I have just opened pre-ordering for a book that I sell in both digital and printed format. The final product is not yet ready to go and as of now there is no downloadable file associated with the digital product.
I need to know how to automatically fulfill what will undoubtedly be a rush of a couple of hundred paid pre-orders once the digital file is ready to be downloaded by paying customers. I would like to use the in-house Shopify app called “Digital Downloads,” but it appears to not be capable of automatically notifying customers when their digital product is available for download.
It’s also important to note that all customers get the digital format, but print customers also get the physical book mailed to them about 2-3 weeks later. What I need to happen is once the digital file is ready and becomes associated with the product they’ve ordered an email with a download link is sent to the customer. For physical book orders, the orders become tagged as “partially fulfilled” and will still show up as pre-orders that I will fulfill in the usual fashion (mailing via ShipStation or PirateShip).
How can I accomplish these goals, either using existing site functionality or some different paid app? The key here is these are pre-paid orders that I need to be able to get individual download links sent automatically (I don’t want to use one blanket link, as customers are restricted to the number of downloads that are allowed).
Please and thanks!
For tagging orders or auto fulfilling, Order Automator can do stuff like that (take action on orders based on order conditions / events). You can also request customizations, but the app does not communicate directly with customers.
For sending the email to customers I would use an email marketing software, something like Klaviyo. I think you can configure it to send emails based on events in Shopify, then you could upload the links or something if each one has separate links (I’m sure they’d have advice how to do that for your setup), and style out the emails nice.
I’m not directly after a way to communicate with customers, but if someone’s already paid for an item that’s still in production, how do they get notified (by Shopify) that it’s ready to download?
Maybe you could tie that to a Notification about the order (go to Settings > Notifications to see your options).
One idea that might work for you: Modify your fulfillment notification template so that if the item is this digital download, then when the download is ready, mark the line item fulfilled, then that will trigger the notification to send to the user (and complete the order in your Shopify admin). If you have a special link that needs to send them, you could put that in the order Notes section (if it’s not already in the order data), and then in the fulfillment notification template include that (I think you would use {{ order.note }} ).
Reference docs:
https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/orders/notifications
https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/orders/notifications/email-variables#order-fulfillment
Sorry to be so daft about this but I have no idea what any of that means. I’m borderline web-illiterate. I’m an old-school print designer who is somewhat comfortable in Adobe InDesign and Illustrator, but beyond this if it’s not catered for a dummy like me I have zero idea how do put in codes modify scripts or stuff like that. Is there any way to just pay to have this done, or buy a plugin to do this kind of thing? I only need this functionality once a year, to deliver about 200 or so pre-orders all at once, each with a unique link per customer. After that, using the free app works perfectly when there’s a digital file for the buyer to download.
Yes, I recommend the Shopify developers at speedboostr.com, or you can browse other Shopify experts at https://experts.shopify.com. With either, just tell them you want to modify your Shopify email notifications and what you want changed, they’ll be able to code that for you.
I tried contacting a couple of folks and I’ve been quoted more money that I will ever make on sales to attempt to fix this, and time frames that are measured in weeks or months. I don’t mind a paid app that will take all the existing pre-orders and make the file available to them, but I’m not spending $3000 or more on custom work for what I’m sure is a relatively simple fix. I might make $1500 or $1800 in profit for the entire year so doing this on the cheap is kinda necessary, I think you’d agree!
I use Bookfunnel.com to deliver ebook and audiobooks. They have easy-to-follow instructions to set up the webhook etc. It handles PreOrders that automatically deliver upon release date via email to your customers. They also have a great customer support.
They do not have the capability to mark the order fulfilled on Shopify as of yet.