We're super excited to announce the new checkout embed today.

The new embed fits perfectly into your site to create a seamless, on-brand checkout experience for your customers.

Some of the amazing ways to start using the new checkout embed:

- Let customers make a purchase on a conversion driven landing page
- Embed checkouts in your app or platform
- Add a lead capture to your blog posts

![Checkout embed subscription](/img/blog/update-checkout-embed-subscription.png)
![Checkout embed lead capture](/img/blog/update-checkout-embed-lead-capture.png)

We'll dive into why we've made these changes & how to use the new embed below.

## Your feedback & the problems the new embed solves
After collecting feedback and looking at the checkouts you added to your sites, we noticed some common problems. 

Making a checkout fit within a site’s design can be awkward because of the checkout embeds fixed width and height
- If the height of the checkout embeds is taller than a site’s layout allows for, then the checkout will have an annoying scroll bar
- It’s difficult to make the checkout embed fit in site's design because of stuff like background color, borders, and the drop shadow around it 
- Lead capture forms look & feel different than checkouts, the current embed wasn’t flexible enough for both

Before we go further, just a quick note to say thanks for all the amazing feedback we’ve had from you, our sellers. 

Recently we’ve had so many awesome suggestions, we love it, please keep them coming! 

Ok, on with the update… 

### Checkout embed width and height
> Is there a way for me to change the width of the checkout because right now it doesn’t really fit into the side column of my site?

The checkouts embed can now grow/shrink to fit any layout and will automatically change its height at the same time.

We’ve kept the default width to 480px (same width as before) but made changing this simple. 

Just change the width px number to the width in pixels you need, or remove `style="width: 480px;"` altogether, and your checkout will grow/shrink to fit any layout. 

You don’t need to add a checkout height as the checkout embed will automatically change its height depending on its width. 

### Checkout embed scroll bar
> Why is there a scroll bar in my the checkout embed?

The annoying scroll bar is fixed!

The new checkout embed automatically adjusts it's height. The annoying scroll bar is now a thing of the past.

### Checkout embed design
> How do I remove the background color and border around the checkout? These don’t look good when I add the checkout to my site?

We get it, you want to drop the checkout into your site and it just works.

When the design of the checkout gets in the way of the design of your site, that’s no good.

To make things easier, we’ve removed some stuff.

- Checkout background color
- Border around checkout
- Drop shadow around checkout

## Adding the embed to your site
This is how you add a checkout to your site
- Open the Checkout Page dashboard
- Find the checkout you want to embed
- Click “Share”
- Then “Embed”
- Open the instruction that best matches where you’re embedding your checkout
- Copy the embed code
- Paste the embed code into your site
- Change or remove `style="max-width: 480px;"` to fit your checkout in your design

That's it! Now you’ve added a responsive checkout to your site!

Only include the `<script>` code once when embedding multiple checkouts on a single page.

![Checkout embed share modal](/img/blog/update-checkout-embed-share.png)
![Checkout embed code](/img/blog/update-checkout-embed-code.png)

### Already using the embed?
Your current checkout or lead capture embed will keep working in the same way.

To take advantage of the new, fully responsive embed, simply replace your current embed code with the new embed code.

That’s it, you’re good to go!

Aaaand, we've got two other exciting updates to share!

## Use GIFs in your checkout images & store logo
Whether you say GIF or JIF, you can now use gifs in your checkouts & store logo! Fun times await!

## Put products on sale!
Putting a product on sale is a great way to boost conversion. Don't we all like a discount?

We saw people show a sale price on their product pages & marketing sites and decided to add it to the checkout.

![Checkout embed discount checkout](/img/blog/update-checkout-embed-discount-checkout.png)

Just add a “Discounted from” amount and this price will be shown with a strikethrough on your checkout! 

![Checkout embed discounted from](/img/blog/update-checkout-embed-discounted-from.png)

You can use “Discounted from” on one time, recurring and pay what you want pricing. 

---

That’s it for this update. We’ll be making many improvements over the coming weeks and it’s all because of your help. 

As always, we want your feedback and suggestions! 

Don’t hold back, shoot us an email at [feedback@checkoutpage.co](mailto:feedback@checkoutpage.co)

Tell us what you love, what you hate & what would make selling online with Checkout Page a 5-star experience. 

Team Checkout Page.

Embed checkouts and lead capture forms directly into your website, plus a few extra goodies ✨

Introducing the new, fully responsive checkout embed!

Here at Checkout Page, we believe that great design matters.

We want to make creating & sharing checkouts a simple & beautiful experience so we've overhauled the way you create and edit checkouts.

We believe you’re going to love this redesign.

And we didn’t stop there. You can now choose to center align the product section at the top of your checkout!

## Create checkouts redesign

![Create checkouts redesign example](/img/blog/create-checkouts-redesign-example.png)

Taking a closer look at the redesign, these are the goals that guided us:

* Make the steps of creating a checkout clearer
* Reduce clutter & introduce more calmness into the design
* Make sharing checkouts from the dashboard & after creating a checkout easier
* Add variants & downloads to the Product tab, as these are very much a part of the product you’re selling
* Clarify how to make test payments

We've divided creating and editing a checkout into the following phases:

* Product
* Fields
* Design
* After payment
* Settings
* Test payments
* Share

**Product** 
This is what you're selling — the digital download, subscription, product or service.

Here you’ll add your product details, price, description, images, variants & downloads.

**Fields** 
Custom fields let you capture customer information & preferences.

**Design** 
Under design, you can customize the look and feel of your checkout.

**After payment** 
Add custom after payment confirmation messages & emails. Redirect your customers after successful payment.

**Settings** 
You’ll find some of the more niche or advanced functionality here.

**Test payments** 
Check to see if everything is working as expected.

More on making test payments below.

**Share** 
Get the link to your checkout or add a pop up to your site. Or get a QR code for your customers to scan with their phones!

## Center align product text

![Centered checkout example](/img/blog/create-checkouts-redesign-center-example.png)

![Centered checkout settings](/img/blog/create-checkouts-redesign-center-settings.png)

Until now, the text at the top the checkout (the product section) was left aligned.

Usually that looks great, but some of you reached out and asked for a center aligned design.

So we added it! Head over to the “Design” tab & then “Appearance” and choose between left aligned and center aligned product text.

We think this works really well for checkouts with a small amount of info and for lead capture checkouts without a price.

## Making test payments

![Test payment nav](/img/blog/create-checkouts-redesign-test-payment-nav.png)
![Test payment view](/img/blog/create-checkouts-redesign-test-payment.png)

This is something that everyone should do when they get started with Checkout Page.

It helps you understand what your customers experience from start to finish — including confirmation emails and payment notifications.

We’ve tried a number of approaches to make this easy, but so far, nothing really clicked.

Now making test payments has its own dedicated section when creating a checkout.

Here you'll find test card details to use to test your checkout: does it work the way you want it to, do you want to change the messaging and are your email confirmations correct?

To learn more about making test payments, please read the [How to make test payments help article](/help/how-to-make-test-payments).

---

That’s it for another update. We’re already working on the next release and we’ll be sharing some exciting updates with you soon!

In the meantime, we’d absolutely love it if you could [send us a quick email](mailto:feedback@checkoutpage.co) telling us what you love, what we could do better, and what would make your business easier. 

Thanks for your support!

Team Checkout Page

Today we’re announcing a full app redesign that makes creating & sharing checkout with your customers a beautiful experience. Plus center align your checkout text!

Create checkouts redesign


For those of you selling subscriptions, this release is going to make you smile :) 

Now you can sell subscriptions without needing to leave Checkout Page, and offer trial periods!

We didn’t stop there though, we’re also releasing:

- Simple price selection
- Dedicated lead captures & lead magnets
- Simplified subscription & coupon testing 

Before we dive into this update, let’s review why we made these changes.

### What we’d heard from you
After collecting your feedback, these points stood out:

- Needing to create a product in Stripe & then select it in Checkout Page is confusing and takes too many steps
- “Pay what you want” and “Make it free” are confusing, what’s the best way to use these?
- Can I use Checkout Page to create lead magnets without a payment?
- Testing subscriptions & coupons is complex and requires me to understand Stripe test modes

Before we go on, just a note to say that we really appreciate your feedback. With your help, we can make Checkout Page the best way to sell digital downloads, subscriptions, products and services.

## Selling subscriptions

> Why do I need to create a product in Stripe and then select it on Checkout Page to add a subscription to my checkout?

Great news, from today onwards, you no longer need to leave Checkout Page to sell subscriptions and offer trial periods.  

- Simply create a checkout
- Select “recurring”
- Set your price
- Choose between daily/weekly/monthly/every 3 months/every 6 months/yearly payments
- Set a trial period if you want to offer one

That’s it! No more getting lost in Stripe trying to understand why they’ve made everything so complex.

![Create subscription pricing inside Checkout Page](/img/blog/update-subscription-pricing.png)

If you’re already selling subscriptions, you don’t need to do anything.

When editing your checkout, “Select existing plan” will be checked and your plan will be selected.

### Subscription trials
You can now offer your customers a trial period at the start of their subscription. 

- Set the trial period in days 
- No payment is taken until the trial ends
- Subscriptions can be canceled by your customers at any time


## Simple pricing selection

> I don’t understand the difference between all the pricing options, especially pay what you want and make it free.

Our bad here, selecting a price had gotten a little out of control. 

- One time payments was simple enough :) 
- Selling subscriptions meant leaving Checkout Page and heading over to Stripe :(
- “Pay what you want” payments and “Make it free” confused everyone

From today, we’ve made selecting your pricing simple. Choose between:

- **One time** - [open example](https://checkoutpage.co/c/examples/make-sales-request-payments)
- **Recurring**  - [open example](https://checkoutpage.co/c/examples/Earn-predictable-revenue)
- **Pay what you want** - [open example](https://checkoutpage.co/c/examples/Let-your-customers-choose-a-price)
- **Lead capture** - [open example](https://checkoutpage.co/c/examples/Let-your-customers-choose-a-price)

### One time payment
- Use this to take one time payments
- Set your price and currency

![One time payment](/img/blog/update-one-time-pricing.png)

### Recurring

- Use this to sell subscriptions
- Choose between daily/weekly/monthly/every 3 or 6 months/yearly payments
- Set a trial period if you want to offer one

![Recurring payments](/img/blog/update-subscription-pricing.png)

### Pay what you want

- Use this to let your customers decide how much they want to pay
- Optionally set a minimum price

![Pay what you want payments](/img/blog/update-pay-what-you-want-pricing.png)

### Lead capture

- Use this to capture leads, collect information or let people register
- Add downloads to create lead magnets
- No price

![Lead capture pricing](/img/blog/update-lead-capture-pricing.png)

## Simplified subscription & coupon testing

If you’ve previously tried to make test payments on subscriptions or with test coupons, then you know that things could get complex. 

From today onwards, you no longer need to use Stripe’s test mode for subscriptions or coupons to make test payments in Checkout Page. 

### For subscriptions

- Create your checkout & recurring plan
- Make a test payment

### For coupons

- Create a coupon
- Add a discount code field to your checkout
- Make a test payment

To learn more about making test payments, please read the [How to make test payments](/help/how-to-make-test-payments) help article.

That’s it for another update. We’ll be back in a couple of weeks to update you on our progress.

In the meantime, we’d absolutely love it if you could [send us a quick email](mailto:feedback@checkoutpage.co) telling us what you love, what we could do better and what we could do to make your business thrive.

Thanks & bye for now.

Sander & Andy

Checkout Page
Your custom checkout


Now you can sell subscriptions without needing to leave Checkout Page, and offer trial periods!

Create subscriptions without leaving Checkout Page!


[Stripe](https://stripe.com) is a modern & secure payment gateway used by millions of businesses around the world.

Whilst Stripe has limited out-the-box options for selling product variants, it is possible to sell product variants with Stripe.

In this blog post, we’ll take a deep dive into 4 ways in which you can sell product variants with Stripe.

- Create multiple products in Stripe instead of using variants
- Use upsells in Stripe (for subscriptions)
- Build (code) your own checkout with variants
- Use a 3rd party service or plugin that uses Stripe as a payment gateway and supports product variants

First though, let's define what we mean by product variants and why they’re so beneficial to both your customer and you as an online seller.

If you’re familiar with product variants and their benefits, feel free to [jump to selling product variants with Stripe](#how-to-use-product-variants-with-stripe).

## What are product variants and how can I use them?

An easy way to think about product variants is to imagine you’re buying a t-shirt online.

After finding a style you like, you see that the t-shirt is available in both black and blue and a range of sizes.

After deciding you prefer the t-shirt in blue, now you choose a size that fits you best, which just happens to be medium.

When reviewing your choices, you’ve selected a blue t-shirt in size medium.

The choices you’re making are made up from product variants.

Product variants allow sellers to offer products in numerous, individually sellable variations. For example, size, color, flavor, weight, subscription tiers, product bundles, to name just a few.

### What are the benefits of product variants for your customers?

Making use of product variants improves your customer's shopping experience by making their lives easier.

- Stops your customers from feeling overwhelmed by multiple listings
- Makes searching easier and more effective
- Allows customers to read all reviews together
- Enables price comparison between products

When you make your customers' lives easier, you will make more sales and receive more positive reviews.

In the t-shirt example above, imagine if instead of viewing a single t-shirt listing, your customer had to browse a separate listing for each combination of t-shirt variations.

That would result in a separate product listing for each color and size t-shirt variation.

- T-shirt in black, size small
- T-shirt in black, size medium
- T-shirt in black, size large
- T-shirt in blue, size small
- T-shirt in blue, size medium
- T-shirt in blue, size large

You can see how this approach would quickly become unmanageable for your customers.

Unhappy customers don’t make purchases or write positive reviews.

### What are the benefits of product variants for you as an online seller?

Well thought-out product variants increase average order value, make store/product management easier, and have knock-on SEO advantages.

### When is it a bad idea to use product variants?

Using product variants when it doesn’t make sense to do so is confusing for customers and hurts their shopping experience.

This may lead to:

- Confused/unhappy customers
- Unexpected product selections
- Higher returns

Let’s return back to our t-shirt example.

Imagine finding a t-shirt style you like but instead of choosing a color and size, you’re also offered the choice of a different design.

In this example, the choice of a different design is confusing and should be its own separate product listing.

As a simple rule of thumb, if the product description varies, then the product listings should be separate.

### Examples of product variants across different product types

Let’s take a look at some examples of how you might use product variants across eCommerce, digital downloads and professional services.

**eCommerce product variants**
- Clothing items with different colors and sizes
- Furniture items with different fabrics
- Consumer electronics with different configurations

**Digital downloads product variants**
- Ebooks for different platforms
- Sample music with different licensing agreements
- Online courses for different skill levels

**Professional services product variants**
- Copywriting with different word counts
- Photography with different publishing agreements
- Event management with different guest limits

As you can see, product variants can be used across many different types of products and can at times be bundled together.

Consider a magazine that might be sold as either printed hardcopy or as both a printed hardcopy and PDF Ebook at the same time. This bundle would work well as a product variant.

## How to use product variants with Stripe
If you use Stripe as your payment processor, you may be wondering whether you can use product variants in Stripe.

While Stripe doesn’t offer product variants in Stripe Checkout and in their API, we’ve outlined 4 options to explore:

### 1. Create multiple products in Stripe instead of variants
Without coding, selling variants in the traditional ecommerce sense directly with Stripe is not possible.

The Stripe Checkout doesn’t allow you to let your customers choose from a set of variations.

However, you can create a single [Product with multiple Prices](https://stripe.com/docs/products-prices/manage-prices) (one for each variant or combination of variants).

You then create a payment link for each Price, and bring the customer to the right payment link by for example adding variant selection to your own site.

All in all, this is far from ideal.

### 2. Use upsells in Stripe (for subscriptions)
If you’re selling subscriptions via Stripe Checkout, you can use [Subscription upsells](https://stripe.com/docs/payments/checkout/upsells) to allow customers to upgrade to a different subscription plan.

This is a great way to suggest customers to upgrade to a more expensive plan or to change to a yearly subscription at a discounted rate.

The main drawback here is that you can only offer a single upsell, which doesn’t really give the customer a choice like it would with product variants.

![Stripe upsells (for subscriptions)](/img/blog/stripe-upsells.png 'Stripe upsells (for subscriptions)')


### 3. Build your own checkout with variants
If you’re a developer or there is a developer in your company, you could opt to build your own checkout flow with Stripe, in which you add support for variants.

We won’t go into this in too much detail, but you would likely use [Products with multiple Prices](https://stripe.com/docs/products-prices/manage-prices), build your own product & variant selection into your site, and define product information when you create a [Checkout Session](https://stripe.com/docs/api/checkout/sessions) using [predefined price IDs](https://stripe.com/docs/payments/accept-a-payment?platform=web&ui=checkout#create-product-prices-upfront) or on the fly with [price_data](https://stripe.com/docs/api/checkout/sessions/create#create_checkout_session-line_items-price_data).

### 4. Use a 3rd party service or plugin with product variants
As you have read above, Stripe’s options to sell product variants are limited.

However, there are 3rd party services and plugins that make it possible to sell product variants with Stripe.

These services let you set up product variants in various ways, allowing you to sell ecommerce products with many variations, digital downloads with tiered pricing and professional services with bulk pricing.

#### Product variants with WooCommerce
If you’re using [WordPress](https://wordpress.com/) for your site, you’ve probably heard of [WooCommerce](https://woocommerce.com/).

WooCommerce lets you build an online store within your WordPress site.

WooCommerce comes with variants out of the box and has a bunch of plugins available to add additional functionality and styling.

While WooCommerce is packed with functionality, if you’re only selling a handful of products, WooCommerce is probably overkill for you.

To learn more about setting up product variants in WooCommerce, [check out this article](https://themeisle.com/blog/woocommerce-variations).

#### Stripe Payments plugin for WordPress
Another option if you’re using WordPress is a plugin called [Accept Stripe Payments](https://wordpress.org/plugins/stripe-payments).

This is a straightforward way to accept Stripe payments on your WordPress site that allows you to [set up product variations](https://s-plugins.com/creating-variable-products-using-the-stripe-payments-plugin). While this plugin is easy to use and offers the variants functionality, the design unfortunately looks outdated.

#### Selling product variants with Checkout Page
If the above options don’t work for you, you may consider [Checkout Page](/) to sell product variants with Stripe.

## Selling product variants with Checkout Page

With Checkout Page you can sell ecommerce style product variants such as size and color. You can also use variants to offer upsells and tiered or packaged pricing.

Checkout Page integrates with Stripe and lets you create payment links that you can share with your customers and embed on your site.

Small businesses use Checkout Page to sell products, services, [digital downloads](https://checkoutpage.co/features/digital-downloads) & software licenses without code.

We’ll walk you through a variety of ways in which you can use product variants in Checkout Page

### Ecommerce product variants
In e-commerce, a typical product with variants would be a t-shirt that’s available in a combination of colors and sizes. Let’s see what that could look like in Checkout Page:

![Ecommerce product variants](/img/blog/linen-blend-t-shirt.png 'Ecommerce product variants')

## Product variants for digital downloads
When you sell digital downloads, product variants can be a great way to increase your customers’ order volume by offering tiered pricing or adding upsells.

### Tiered pricing for digital products
A common tiered pricing for digital products could be an ebook, that’s also available as a hard copy, and in which you offer a one on one coaching session with the customer. The customer could just get the ebook, or the ebook and the hard copy, or the full package.

![Digital downloads tiered pricing](/img/blog/instagram-marketing-for-dummies.png 'Digital downloads tiered pricing')

### Upsells for digital products
You might sell a variety of products, for example music samples for DJs.

Your customers often buy one set of samples, but you know that customers who buy “Sample kit 2” are often interested in “Sample kit 5” too.

You would add “Sample kit 5” as an optional upsell to the checkout page of “Sample kit 2” to increase the total order volume.

![Digital downloads upsell](/img/blog/samples-kit-2.png 'Digital downloads upsell')

Showing these product variants on the checkout page makes the customer aware of the options and can persuade them right before making the purchase.

## Product variants for professional services
In professional services you’ll often end up making a custom quote for your customer.

Product variants can be a great way to automate this, by letting your customers select their preferred options on the checkout page.

This allows you to automate your order process and save time! It’s also useful for your customers’ decision making process to see your offering and options clearly laid out.

### Tiered pricing for professional services
Say you’re selling translation services; you might offer packaged pricing based on the amount of words. In Checkout Page you could set that up like this:

![Tiered pricing upsell](/img/blog/translation-services.png 'Tiered pricing upsell')


### Upsells for professional services
Upsells in professional services are a great way to increase your total order value. Say you offer wedding photography services.

You could upsell additional services to your customer, such as a pre-wedding engagement shoot. In Checkout Page, that could look like this:

![Professional services upsell](/img/blog/wedding-photography.png 'Professional services upsell')

## Conclusion
Product variations are great at letting your customer choose their preferred product, offering packaged pricing and selling upsells to increase the total order volume.

While Stripe doesn’t offer an out of the box solution to sell product variations, there are alternatives out there with which you can sell product variations while using Stripe as your payment processor.

[Checkout Page](/) lets you sell products and services with a lot of customizability, including product variants. [Learn how to set up product variants here](/help/sell-product-variations-with-variants).


Use product variants to let customers choose between products and increase total order value with upsells and packaged pricing.

The ultimate guide to selling product variants with Stripe


We’re super excited to share this new, modern checkout design with you. Now you can add your logo, link back to your site, customize pay button colors & more.

You can now also preview your payment links in the pop-up without needing to add the pop-up to your site.

Let's take a look at this update in more detail. First off, why did we make these changes?

### What we heard from you
After collecting together your feedback, these points stood out. 

- Give the checkout a more modern look & feel
- Let us add our logo to the checkout
- Make the pay button bigger!
- Required fields don’t show up as required
- More checkout customization options, please
- We want to be able to preview the checkout pop-up before needing to add it to my site

Before we go on, just a note to say that we appreciate your feedback & it has helped guide us when working on this update. 

### Some common problems we saw across payment links
After auditing hundreds of checkouts, these common issues stood out:

- Checkouts can sometimes be too tall when there are multiple variants & fields (especially when trying to capture billing or shipping addresses)
- The heading "Customer information" didn't describe the underlying fields well
- In Preview, the test card details are easy to miss and it's unclear that these won't be shown on live checkouts

In future updates, we hope to make collecting customer information like billing or shipping addresses much easier & have less impact on the checkout height. 

## All-new modern checkout redesign

We heard you loud & clear on this one. “The checkout looks a bit dated, can you make the design more modern?”.

We’ve reconsidered every element, every form field & how the pop-up opens. Our goal is to make your products shine & provide your customers with the best possible experience. 

- Single box design, removing separate checkout sections
- Clearer product name & price layout
- All new product variants experience
- Modern form fields & labels styles
- Clearly label required fields
- Improved pop-up loading experience
- Removed “Customer information” & “Payment details” headings

![Checkout redesign before & after](/img/blog/checkout-redesign-before-after.png 'Checkout redesign before & after')

## Add your logo

> We want our customers to know they’re buying from us. Is it possible to add our logo to the checkout?

We understand the importance of adding your own branding & now you can add your logo & use it to link back to your site or social profile.

You can add your logo & site link in your store settings.

If you don’t want your logo to show up on all of your payment links, simply uncheck “show store logo” in the payment links “Design”, “Appearance” tab.

- Add a store logo
- Link to your site or social profile
- “Show store logo” toggle per payment link

## More checkout styling options

> I think it would help with conversion if the checkout looks & feels like my own site. It currently feels like the checkout takes my customers somewhere different.

Our approach here is to maintain a balance between a modern & clean checkout design and the look & feel of your site.

- Customize your pay button background color & text color
- “Show store logo” toggle
- Show “Payments are secure & encrypted” toggle 

Remember, our custom CSS option allows you to go much further with customizing the look & feel of your checkout experience.

## Store settings

We’ve beefed up your store setting to give you more control over how you present yourself to your customers.

- Store name
- Add logo
- Store name in links
- Site URL

Over time, we hope to provide you with a storefront that will allow you to showcase all of your payment links together.

We’d love to know if this is something you’d find valuable.

## Pop-up preview

> Is there a way to preview the pop-up without first adding it to my site?

Yup, that wasn’t a great experience :/ We know people love the pop-up, so naturally, you want to see what your customers will see when putting your payment links together.

Now you can easily preview your payment links in the pop-up by simply clicking “Preview in pop-up”. Joy :)

That’s it for this update. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be hard at work making Checkout Page even more awesome. 

As always, we’d genuinely [love to hear your feedback](mailto:feedback@checkoutpage.co) on the update. 

Tell us what you love, what could be better & what would be a game-changer for your business.  

Sander & Andy

Checkout Page


Today we are announcing a modern checkout redesign. Add your logo, heaps of new customization options & a new pop-up preview experience.

All-new checkout design. Add your logo!


If you want to show your customers a custom message or send them a custom email after they’ve made a payment, then this update is for you. 

Today we are announcing live previews for custom confirmation messages & emails. Plus, send yourself a test email! 

Use custom messages & email confirmations to thank your customers in your own words or send detailed instructions on what comes next. 

With live previews & sending yourself a test email, you see clearly what your customers will see or receive after they make a payment. 

Let's take a look at the update in a little more detail.

## Checkout confirmation message

Write your own custom confirmation message & preview the message whilst you’re working on it

- Choose between our default message / your own custom message
- Live preview of the confirmation message
- Use payment & customer tags to dynamically insert data into the custom message

## Checkout confirmation email

Write your own custom confirmation message & preview the message whilst you’re working on it. When you’re ready, send yourself a test email. 

- Choose between our default message / your own custom message / no email
- Live preview of the email message 
- Send yourself a test confirmation email
- Use payment & customer tags to dynamically insert data into the custom email


## Customer & merchant confirmation emails

Simplified email designs that focus on key information & calls to action.

- Get the most important payment information
- Easier access to downloads, license keys, payment & subscription management for customers
- Easier access payment & customer management for merchants

That’s it for this update & we’re already working on the next. 

As always, our ears are open we’d genuinely [love to hear your feedback](mailto:feedback@checkoutpage.co).

Thanks for your time & choosing to accept payments with Checkout Page. 

Today we are announcing live previews for custom confirmation messages & emails. Plus, send yourself a test email!

Payment confirmation previews & send yourself a test email!


Are you looking to sell digital products online? You have probably found yourself considering all the options out there. Marketplaces like Etsy, E-commerce software like Shopify and WooCommerce, payment processors, website builders and so on. Alternatively, you can sell from your own website.

We'll dive into what digital downloads are, and where you can sell your digital products online. We’ll share the pros and cons of each option. We'll finish by sharing 6 tips on creating landing pages for your digital products and how you can sell digital products on your own landing pages with Checkout Page.

## What are digital downloads?

Digital products are unique in the sense that they can reach an exponentially large audience. Anyone can purchase and use your products. At the same time, it doesn’t cost you extra effort to sell thousands of products. It’s scalable. You use your specific knowledge and experience and turn it into a digital download. You share it not just with a handful of customers, but potentially with hundreds or thousands of customers worldwide. Examples are:

- **Ebooks**: Teach people the most used guitar chords or to cook with a certain ingredient
- **Whitepapers**: Create an in-depth document explaining a complicated topic, such as optimizing websites for SEO or accessibility
- **Subscriptions**: Start a niche email newsletter
- **Templates**: Landing page templates that people can use to quickly promote a new product
- **Cheat sheets**: A short guide or overview such as 20 rules for writing blog titles or Keyboard shortcuts for Microsoft Word
- **Online courses**: Learn digital marketing for startups
- **Design tools**: Adobe Lightroom presets for photography
- **Design resources**: Vector illustrations to help people design posters or websites
- **Software**: Paid browser extensions, Shopify plugins

## Where to sell digital products? On a marketplace or your own website?

You can market and sell your digital downloads in different ways:

- On a marketplace
- On your own website or ecommerce store
- On other channels such as Instagram, Facebook and TikTok

Marketplaces such as Etsy, Amazon, Themeforest, CodeCanyon and Udemy let you open your store, add your products and provide all the infrastructure to let people purchase and download your digital products.

Alternatively you can sell your digital downloads on your own website or on social media. And there’s the option to develop your own ecommerce store to sell your products on.

Both channels have their pros and cons. Let’s look at the pros and cons of using your own website compared to using a marketplace to sell your digital products.

### Benefits of selling digital products on a marketplace

- **You don’t need digital knowledge**: The marketplace you choose develops all the software and tools you need to sell. There are payment providers you can choose from, purchasing flows are thought out, your store and product pages are pre-designed. The only thing left to do is adding your products to your store, adding information about your products and about your store.
- **No technical maintenance**: You don’t have to maintain the marketplace, update plugins or think about security. The marketplace provides all of this. That will save you time and money. You can think of it as renting a market stall, but digitally. The market will provide you with your table and spot, and your role is to present your produce for customers to purchase.
- **The marketplace can bring traffic to your store**: As a vendor on a marketplace, you’ll benefit from traffic on the marketplace itself. People go to the marketplace to look for something to buy, and are brought to the marketplace by other vendors. Therefore you can potentially reach more customers than you would on your own.

### Benefits of selling digital products on your own website or store

- **Stay in control of fees**: Many marketplaces will charge you fees for using or benefiting from the marketplace. Examples are

  - Listing fees: Etsy charges you **$0,20** for every item you add to your store (and each time it’s re-listed after a sale
  - Discovery fees: Gumroad charges an additional **10% fee** for purchases via Discover and receipt links
  - Advertising fees: Many marketplaces will offer you to advertise on the marketplace itself, competing with other sellers, or they will run off-site advertising to promote your products outside the marketplace (Etsy charges a **15%** fee on “Attributed Orders”).
  - Marketplace fees: Envato (Themeforest) charges between 12.5% and 37.5% if you only sell on their marketplace, and **55%** (!) when you also sell your products elsewhere.

  On your own website, you are in control of which services you use to sell your products. You can find a provider who’s fees and functionalities match your needs and change providers when your needs change or fees get out of control.

- **Create the purchasing process you’re looking for**: On a marketplace, you rely on the purchasing process the marketplace designed. You often can’t make changes to the checkout experience, to the way your products are displayed and the way you design your store. On your own website you’re in control of the customer’s journey through your site and or can choose a provider that allows you to customize your site and store to your needs.
- **Use your own branding**: On your own website you can implement your own branding, logo, colours. Customers recognize and remember the way your brand looks and feels. While marketplaces allow you to upload your own logo and images, the experience often feels like the marketplace’s instead of your own.
- **Communicate with your customers directly**: When customers have questions about your product or run into issues, they will contact you directly. On marketplaces on the other hand, direct customer communication is often more difficult. The customer will contact the marketplace with questions, making you less aware of issues they might run into. You also can’t control how quickly the marketplace responds to questions. When selling on your own website or store, you can communicate with your customers on your terms. You can add a chat widget, contact forms or email links where you want to, to assist your customers in making a purchase.
- **You’re not competing directly with others**: A marketplaces goal is to make people purchase from the marketplace. But not necessarily from your store! This creates competition within the marketplace, where you end up competing with other vendors. Some marketplaces will recommend products from other vendors, right on your product pages! These products might be cheaper, have more sales or more reviews. Even when you bring your own visitors to your store they might end up buying from another seller on the marketplace. \
  On your own website, you’ll only offer your own products. You might recommend other products on your product pages, but they’ll be your products! You stay in control of your visitors and your customers are precisely that: **your** customers.
- **Do your own Search Engine Optimization (SEO)**: On your own website you can attract more direct visitors, via Google, your social media and newsletters. On a marketplace you take advantage of the marketplace’s traffic, but they’re not necessarily looking for your products. On your own website you have more control on who’s visiting, and you can try to target certain visitors with Search Engine Optimization. Quality over quantity!

In our opinion, selling digital products on your own website has the most advantages. Marketplaces can be a great way to kickstart your store if you’re not certain how to attract customers, but they have their own dynamics. You’ll spend time learning the ins-and-outs of the marketplace, instead of focusing on your business and brand. We think it’s important to reduce how dependent you are on a marketplace. Use them to your advantage, but think about how you’ll eventually build your own brand, have your own customers and worry less about competition, the marketplaces algorithms and ever changing rules.

Selling digital products on your own website may sound intimidating, but it doesn’t have to be. You don’t need to set up an entire ecommerce store either. With a well designed landing page and checkout for your digital products, you’re good to go.

## 6 tips to sell digital products on your website

Let’s begin by deciding where you want to sell your products. When you’ve already got an ecommerce store, you can create a landing page there. Most ecommerce software have some way of selling digital products. If you want more customization than your ecommerce software offers, check out [how to setup Checkout Page](#selling-digital-downloads-on-your-website-with-checkout-page) at the end of this article.

Don’t worry if you don’t have an ecommerce store — you probably don’t need one at this stage. You’ll need some way of creating a landing page. If you have a website and are able to make landing pages yourself, follow your usual routine with the tips and tricks below. If you’re not certain how to make a landing page or website, have a look at [Unbounce](https://unbounce.com) or [Instapage](https://instapage.com) to easily create landing pages for your product(s).

The goal of your landing page is to make it convert. After all, you want people to buy your digital products. Let’s look at these 7 tips for making landing pages for digital products.

1. ### Who is your target audience and where do they come from?

Make sure that the landing page is tailored to your intended audience and the way they arrive on your landing page. Are they brought in via a social media campaign, via Google or via an email newsletter? Make sure that the landing page continues where you caught your visitors attention and that it fits their expectations.

2. ### Write decent copy

Copy is key. The right copy shows that you understand your visitor, that you’re familiar with the problems they experience and that you’re the one who they’re looking for. Use a copywriting formula such as [AIDA](https://copywritingcourse.com/aida-formula/) (attention, interest, desire, action) or [PAS](https://copywritematters.com/paso-copywriting-formula/) (problem, agitate, solve) to explain and sell your digital product.

3. ### Make the page readable and scannable

Is the visitor in the right place? A title that speaks for itself, clear headings, short paragraphs, bullet points, enough whitespace, likeable or informative images and a clear call to action. These elements make a page easily readable and scannable for your visitor. Your visitors want to quickly determine if the page contains what they’re looking for.

4. ### Avoid distracting elements

Focus on a single goal per page, and make the page as much as possible about that goal. Get rid of other elements that only distract your visitor from learning about your products (and from purchasing them!). Use call to actions or inline links to other areas of your site when they’re relevant.

5. ### Make your landing page work on any device

If you already have a website or store, take a look at your analytics data to see how many people visit your website on mobile phones and tablets. It may be obvious to you, but mobile traffic continues to grow, especially when selling to consumers. Consider making your landing pages mobile-first, to ensure that the mobile experience is top notch. From there, increase the screen size and make your pages look good and work well on larger screens too.

6. ### Structure your page well

Even when you have all the elements in place, how do you structure them in a way that converts? The following steps will help you create a well-structured and conversion driven landing page.

**First impression**
Start with a strong title, a striking header of a pretty image or video. You’ll only make a first impression once.

**Start with emotion**
Show that you understand and/or recognize your customers' pain points. What are they dealing with? And why do you have the solution to their problems?

**Create trust**
Use reviews, testimonials, amount of customers and trust badges to make it believable. Social proof is one of the most important aspects of selling online. Who bought this product before your visitor and were they satisfied?

**State the benefits**
Describe the benefits of your product or service for your customers. What do they gain from it? What’s in it for them? Keep it short, but powerful. Here, try to focus on the Unique Buying Reason instead of the Unique Selling Point. Why should the customer buy your product or service? Do this for example with bullet points: easy to read, particularly on smaller screens.

**Take doubts away with frequently asked questions**
Integrate a simple FAQ with 3 to 5 questions you expect your visitors to have. The FAQ is a great place to share information that is difficult to integrate in the rest of the page. Here, you don’t need to sell and only need to take away doubts.

**Make the next step easy with a CTA that stands out**
Your page has one single goal. At the end, you’ll make it easy for your visitor to purchase your product. Make a call to action button that stands out and has a clear but convincing text. Make sure that the button does what it describes. When your button says “buy now”, link directly to the checkout page for your product.

## Selling digital downloads on your website with Checkout Page

With Checkout Page you quickly and easily create a checkout for your digital products. Add your checkouts to your landing pages to let your visitors purchase your products, with delivery, email confirmations and everything else taken care of. You can sell digital products on any page of your site, without setting up a complicated ecommerce store. Follow these steps to set things up and start selling digital products on your site:

- **[Create an account](https://checkoutpage.co/signup) and complete the onboarding process**
- **Create a new charge or subscription page**

  Do people purchase your products in a one-time payment? Then go for a Charge page. If you’re selling a product with recurring payments (weekly, monthly, yearly), then create a Subscription page.

  Add your product’s title, a description and upload an image. Upload your files, add fields to collect information to your customer and add an upsell by using Variants.

- **Match your brand**

  Change the background color and messaging in the settings. Add a custom email confirmation and perhaps make the page match your branding by using Custom CSS.

- **Start sharing your checkout**

  Add your checkout to your landing page as a pop-up or with buy buttons, share it to your email list or with your audience on your social networks. Get ready for those sales!

- **Monitor and analyze**

  How are visitors behaving on your landing pages? Which pages do they visit and how much time do they spend there? How many products have you sold? What’s the conversion rate? Use Checkout Page’s and third party analytics tools to see how your products are being received and gain insights in where to improve your product’s positioning and presentation.

Looking to share your knowledge with the world by selling your own digital products? [Sign up for Checkout Page](/signup) and get started today.


Learn where you can sell digital downloads online and how to sell digital products on your own website with Checkout Page.

How to sell digital downloads on your website


![What is a checkout page?](/img/blog/online-payment.jpg 'What is a checkout page?')

The checkout page is the most important page of your website when you sell something online: It’s the page where you’re going to make it or break it. Your checkout page works together with landing pages or other parts of your sales funnel. But ultimately, the checkout page is where the magic happens. This is where your customer makes the definitive decision: do I make this purchase?

When you want to sell products or services online, such as opening an online store, selling courses or offering ebooks and whitepapers online, you do this quickly and efficiently with a checkout page. A checkout page can be integrated in your website, but some checkout pages can also be shared directly in emails or on social media. Your checkout page has one important goal: making your customers purchase your product or service.

## How does a Checkout Page work?
A checkout page is part of the online ordering process. On this page, your customer orders and purchases the product or offering they selected.

Here, your customer fills in their details. Which details are necessary will depend on what you sell, to who and where. Do you sell digital downloads that you fulfill via email? For a B2C sale, a name and email address will be enough. Selling to businesses? You might also need to collect a company name and Tax ID. Selling a physical product? Then you’ll need to collect a shipping address on your checkout page.

The checkout page often also displays which product(s) the customer is about to order, which costs belong to the order such as shipping costs and VAT, and an image of the product. A product image on the checkout page reduces friction and encourages customers to purchase (you’ll find more on that in the tips below!).

Nothing should be left to chance on the payment page. A good checkout page should:

- Make it easy to complete the checkout process
- Offer a transparent overview of the purchase
- Give insight in (hidden) costs such as tax and shipping
- Work on every device (!)
- Be available for every customer

## Checkout pages as a marketing tool
A clear and efficient payment page is not just easier to use for your customer, but can also be used as a marketing tool for you as a seller. There are some tactics that help your checkout page convert and increase revenue. You can, for example, shortlist the benefits of your product. Product benefits on the checkout help convince your customer to purchase. Upsells on your checkout can help increase the Order Value. Considering offering a related, or often purchased together product as an upsell, potentially at a discounted price.

The checkout page is essential for an efficient purchase- and payment experience for your customers. And therefore it’s an indispensable element of your order process. A checkout page shows the order of your customer and collects customer and payment details with a form. It’s connected to one or more payment methods, giving your customer the ability to pay with their preferred method.
An effective checkout page should always consist of:

- Information about the selected product
- The selected product’s price
- A form to collect customer details
- One of more payment methods
- One of more shipping methods (in case of a physical delivery)

To optimize your Checkout Page, consider the following:

- Add testimonials from your best customers
- Offer warranty or refunds
- List the benefits of your product or service

To top it off, you might want to:

- Add an [order bump](https://www.drip.com/blog/marketing-automation/ecommerce-customer-lifetime-value)
- Upsell another product
- Turn your product into a limited time offer

## 9 tips for a good checkout page
Use these tips to create a checkout page that converts.

1. Show the customer what they’re about to buy. Use images to display the item.
2. List a few strengths or benefits of your product. Is your visitor still in doubt? This might just convince them to make the purchase.
3. Eliminate distractions. Make sure your visitors can focus on buying your product or service and won’t be distracted by unrelated or irrelevant information.
4. Be trustworthy and display it. For example, show certification marks and a trusted payment provider.
5. Show your contact details, so that your customers can reach you when they have questions or are unable to complete the purchase.
6. Add social proof. Positive experiences of previous customers give your visitors the last push.
7. Add upsells by adding an attractive offer during the checkout.
8. Collect and use checkout data. How long do customers spend on the checkout? How many people convert? How many payments fail? Use this information to test different messaging, images and pricing points.
9. Make your checkout page work well on every device. Analyze your traffic to determine which kind of device or screen size most of your customers are on, and put extra effort into optimizing for that type of traffic.

## What you shouldn’t do on a payment page
There are also things you’ll want to avoid on a checkout page. For example:
1. **Surprises** (except confetti, never avoid confetti). Don’t add unexpected fees to the checkout. It’s best to incorporate them in the price, or communicate them beforehand.
2. **Force your customer to create an account**. Some customers don’t want to create an account on their (first) purchase, while others prefer not having to fill in their details every time they order. Let your customers decide.
3. **An unclear order process**. Make sure your customer can order your product or service quickly and with ease. When you overcomplicate it or make it difficult, your customer will leave.
4. **A slow checkout process**. Make sure your payment page loads fast and handles potential errors well to increase successful sales and reduce support questions.

## A solution: Checkout Page
In short, the payment page is the web page on which your customers decide for or against your product, and hopefully ends up making the purchase. That means it’s important that this page is quick, easy to use and looks clear. Optimize for conversion or revenue by adding a testimonials or upsells. With Checkout Page you quickly and easily create a payment page or pop-up for your product or service. [Learn more](/)



The checkout page is the most important page of your website when you sell something online: It’s the page where you’re going to make it or break it.

Checkout Page blog