I have been interested in checking out Shopify, however I have a digital product, I created my own LEGO building instructions for my MOCs (My own creations). They are in the form of a pdf for the instructions. But also an xml file for the parts list to the model they are building. In some instances, my builds come with custom printed parts that I included with each build. For these types of products, I have digital files that I want to immediately send out. But I also have the physical parts that I need to ship to them.
How would one do this in shopify using the starter account? Is it even possible?
As a follow up to that, digital files I’m assuming are not charged for shipping, but I would also need to potentially setup shipping methods for the physical parts that need to be shipped. Can shopify handle this as well?
Great question and I would be happy to help you with this! I just wanted to clarify a few things to ensure I fully understand the process and setup.
The PDF and XML files - Are customers paying for access to these files, or are they accessible to anyone that visits your website?
Are the PDF/XML files the same across multiple products, or are they unique for each MOC or product?
Potentially you may be able to use an app like: Simple Bundles and Kits to combine multiple skus into one product, allowing a customer to buy “1” item but receive both a physical and digital product in the same order. The important thing to consider is that if you are on the Starter Plan you cannot use an app that requires access to the online store theme code, as that is not available. You can connect with the app developers directly for further support on integrating their service into your store.
Customers are paying to “receive” the files. Preferably I’d like them to be available immediately after purchase on a receipt page and also links mailed to them. The PDF files are not the same across multiple products. Different designs require different instructions with a completely different set of parts. So the xml and pdf files would be unique for each purchase.
I’m too small to justify spending an abhorrent amount of money each month on my store. The start plan is reasonable because of what I pay to my current site yearly on GoDaddy in addition to the security certificates as my site is a completely custom site hand coded and uses PayPal (although it’s not very robust).
So kits sounds like a reasonable solution but are not available on a starter plan? Suffice it to say, a single product, even thought it may have multiple parts (both digital and physical) can only be one or the other. As a result of this, digital wouldn’t capture shipping addresses or ask for them, and physical wouldn’t bother collecting an email address or give the ability to download something immediately?
Thank you for clarifying that for me! And I definitely understand it’s important keeping your monthly costs low.
I apologize as I didn’t even think about this as an option when I first replied, but I believe our digital downloads app will provide the solution you are looking for: Digital Downloads | Shopify App Store.
It’s free and allows you to add additional digital files to a physical product and also offer digital files as a standalone as well. This app should also work with the Starter Plan. I recommend checking it out!
I started reading the reviews on the App and it doesn’t seem like it does what I want either. Specifically this review as it relates to what I want to do.
This app does not allow you to control when the digital download is sent to your customer, so if you’re using this app as a add-on download to a physical product, it won’t send it to the customer until the order is fulfilled. We need the download link sent when the order is paid for. Seems logical, right? Yea, not to Shopify.
Shopify replied August 19, 2022
Thank you for taking the time and sharing this feedback with us. While you can enable automatic fulfillment for digital products (https://bit.ly/3pvcVMq), this isn’t recommended for digital products with physical components involved. However, one option is to create your digital products separately, so that our app can send the download links as soon as the order is paid for.
That being said, we understand that being able to automatically fulfill digital orders regardless of the physical components can be beneficial for our merchants, like yourself, and feedback like this can help our Developement team continue making improvements on future releases. Thanks again. -Elias, Shopify Support
Check out BookFunnel, or SkyPilot. For BookFunnel, you can create books and store files for sales delivery. It just needs the SKU to know it’s supposed to deliver something. For Sky Pilot, you’re hosting the files in the app and it associates with the Shopify item for delivery.