name—optimize with SEO—product type, the image that’s gonna represent your product and its description. Make sure descriptions for your products are accurate and detailed, but still pragmatic, such as "printable event template pack in PDF format".

Since these are digital products, you don't need to worry about inventory information. Also, make sure to uncheck the "this is a physical product" option in the shipping section since your offer is a downloadable file.

Repeat this process for all the different digital products you want to sell. Depending on the digital delivery app you choose, you may need to link the products to the files you uploaded.

Some of the best digital products to sell on Shopify are:

• eBooks
• Digital art and graphics
• Online courses
• Software and apps
• Music or sound effects
• Pictures

Set up payment options

Shopify offers many payment gateways you can choose from. Like Shopify Pay, PayPal, or Stripe. Opt for options that offer the best security when dealing with sales not involving physical products.

Market your store

When selling digital products, good marketing makes all the difference. Shopify offers several extensions that can help your business with targeted email marketing campaigns, reducing cart abandonment rates and increasing conversions.

You can also create social media accounts to promote your work and link directly to your online store. By creating an online platform with Shopify, you can also integrate content marketing elements with SEO to boost organic traffic.

Benefits of selling digital products

It doesn't matter if you're a graphic designer looking to sell your designs, a photographer looking to sell your pictures, or a business focused on print-on-demand pieces. Selling digital products is a business model that is gaining more and more ground and combines efficiency with practicality and good profit potential.

The main benefits of selling digital products include:

Low overhead costs

With no physical inventory, storage, or shipping expenses, digital products significantly reduce costs compared to physical goods. Once created, the product can be sold repeatedly with little to no ongoing investment.

Also, there's no need to track stock levels, reorder supplies, or worry about storage space.

Global reach

Your digital products can be sold anywhere in the world in real-time. Since they are not physical products, there are no shipping costs. And with Shopify's multilingual support, you don't even have to worry about the language factor.

Scalability

Digital products can be sold to an unlimited number of customers without worrying about stock or production constraints. This means you can grow your business without worrying about having to find a bigger space or hire more employees, especially if you’re the one producing your digital items for sale yourself.

Passive income potential

The great advantage of opening a sales business to sell digital products is the possibility of making a profit without having to participate directly in the sales process. All you need is a well-optimized sales platform that offers a good user experience. Your customers may have questions about your products, but even that can be optimized with customer service AIs, among other things.

In short, selling digital products—or anything online, really—can yield a good passive income. With the right platform, of course.

Shopify’s limitations for digital products

We’ve mentioned a few times that, despite supporting the sale of digital products, Shopify isn’t exactly a platform focused on selling them.

So if you’re looking to sell digital products on Shopify, there are a few shortcomings to consider, such as:

Over reliance on apps for extra features

Shopify is a tool that offers a highly customizable space with the use of apps for different functionalities. This may seem like a benefit, but the fact that the platform has a stronger focus on selling physical products, instead of digital ones, means that a digital products sales brand will have to rely on even more specific apps to operate in a fully optimized way.

But make no mistake, it is perfectly possible to sell digital products on Shopify, and certain apps make an online store powered by Shopify as good as any sales platform dedicated to digital products, but to achieve this you’ll be taking some extra—and time-consuming—steps.

It doesn’t provide adequate protection for files

Compared to platforms fully decorated to sell digital products, Shopify simply doesn’t have enough tools to fully protect your files against fraud, and illegal downloads, or to secure copyright for original pieces, such as digital art and pictures. This is especially dangerous for companies that sell high-value digital goods, such as technical eBooks or sound samples.

The maximum file size that can be uploaded may not suit all businesses

Shopify supports up to 5GB files with its app. While this is a considerable file size, businesses that sell larger files—like high-quality videos, bundles with high-quality photos, or extensive online video courses—may need to find alternatives.

Shopify offers many benefits and customization options. With the right planning and setup, selling digital products on the platform can be beneficial to any business. But if you're looking for a platform with only benefits and no shortcomings when it comes to selling digital products, Whop is the right choice for you.

The best place to start selling digital products is on Whop

Just like Shopify, Whop is an ecommerce platform where you can sell practically anything. The difference is that here digital products are the focus.

Whether it's digital artwork, photo bundles, online courses, or even music samples, Whop is the ideal space where your business can thrive. Our platform is optimized for maximum conversion, giving you performance details right on the homepage, as well as 24/7 support and dozens of other unique features to take your business to the next level.

Plus, with Whop, you can sell more than just digital downloads. You can create your own whop and add community features, so you can sell access to paid communities. And, you can even sell and host webinars, masterminds, online coaching, online tutoring, and more.

If you really want to make money online with digital products, then Whop is the best place for you.

How to sell digital products on Shopify FAQS

The frequently asked questions about how to sell digital products on Shopify.

Can I sell digital products on Shopify?

Yes, Shopify allows you to sell digital products, but it’s important to know the platform is more focused on selling physical products, so extra apps and extensions may have to be integrated to meet certain needs, such as ensuring proper file security, for example.

What types of digital products can I sell on Shopify?

Common options include eBooks, music files, photography presets, design templates, online courses, software, and digital art.