The ability to sell digital products with Stripe and a wide range of other payment processors and online marketplaces continues to attract entrepreneurs, marketers and businesses across the spectrum.
In this article we’ll take a look at what makes the digital product space so attractive, the ways it opens up selling opportunities, and also some of the challenges that can leave us feeling overwhelmed or confused about which way to turn.
We’ll walk you along a clear path through the confusion using Stripe and Checkout Page, and demonstrate how beautifully simple it can be – reducing your load so you can focus on getting innovative!
What is a digital product?
Anything that can be stored and shared as a digital file has the potential to become a digital product. From the well-trodden territory of eBooks, educational PDFs, software and digital planners, through to the novel terrain of AI-generated art and immersive virtual reality experiences – it feels fair to say that the possibilities for selling digital products are limited only by the imagination.
With logistical simplicity, scalability, cost-effectiveness and potential for building engagement, community and brand awareness, and it’s hard not to feel excited at the prospects of selling digital products.
Selling digital products
Selling digital products has so many obvious benefits and feels like a no-brainer for entrepreneurs and marketers. For those of us who are bursting with ideas to bring to life, it can be disheartening when we set off on our journey and realize that it’s kinda cloudy out there.
Seemingly endless payment processor options including Stripe, Square and Adyen and matrices of features and costs to unravel, frustrating trade-offs between autonomy, convenience and cost-efficiency, complex pricing structures and contractual tie-ins are just a few of the challenge to be found.
On top of that, familiarizing yourself with tax stipulations in your jurisdiction for selling digital products has very little appeal to most of us!
“There must be an easier way!”, we hear you cry…
And there is. Allow us to guide you toward clearer skies.
What is Stripe?
Stripe is a trusted go-to payment processor for small and large businesses globally, and for good reason. A seamless user-friendly experience for both seller and customer, transparent processing fees, robust security infrastructure and a variety of payment collection options are just a few of the reasons it's a popular choice for those selling digital products.
Can you use Stripe to sell digital products?
Yes. If you already use Stripe or are in the process of evaluating it, you’ll likely know that with Stripe alone, it’s not possible to sell digital downloads directly. So, unless you fancy dabbling in some custom code, you’ll be looking for a service to bridge the gap and get you off to a flying start.
How Checkout Page makes selling digital downloads a breeze
We’ve developed a simple, flexible no-code solution that allows you to rapidly create and customize one-page checkouts that work with Stripe and can be embedded on a site or hosted as a stand-alone page, in a matter of minutes. When we tell you that selling digital products with Stripe using Checkout Page is a walk in the park (rain and cloud-free), we really mean it.Let's take a look at some of the benefits!
1. Freedom and Control
A hallmark of the digital product landscape is the tremendous scope for creativity, spontaneity, agility, flexibility and independence. You are brimming with ideas, seeking ways to get experimental and to move in real-time with the needs, desires and reactions of your customers.
Facing the prospect of getting fenced in by the very solutions you were hoping would open up possibilities for you, feels a bit like getting a flat tire 30 minutes into a road trip.
2. Creative control
With Checkout Page, you or your team get to rapidly create one-page checkouts that are fully customizable, site embeddable or accessible as hosted pages.
This leaves you with complete flexibility in terms of how you market your products and where – websites, newsletters, social media platforms, posters and merchandise with QR codes – the choices go on!
The speed and ease with which you can spin up unlimited pages means you can get curious with split testing and experiment with your audience to discover what fosters engagement and increases conversion rates.
What’s more, we at Checkout Page are continually creating too – finding new ways to meet your needs based on your feedback to our team.3. Freedom to engage your audience and craft your sales funnel
We don’t act as an intermediary – your customers are yours, not ours – and their details go directly into your Stripe account, giving you freedom to engage with them.
Crucially, Checkout Page gives you a full steer on the crafting of your sales funnel, meaning you can tailor content, upsell, cross-sell, create enticing sales magnets and maximize conversions.
4. Control over your funds and data
Both your funds and your data remain fully in your hands. Funds go directly to your Stripe account, and you can easily push the data you capture to any other app you use with Zapier or a Webhook.
5. Freedom to fly the nest
If your needs change you decide to love us and leave us, we won’t make that complicated for you.
There are no tie-ins and because we don’t hold your data or your funds, it would be a clean, baggage-free split.
6. Cost-effectiveness
We all have unique needs and for some, the higher fees and reduced flexibility associated with marketplace platforms like Etsy and Gumroad is a worthwhile trade-off for the exposure to marketplace traffic.
If you’ve already built a relationship with an audience and want freedom of engagement at a low cost, then the hefty cuts taken by online marketplaces are likely to be a bit of a turn-off.
With Checkout Page there are 0% transaction fees, no hidden costs lurking, and you get to start selling right away with a 2-week free trial and then from as little as $19 per month.
Compare that with the 6.5% - 10% transaction fees PLUS listing fees applied by marketplaces such as Etsy, Lemon Squeezy and Gumroad and you begin to see that a significant amount of money can be saved with Checkout Page.
7. Peace of mind
The beauty of Checkout Page is that all of the freedom and control we place in your hands rests on the trusty foundation that is Stripe – so you can rest assured that you receive all of the security and support it offers.
And that brings us to the topic we knew was waiting in the wings…
8. Tax
Tax laws can be complex when selling a digital product to customers all over the world, there’s no glossing over that. For many people wanting to sell digital downloads, it can be one of the toughest and least appealing topics to grapple with.
This fact makes a Merchant of Record provider like Gumroad or Lemon Squeezy appealing. On paper, the platform is the seller rather than you, and they take care of the taxes in exchange for larger fees and you saying goodbye to ownership of your customer relationships. You will also often end up paying the highest possible rates of tax.
At Checkout Page, we are supporting our clients to make things much simpler by integrating with Stripe Tax. This means Stripe Tax calculates and collects tax on sales and provides reports which can be used to remit taxes where you are liable.
So, while this doesn’t leave you totally hands-free on the tax front, it’s a big step in the right direction, and if you'd like to learn more, read Tax on Digital Products: A Beginners Guide
How to sell digital products with Stripe and Checkout Page
Now for the fun part where we take a look at how incredibly simple it is to start selling digital products with Checkout Page.
First, if you haven’t already you’ll need to sign up with Checkout Page and then connect to your Stripe account.
You can sign up for our 7-day free trial here, no card needed!
Let's start with an example of a very simple checkout page that was created in less than 2 minutes.
Starting to create the page couldn’t be easier, with clear options for the page type you wish to create, as well as different payment, discount and setup fee options. We have a great selection of templates too!
You get to choose either a hosted page or embed code for your site, with a range of layout options which you can preview as you select in order to experiment:
Adding your files for download couldn’t be easier and you can edit file names once uploaded to ensure they are all consistent and descriptive.
The final step is to share your creation, and as you can see there are a number of formats to choose from, from a link to share on your social media bio, to embed and QR code:
Whichever you choose, we offer further options if you desire. Or you can keep it simple!
The confirmation pages and emails your customer receives are simple and sweet out of the box, and of course, there is plenty of scope for you to customize and really make your own.
Once the purchase has been made, your customers will be able to download the file after purchase and via your customer portal:
Summary
We hope this has left you feeling inspired and given you a flavor for just how simple it is to create attractive, frictionless checkout pages in order to start selling digital products. There needn't be barriers between your ideas, and making them a reality.
If you like what you see, we have lots more detailed information and guidance in our blog and help pages. Why not start with How to use Checkout Page: A Step-by-step guide. And if you'd like some inspiration on what to start selling, you can check out Best Digital Products to Sell in 2024
We are as excited as you are about this journey toward easeful flexible digital product sales.
Here’s to blue skies and clear horizons!
