How To Build a Digital Product Store Selling Downloadable Products (2021)

hello everybody welcome to this youtube video in this tutorial i will show you how to build a free digital product store using wordpress and woocommerce now this is the online store that we are going to create it has a clean and simple layout that is stacked with all the necessary functions and features we need there are some differences between the usual online store and this door this one has possibilities to sell downloadable products like ebooks and pdfs so normally when you go to the product page you can add multiple of the same products in your cart we sell downloadable products so we simply don't need more than one of each product but we do want to show complementary products like you see at the bottom of this product page and same goes for the cross sales you can find on the card page now click on proceed to checkout this page is also different in comparison to the regular online store because our customers don't have to enter their address because we don't need to ship a physical product to a location furthermore i will inform you about the configuration of taxes and how to receive debit and credit payments i will also show you how to edit the footer section and insert a hyperlink to for example your store's privacy policy page now once a customer places an order they arrive on this page here customers can download the file by clicking on this button but they will also receive an email including the file and invoice furthermore i will show you how to manage orders using woocommerce okay now that's a quick overview of the digital product store that we are going to create now building this store is completely free the only costs involved are for registering a domain name and web hosting just like any other website and after this video you know exactly how to change settings or add the layout according to your brand style for example how to change text visuals or change buttons on size color and shape but i will also show you how to add products to the home and shop page if you want to slow down skip or re-watch parts of this video if you click on the settings icon you can reduce the playback speed or you can go to the description where you can find timestamps and links to external sources for downloads and discounts note some are affiliate links which means i receive a commission based on each redirect don't worry it won't charge you more in fact it helps me to create these kinds of tutorials now before we start if you have any questions do not hesitate and leave a comment down in the comment section below alright let's start a video let me give you an overview of this video first off let me briefly explain what a domain name and web posting are and after that we are going to register a domain name and web hosting second you will install wordpress create an email account and install an ssl certificate after that i will elaborate on the basic settings in wordpress and change important ones fourthly we need to install astro starter template elementor wp forms and woocommerce then i will guide you through the customizer and elementor page builder and change the appearance of our digital product store after that i will show you how to create a downloadable product and how to implement upsells and cruel cells secondly we need to configure woocommerce's basic settings including taxes eightly create a stripe account for making and receiving payments with woocommerce after that we need to install and configure pdf invoices and perform a test order and at last we have a quick summary of this tutorial and a conclusion at the start of this video i first want to explain what a domain name and web hosting are and why you need them let's visit for example apple.com now the domain name is apple.com which is the address of the website and without a domain name it would look like this but that's too difficult for people to remember and search for and therefore we use the domain name and this domain name is linked to all content on the website now web hosting is a very fast 24 7 working computer that saves all of your website's files and basically you need both of them if you want to engage on the internet our siteground is ranked as one of the best web hosting providers according to many facebook groups and review sites even wordpress the most popular cms recommended siteground and there are several advantages of using this web hosting provider for example siteground ranks near the top of all web hosting providers for site speed and uptime and these metrics influence your position in the google search engine furthermore siteground is designed for wordpress and woocommerce users and offers great customer support such as the 24 7 live chat and is also reachable by phone also siteground's backup system ensures that your files are saved so if you get hacked or your webshop crashes you can easily set it back to normal and lastly siteground is affordable and offers a 30-day trial if you want a 55 discount offer click on the link in the description or enter the following url now once the page is loaded scroll down a bit and you will see three options the startup grow big and go geek hosting plans choose the startup plan if you are determined to only make one online store the startup hosting plan offers a free ssl certificate and you can register an infoad email account and it also automatically offers backups for security purposes now 10 gb webspace is more than enough 99 of the websites don't use more than 5gb and don't get confused with the estimated 10k visitors a startup plan can manage more than that and if you need to upgrade to grow big or go geek you can easily do so later on these prices are in us dollars and this is the amount in euros all right let's click on get plan and next up we need to select an existing domain name or create a new one now make sure to alwaysuse.com or popular local extension in the netherlands we use dotanel for example after that you click on proceed and then we need to enter our client and account information if you have a business then make sure to enter a vat number so that taxes are deducted from the total expenses and then we need to complete the payment and purchase information now the hosting plan is already selected and the same goes for the nearest data center now pay attention to the next part the 55 discount is already deducted for the upcoming 12 months but after the 12 month duration the monthly expenses change to the regular price of 12.99 euros or 14.99 you can make the discount last for 24 even 36 months but then you have to pay up front and this is also visible in the price calculations the discount applies for the first invoice only if we continue you can choose for some extra services but we don't need the sg site scanner because there are a bunch of free plugins available the domain privacy however can be of use because it protects your business information and also prevents you getting these spammy messages in your inbox at last we need to confirm to siteground's terms of service and privacy policy now i don't want to receive marketing emails so i don't enable this one let's click on pay now and siteground will transfer us to the payment gateway to finalize the transaction now processing the order can take some time but if you order the dot com domain you are most likely good to go okay that's it for registering a domain name and web hosting after that we need to install wordpress first we go to mysiteground.com and click on setup website select and wordpress and after that we need to register an email account this will also be your store's login information once we have entered it we can click on continue skip the extra services and press finish so now your site is being created now go back to the website step in the menu and select the wordpress kit go to the wordpress admin enter your newly registered email address to enter the admin area now skip this part and once you click on exit we are automatically redirected to the wordpress dashboard a wordpress website is not secured by default but we need to protect our visitors data from spreading online and therefore we need to install an ssl certificate go to my siteground hover over to websites site tools and then we go to the ssl manager to process the request choose the domain name you want to secure and then we select let's encrypt and click on get wait a couple seconds and then click on the three point icon and choose to enforce https and trigger the switch now we are done we have installed wordpress created an email account and installed an ssl certificate if you go back to the dashboard you will see this little padlock icon which means our site is now secure so right now we are in the wordpress dashboard also called the backend and if we hover over to my wordpress and click on visit site we can see the front end now by default the 2020 theme is installed a very basic theme as you can see something we will change in just a couple of minutes first i want to guide you through the basics of wordpress so go back and let's start over here where it says updates you can check if themes plugins or wordpress itself needs to be updated make sure to frequently execute these updates because it keeps your site up to date and secure now we have the post section where you can add new posts and over here at pages you can create new pages quite obvious right now last mentioned is useful when you want to add for example a privacy policy contact or even a home page if you want to add an audiobook or ebook files you need to upload them in the media library you can add all kinds of files like pdf mp3 mp4 files you name it and after that we have the comments tab which can be used if you need to approve or disapprove customer reviews or reply to comments in appearance you can adjust the store's look and feel including the theme widgets and menu section and then we arrive at the plugins section where you can search for additional software that would add functions and features to your store over here at users you can manage users roles and capabilities to your online store the tools section contains some scripts that are needed only on extraordinary locations over here at settings you can change some basic settings let's click on general for example right here you can adjust the site title and tech line do so for better findability in google so remove the site title and enter a coherent sentence with the most important keywords that we want to be ranked for in this case we want to build a digital store selling ebooks and we can write something like order your ebook on webshop x as for the tagline you can write something like a library of bit-sized business ebooks written by industry leading experts and then we need to change the url settings from http to https and after that we enable anyone can register make sure to change the time zone accordingly now that's it and then we click on save changes now you most likely need to log back in so enter your username and password okay there we go now one of the first things i like to do is clean up the online store for example i want to deactivate and delete some pre-installed plugins now let's go to plugins first we want to deactivate the sg optimizer so select the plugin choose deactivate and apply and then we need to select it again delete and click on apply ok now we need to go to pages select them all and then choose book action we move them to the trash can and then click on apply go to trash and delete them permanently and now we go to posts and here we do the same select and move them to the trash can and also permanently delete them now go to the dashboard if you want to hide these widgets and click on the triangle icon if you want to remove them from your dashboard and you go to screen options and deselect them like this alright that's it for cleaning up the site next up i noticed this message that says howdy followed by your email address in my case it automatically tracked my information and therefore you see my username if you want you can change this information in the users tab go to users and click on your profile in this section you can adjust some options like changing the backend's color scheme or if you want to adjust the name settings enter your first and last name and choose a display name and this one will be visible on the front end when i write for example a blog post or reply to customers comments now here you can adjust your profile picture using graphtar software but i'll leave that for now in between make sure you properly save changes or like in this case update your profile by clicking on the blue button at the bottom of each page next up we go to settings permalinks so that we can change the default permalink settings from day and name to post name now by doing so you automatically create clear and readable url structures which is really important if you want to rank your store and products in a google search engine for more information about search engine optimization so getting better positions in google for specifically a digital product store i would recommend you to subscribe my plan is to upload seo tips and tricks so that your online store's organic traffic increases alright so that's it for the overview and basic settings in wordpress next up we want to change the current theme hover over to appearance and go to themes currently the 2020 theme is installed but astra offers one of the best free themes based on looks and customizability let me show you go to dailysun.com astra and then you can click on starter templates and here you can find an overview of basically pre-made websites now select free in the drop-down menu and after that you can search for ebook let's visit ebook author i really like the simplicity of the starter template it is exactly how i would imagine a digital product store but we still need to change it to our style and make it a real online store we need to use the elementor page builder to do so visit davidson.com elementor scroll down a bit now we need this page builder because it works seamlessly with astra this preview video already demonstrates how to use the page builder it's a simple drag and drop software you drag elements to design your store and include functions and features you can download astra's starter template and elementor separately but let me show you the easiest way go back to the dashboard and hover over to plugins and click on add new you can enter starter and it should pop up at the top here we go as you can see it has great reviews and many active installations click on install now and activate and go to the library first we have to pick a page builder choose elementor and then we are redirected to the library search for ebook and there we go click it it has five pre-made templates click on import complete site and again on import importing the complete site can take up some time because it not only changes the site's layout but also installs several plugins like elementor and wp forms click on view site once it is finished and this is what our site looks like so now we have installed the astra start templates and the line plugins in order to make the site an online store we need to install woocommerce so over back to plugins and click on add new search for woocommerce now woocommerce is the most popular ecommerce plugin it has a 5 star rating and more than 5 million active installations pretty insane if you ask me so let's click on install now and activate the plugin now a window will most likely pop up that says welcome to woocommerce and next up we need to enter our store information let me enter the information real quick and then we click on continue in which industry does the store operate we select other and enter something in the description let's say e-commerce now what type of products will be listed we are going to offer virtual products that customers download so we enable downloads and then click on continue now you want to display around 1 to 10 products and in this drop down menu i select no we don't need these additional plugins and if we change our mind we can easily install them later on if we want to now press continue and then we need to select the theme go to free themes click on continue with my active theme and now woocommerce offers jetpack and woocommerce services we actually need these so we click on yes please now click away this message and then you will be automatically redirected to this screen so create an account and already got one and then you log in once we are back in the dashboard you can see that woocommerce is added to the menu okay the next thing i want to cover is the customizer it is a tool that can be used to change the appearance and functionality of our online store now i will not cover all the functions and features but only the most important ones for most of the settings we will be using the elementor page builder now to start off click on the brush icon to get access now once we've entered the interface we can notice these pencil icons for example let's click on the pencil icon next to the logo and then we click on change logo in the media library we can find all uploaded files in the upload files tab you can upload your own logo make sure to upload a logo between 180 and 60 pixels you can also download royalty free images from pixabay if you still need a logo then i would definitely recommend you to visit fiverr in the description you can find the link to the top logo designers on that platform some even create logos for just five dollars and make sure to ask them for a retina logo as well now by uploading a retina logo you make sure that the logo looks clear and sharp on high density screens now if we scroll down a bit we can choose a side icon also called a favicon i click on select site icon and then we select the vh icon right here you can see how that looks like so it's a very small icon that people can see in the browser area we already covered the site title and tech line so let's continue now don't forget to click on publish after each change you make i want to go all the way back to the first section that says global now we click on typography base typography and over here we can adjust the family typography and by default it is set on pop-ins but let's pick poor story for example you can see that the menu text changed but all the text components change with it so not the header component or buttons but these parts you can play around with the size weight and margins and choose what looks best for your store however i'd rather added each block or component with the elementor page builder which i will show you in just a second i just want to quickly go through the most important customizer settings in the headings area you can change the same settings but then for the header components so h1 to h6 headings then we go to colors base colors here you can adjust the color settings for example if you want to adjust the overall text color and you click over here and you can choose a color or insert a color code if you want to insert a color code then you first have to reset it and then you paste the color code in the white box you can also play around with the transparency you see anyway i bring it back to the default settings now we don't need to adjust any settings in the container tab next up we go to buttons here you can change your store's button color settings and as you can see they currently have a black background i click on the pencil icon to change it select color and insert the color code you want all buttons will change at once which is useful if you don't want to manually change everything with the elementor page builder now go back and go to the header tab we have already covered the site identity so we go to the primary header and here you can adjust the store's layout for example put the logo on the left and menu on the right side or the other way around now i like to keep it in the middle i go to the primary menu and if you have a one product store you might want to disable the menu but i rather have the home about and contact page included at the top of our home page then we go to breadcrump breadcrumbs are used to show visitors their location on your site or on the web i will show you later on in this video for now keep the position set on none for this video we do not need a plug section and i rather don't have a sidebar but i will show you how a sidebar looks like once we are adding a product to the store next up we have the footer tab if we go to the footer widgets we can add some widgets to the footer section for this online store we don't need that much space so i keep it in default then we click on the photo bar you can change the layout if you want for example the copyright sign site title and tagline on the left and the menu on the right or center them in the middle it's up to you what you prefer as for the footer text i like to keep the copyright and current year shortcode the rest you can delete and add a bar followed by your brand's name and add another bar now we want to add a shortcode to our privacy policy page insert this html code however we still need to create a privacy policy page and then insert the url or else this hyperlink won't redirect let's go to the dashboard in a new window hover over to pages add new over here where it says add title we enter privacy policy underneath you need to insert the privacy policy text i will insert a lorem ipsum text after that we click on publish then we go to document permalink and right here you can see the url right mouse click and copy the link address go back to the other window and paste the link right in between these quotation marks after you made these changes you click on publish and the link should work let's check if it does yep there you go next up we arrive at the woocommerce settings click on store notice in this box we can enter a store notice if you want to notify your visitors when for example you're working on your store or if you want to let your visitors know that some products are on sale now let's click on enable store notice and scroll back up you see now let's go back and go to product catalog in this section you can choose how you want to display your products do we want to show products categories or both let me add some products and categories real quick just so i can show you how that looks like alright now we have some products and a category i'll show you later on in this video on how to do so in this case i prefer to show products but if you want to create some sort of online library with many genres you might want to choose categories to be visible and you can play around with the category display product sorting and content with over here we have the number of shop columns you can choose i think that either three or four looks best and you can choose the number of products per page 12 is fine by me i only made five products anyway but you get the id then we arrive at the shop product structure now let's say you want the price above the title and you simply drag and drop it accordingly i think it looks best above the ratings but let's say you want to remove the add to cart button you can click on the eye icon as well you see you can also add features by clicking on the eye icon anyway after you've made these changes you click on publish and now we go back and click on single product now we can choose to disable the breadcrump let me show you by going to a product page right here you can see the breadcrump it disappears if you disable it big online stores better keep them so visitors can navigate through the online store now go back and click on product images in this section you can decide your product image size and quality now these dimensions match best with our astra theme and over here at thumbnail cropping you can see that uploaded images will be cropped into a square but rectangle visuals most likely look better and cropped you see after that we go to the card section you can choose to disable cross cells later on in this video i will show you what cross cells are and why we need them so keep this enabled next up we go to the checkout section and here we can adjust the appearance of our checkout page let's start from the beginning do we want to make the company name field required i like to keep it on optional but if you make it required then a red asterisk appears same goes for the address and phone fields we also want to highlight required fields with an asterisk and that brings us to this drop down menu how this privacy policy hyperlink needs to be redirected to our privacy policy page make sure the right page is selected and same goes for the terms and conditions if you have one currently we don't have one but let's select for example the about us page then a terms and condition notification pops up that visitors need to enable to place the order we can also adjust this field so that the text on the right changes alright let's leave these in default settings and click on publish ok next thing i want to show you is how to change the menu area in this case we want to remove the ebooks page from the menu click on the triangle icon and then remove you see the page is now removed from the main menu it doesn't mean the page is permanently deleted it is only removed from the menu section click on add items and then you press the plus icon if you want to add this page back now we want to add the actual shop page so we press this plus icon and drag it accordingly you see how easy now we can leave the widgets area home page settings and additional css tab now let's create our first digital product so hover over to products and click on add new first we have to make up a name let's say ebook1 and then we have to enter a product description i will enter a lorem ipsum text but in this section you need to give an extended summary about the ebook you can find the long description underneath the product image next to the review section and the short description is what's visible next to the product image you can use the short description to add information on how the downloadable product will be delivered we can enter something like this after that we go to product data there are many different product types you can choose from but we only need to use the simple product then we need to enable virtual and downloadable next up we need to enter a price let's say this ebook is worth 50 euros and the sale price is 30 euros after our customers finish the transaction they should receive the downloadable files therefore we need to add the files right here let's give this ebook a name after that we choose the file and you can upload and download any sort of file word pdf you name it let's upload a random file after that we leave the download limit and expiry in default settings now in some countries like in the netherlands digital products are taxable select what's applicable to you as for the text class we pick the standard class now most of these steps are not relevant to a digital product store we can skip inventory and shipping and move on to linked products here you can add upsells and cross sales these are products you want to promote next to the actual product the clients want to purchase it looks like this it is a great way to increase sales and therefore i will provide you more in-depth information in just a second we can also skip the attributes because we do not need to make variations and now we go to advanced where you can leave a purchase note and write something like thank you for purchasing this ebook the menu order indicates the position of a product in the card and is therefore not important to our store but we do want to enable the reviews now on the right side we can create a product category so what is this ebook about art cooking or for example business after that you click on add new category here we got the product tag section you can enter related keywords like startup investing etc but you can also add the file type like word document or pdf etc now we change the astra settings i like to set it to no sidebar and boxed because by doing so we keep everything nicely boxed together for better appearance next up we need to add a product image in the media library we can pick this dark blue cover book make sure to enter a title and an alt text for better findability in google for example ebook on how to run a business i just made that up but copy the title and then paste it in the alt text box and now we click on set product image now let's click on update and view the product page so we can have a look it looks perfectly fine we got the short description reduced price category and product tag over here we got the full product description and section where customers can leave a review after that i want to show you how to remove the product quantity currently our customers can select the order quantity right over here but we sell downloadable products so it does not apply to our target audience so if we want to remove this we have to add some css codes go to the customizer and then you click on additional css over here you need to paste the css codes click on the link in the description to download the files once you've opened the file you select everything by holding command or ctrl a and copy it with command and control c and we paste it right here as you can see the quantity disappeared and after that we click on publish and we are done ok now that you know how to create a product page i want to talk about upsells and cross cells to maximize profits this is called an upsell you can use upsells to recommend a different product by saying you may also like and these usually are more expensive better quality or are simply more profitable cross-sells are products that you promote in the cart and are typically complementary items for example if you are selling an e-book then a complimentary item can be an audiobook let me first create another product so hover over to products and click on add new we call this product audiobook and add some lorem ipsum text in the description give it a price of let's say 10 euros but we make the product on sale for 5 euros now we also need to add an audiobook to the categories enter pdf in product tags now we change the astra settings to no sidebar and boxed we also need to add a product image so we pick let's say this green image and we click on set image after that we click on publish and view the product now you can see that woocommerce automatically adds related products and that is because product tags or categories match now click on the ebook and edit the product page go to linked products and search for audio select the audiobook for both upsells and cross-sells after that we click on update to check it out and here you go it says you may also like followed by the product that we selected looks perfectly fine and certainly does help to increase your sales same goes for cross sells now click on add to cart button and then view card in default this area is empty but now we promote related products so now you know how to create a product page and how to perform upsells and cross cells next up i want to show you how to work with the elementor page builder click on edit with elementor and wait a few seconds once it's opened we can start editing the home page our store is separated into components for example this visual is an image element if you want to delete it you can right mouse click the component and select delete if you want to add it back you go to the elements section drag and drop the image element next up you can choose an image for example the cover of a downloadable product let me select the blue one as an example over here at image size you can choose one of the various sizes next up we need to align the text component on the left side click on the pencil icon and go to the advanced tab press this icon underneath the margin section to unlink values and then we increase the top part to let's say -110 then i want to center the text so hover over to the content tab and click on the center icon next to alignment do the same with the other text components and the button component always check how changes look like in full screen it looks perfectly fine so then we click on update now you might wonder how that looks like on mobile phone well let me first explain all these little icons this one is called the navigator and you can use it to rearrange all the elements in a small interface the history icon can be used to redo or undo mistakes for example if you work a couple hours on your site and suddenly you regret the changes you made you can go to the revisions tab and choose which backup you want to activate for recent mistakes you'd better use the command c or ctrl z fast keys next up we arrive at the responsive mode where you can check how each page looks like on mobile tablet and desktop which is such a great feature because if something looks good on desktop and other mobile like we see here then we simply edit the mobile page and leave the desktop mode untouched in this case we need to change the padding let's see what it looks like when we change the padding to 100 okay that's fine we need to move the e-book a bit more to the right and then we click on update next up i want to show you how to add a call to action button underneath the e-book that redirects to our shop page click on the nine dots and then drag and drop the button element now you can change the button style to one of the styles in the drop down menu you can also adjust the text let's enter purchase and here at link you can select shop pretty straightforward as you can see if you redirect to an external website then you need to click on link options and enable open in a new window as for the alignment let's center the button looks better in the style tab you've got many options like we can adjust the typography or change the text color or background color you can change the border radius to make the corners less pointy or even add some box shadow to make it stand out you see now i noticed that these buttons don't align so we have to go to the advanced step and change the margins make sure to unlink the values and now we change the top margins to 20. after that we also want to move the button a bit more to the left let's enter -30 after that i click on update to save the changes we can also choose to delete all these elements and put the author on top and underneath the featured products let's mess around a bit with these components and elements are you still watching like this video if it is helpful so far let's track this component underneath the author section after that i want to check how it looks like on full screen ok that's fine now let's check it out on mobile i like to keep my websites clean and simple so basic colors and not too much content and we can change the text that says you also love to feature products now we want to redirect the read more hyperlinks to our product pages click each one of them and enter the ebook urls and after that we click on update next up i want to create some space between the featured products and the bundled ones you can do so by scrolling down to the bottom of the page click on the plus icon and choose a single structure and after that we drag it accordingly between these structures we can insert for example some social media icons go to the elements section search for the social icon widget drag and drop it right here in the content tab you can enter the links to your facebook twitter or youtube page you can also add a new social media icon and choose one of the various icons in the library or what about changing the official color to a custom one it's all possible right here we can adjust the shape from rounded to square or circle check what looks best for your store and then we go to the style tab you can change the size padding and spacing let's check out the icon hover settings clearly it is set on none but if you change it to let's say grow now we notice a different animation that's big shrink ok but we can also remove the social media icons and make them sticky by installing a plugin and don't forget to update your changes click on the hamburger icon now we exit to the dashboard go to plugins add new let's search for sticky social media wait a second and there we go as you can see it has great reviews and active installations then we click on install now and activate all right now i will quickly go through the basics and then return to elementor so over here you can choose what icons you want to show on the website let me disable and enable some deactivate these popups and now once you enabled some social media icons you will have to save the changes next up it says what do you want the icons to do well here you can insert the external link to your social media channels next question is where shall they be displayed let's pick floating over your site's pages and after that we need to choose the location let me see bottom right is all right for me and then we click on save now let's check out the front end and as you can see the social media icons are added to the bottom right of our pages and they also float or stick to our screen which drags more attention in comparison to a static widget alright let's go back to elementor what i want to do now is creating a title and some text for our bundled products just like we have for our featured products now we can simply copy this in a section and then paste it right over here now we need to change the title to bundled products at last i want to remove this background and i notice that this image is transparent and the background is added separately let me search for it ah there we go click on the basket icon to remove it and now it looks way better in my opinion so that is how elementor works in a nutshell let's click on update and continue next up i want to configure the contact page go to elementors finder and search for contact page once we click on the contact form we can see a shortcode on the left side if we remove this code then the contact form disappears as well now although it is pre-installed it still needs to be configured click on the hamburger icon and then we select exit to dashboard we can leave the page without updating once we enter the dashboard we hover over to wp forms and go to all forms by looking at this shortcode we know that this is the contact form that needs to be configured first we need to enter the correct email address click on contact form and go to settings notifications enter the admin email address and click on save in the general tab we can make some adjustments to the contact form for example you can adjust the form name and description or change the submit button text in the confirmation tab we can change some settings after someone submitted the contact form i think the default text is perfectly fine now if we need to extend our contact form we need to go to fields you can add or remove standard fields for example if we want the multiple choice field then we simply drag and drop it or if you want to adjust the current fields let's say remove the first and last text you change the format to simple a label to name and in between brackets surname you see let's click on save and check if the modifications are visible on the front end open a new window and go to the contact page there we go now make sure to send a test email just so you can make sure it arrives okay that's it now you know how to change the website using the elementor page builder and configure the contact form next up i want to guide you through the woocommerce settings and show what needs to be configured go back to the dashboard and hover over to woocommerce settings first thing we need to do is change our business address this can be important for text calculations and in some countries it is even mandatory to make this information public now i select the netherlands in the drop down menu and after that we go to the general options i would like to sell to the netherlands so i select sell to specific countries and select the country in this white box you can leave the default customer location on shop base address and this informs woocommerce that shipping and tax rates are determined based on our address for this video i want to select geolocate address so that woocommerce can verify the customer's location you don't have to choose geolocate with page caching support it is actually the same but the url structure will have this line included now by doing so one can prevent static caching of prices but i like to leave it on geolocate now scroll down a bit and here we can enable some taxes and coupon settings leave it for now because i will cover this later on in this video over here at currency options you need to select the currency of preference in my case i choose euros in the netherlands we keep the currency position on the left side and we use a comma as the thousand separator in america it's a dot but make sure you know what's applicable in your country because you don't want to offer an e-book for a couple thousand okay now click on save changes then we need to configure the geolocation so that woocommerce can locate our customers location click on this hyperlink whilst holding the command or control button and after that we continue to documentation go down until you see a button that says sign up for juvenile 2 or create a max mind geolocation account hyperlink click it and then we need to enter some personal and company information over here at industry we choose e-commerce icon from the netherlands and over here at intended use we select language localization leave your email address and optionally also your phone number agree to the terms of use if you want to continue now my email account was already in use so i picked a temporary email account next up we go to the email account and open the email they've sent copy and paste the url in the browser and then you need to create a new password first you have to copy this token code and then you need to enter a new password again and reset your password has been updated ok great so now return to woocommerce settings and go to integration make sure to enter the token code in this field and save changes to activate geolocate now you most likely see this message that says max mind license key is invalid we created this key just yet so we need to wait a bit for it to become active another message that could pop up is geolocation has not been configured but you can ignore this because geolocate becomes active after some time next up we go to the products tab the shop page should redirect to shop and then we can choose to redirect to the cart page after successful addition if you only offer one digital product i would recommend you to disable this one because by doing so we automatically redirect customers to the checkout page after a successful addition yes we want to enable ix add to cart buttons on archives reason why is because iac's add2card for woocommerce is one of those plugins that allow visitors to add single products or variable products in the card without the need to reload the entire site each time we can leave the placeholder image in default settings over here at measurements we can adjust the weight and dimensions unit i want the weight in kilograms and dimensions in centimeters now we do want to enable product reviews and show verified owner label on customer reviews that means if someone buys something they become a verified owner and this will become visible in the customer review section if you also enable reviews can only be left by verified users and you prevent single users from leaving multiple reviews we can leave the enable star rating on reviews and star rating should be required not optional enabled click on save changes because i want to show you how to edit approve and disapprove customer comments let's visit one of our product pages and scroll down so that we can leave a review as you can see we need to be a verified user to leave a review let me quickly disable this now we give this e-book a five-star rating and enter a comment like mind-blowing then we click on submit you can see that the review has been added and then we go to the dashboard hover over to comments and as you can see our comment is already approved but that is because wordpress automatically identifies us as the admin we can earn a proof or reply to the comment and that is basically it then we go back and hover over to inventory now we don't need to manage stock so we can disable it but we want to enable hide out of stock items from the catalog and we also need to select never show quantity remaining in stock because we are selling unlimited downloadable products and then we click on save changes next up we go to the downloadable products section and here we can choose the file download method now we want to choose force download because this is a safe option to protect our downloadable files but if your file is above 16 megabyte you need to pick a different option and then we arrive at the access restriction now i don't want to enable download require login but i want to grant access to downloadable products after payment for security reasons we also want to append a unique string to filename for security and then we click on save changes next in line our shipping and payments we can skip shipping and payment will be covered later on in this video let me go through accounts and privacy first let me also remove these real quick next to guest checkout we want to allow customers to place orders without an account if you don't enable this one you might lose on potential sales but that also depends on the kind of digital product you offer if you offer a complete online course for example and want to offer personalized future offers then it is better to let your customers create an account now we do want to enable allow customers to log into an existing account during checkout a sentence on the checkout page will be visible that says returning customer click here to log in next up we want to allow customers to create an account during checkout i can show you how that looks like so far let's click on save changes and then go to the front end you see now i don't want to enable allow customers to create an account on the my account page reason being is that we only want accounts for customers that bought a digital product check mark this option that says when creating an account automatically generate an account username for the customer based on their name surname and email these kind of settings make the account creation faster hence more customer friendly and same applies to the next one on automatically generating an account password next to our counter ratio requests we can choose to remove personal data from orders on request and the removal of downloads on request enable both of them however we don't want to enable allow personal data to be removed in build from orders i like to hold customer data for as long as the customers allow me to over here we can adjust the privacy policy settings now make sure to select the privacy policy page in the customizers drop down menu like i showed you earlier on or else the shortcodes won't work or redirect to the wrong page in this section we can choose how long to retain personal data when it is no longer needed for processing but we want to leave the options blank to retain this data indefinitely ok that's it for the accounts and privacy settings so we click on save changes now we go to the emails tab where we can find an overview of email notifications that are either sent to us as the store owner or the customer in this email column you can find an overview of different kinds of emails and these are sent to the recipient so my business email or the customers now we can change these settings by clicking on manage for example if we want to adjust the email notification that customers receive upon order completion then we click on manage and enter let's say an email heading like thanks for shopping at digital store x in this field we could enter an additional sentence such as if you have any questions don't hesitate and contact our customer service now let's click on save changes and then we go back via this small arrow icon let's see if we scroll down we can edit the email sender options in this field next to from name we can enter digital product store x and this name will appear in outgoing emails and in this field we need to enter our business email address and that brings us to the email template settings this section let us customize the email template that will be sent to our customers the email template that our customers currently receive looks like this now it doesn't look bad but these are woocommerce's default settings we need to customize it a bit now let's start with the header image now this field requires a url therefore we need to go to the media library scroll back up and hover off the media library whilst holding the command or ctrl key as for now i like to stick to our current default logo let's pick the small one with dimensions of 171 by 23 pixels copy the url link and then we paste it into the header image field we can also adjust the footer section and enter something like thank you for purchasing a digital product store x now make sure to adjust the base colors as well i like this dark blue color code and the other colors are fine by me now press the save changes button and click on the preview email template hyperlink to see the result now that looks perfectly fine to me clean and simple now scroll back up and now we click on integration in this section we need to enter the geolocate token the data file base path is selected by default you don't have to change anything here now go to advanced and by default the page setup checkout endpoints and account endpoints are already configured if you want to ask your customers to accept your terms and conditions before checking out then you need to select the right page in the drop down menu now these page urls are set in english which is fine by me but you can also localize them by changing these fields okay click on save changes we don't need to adjust any settings in the rest api web hooks and legacy api so you can leave it like that over here at woocommerce.com you can decide whether you want to enable tracking but i don't want woocommerce to track how i work with their platform alright i want to leave it like that and click on save changes okay next up i want to cover one of my favorite topics namely taxes make sure to enable tax rates and calculations or else you won't see this tag step first we have to decide whether we want prices entered with or without tax now i want to sell to private users and then i have to enable yes i will enter prices inclusive of tax but if you sell to businesses then you need to pick prices exclusive tax let me further elaborate on this subject using an example in the netherlands we usually maintain a twenty percent tax rate on products however digital products like ebooks audio books or online study material have a tax rate of nine percent so if we want to display a price of let's say 29.95 euros then you need to know that the tax amount is 2 euros and 47 cents in the example we used the formula will look like this and that means customers in my country will pay 29.95 euros whereas customers from the united states will only pay 27 euros and 48 cents now if you want to calculate tax exclusive prices you need to use this formula okay let's continue where we left we want to calculate text based on customer billing address and you can leave the shipping text class in default settings because we can select text classes on each product page do we want to round text at subtotal level instead of rounding per line yes we do let me show you by going to the card page by doing so taxes are calculated not per item underneath subtotal but only in the card total box then we arrive at the additional tax classes field now we only sell digital products so we are fine with just the standard class if you also sell physical products with different text classes then you can enter them in this field for example you can add other and then click on save changes you can see that your new text class has been added in text options now more about this subject in just a second next up we need to decide how prices are displayed in the shop so in or excluding text now we sell to private users and therefore we want to include tags same goes for displaying prices during card and checkout personally i prefer not to enter a price display suffix but let me give you a preview enter inclusive 380 and save changes now we go to our shop page and next to the price we can see the price display suffix now go back and here we need to display text totals as itemized let me tell you more about using text classes save first and then click on standard rates next to tax options click on insert row to create a table now our ebooks are in dutch so we want to sell to the netherlands so it is important to enter the country code right over here i know by heart that nl is the two-digit country code that i need to enter if you don't know yours keep in mind that woocommerce uses wikipedia's country code list if you sell worldwide then you leave it blank and after that you can narrow it down by state code zip and or city as for the raid we enter 9. if you want you can enter a text name something like v80 9 in between brackets now we keep the priority on 1 unless you want to define several tax rates for specific areas leave the compound option unchecked we don't want this tax rate to be applied on top of other rates and at last we can uncheck the shipping option let me enter another class just so i can show you for example we can also sell our ebooks to belgium because of the similar language so we insert a new row and then we enter be as the country code a tax rate of six percent and enter a text name like v80 six percent in between brackets okay let me briefly recap on what we configured just yet if someone from the netherlands or belgium purchases something then woocommerce automatically detects the customer's location based on their location a tax rate of nine percent or six percent is applied click on save changes and then we go to other rates you can use this area if you also sell some physical products hard copies for example now most books have a 20 text rate so we insert a new row and fill in exactly the same information except for the tax rate of 21 now click on save changes so imagine that this is not an e-book but a hardcore p then you click on added product and in the product data area you can select other in the drop down menu if you want to sell worldwide i can imagine that adding these taxes manually can be a real pain in the ass however you can automate this process to save some time therefore you need the woocommerce shipping and text plugin which is installed by default if not you can easily download it completely free over here at plugins now once the plugin is installed this field appears where you can select enable automated taxes and then we click on save changes down below and tax calculations are automated woocommerce will take care of the taxes next up we want to install a plugin that is called direct checkout for woocommerce there are several reasons why this plugin is useful for a digital product store let me guide you through after we install this free plugin search for direct checkout it should pop up right away there we go it has many active installations and great reviews so we click on install now and then on activate after that we hover over to woocommerce now you can either click on direct checkout or go to settings and click on the direct checkout tab first we want to change some general settings are the first two options i want to leave in default settings because i don't want to skip the product feature page customers should be able to check a description and review section however we do want to add a card redirect so that we can skip the card page and redirect it to the checkout page now by doing so we decrease the number of actions that form an obstacle for many eshoppers click on save changes after that we go to archives in this section you can change the add to cart button text so if you select yes you can select the product type for example downloadable products and then you can change the button text that appears on the card page our customers however are directly redirected to the checkout page so we leave it in default settings same goes for products and then we arrive at the checkout tab now we don't want the address options because we are not shipping any physical products we actually only need the name surname and email address and perhaps also the additional comment section so over here at remove checkout fields we remove and add some of these options after that i want to remove the checkout shipping address and i also want to remove the checkout order comments the other settings are fine in default and we click on save changes at the bottom of the page go back to the front end refresh the checkout page and some of the options disappeared ok let me readjust the checkout fields i think we only need the city pulse code and address 1. after that we click on save changes and refresh the checkout page now that looks perfectly fine by me next up i want to show you how to create and email pdf invoices therefore we need to install plugin called woocommerce pdf invoices and packing plugin hover over to plugins add new and search for woocommerce pdf it should pop up right away press the install now button and click on activate now once the plugin is installed a new option appears in the woocommerce menu called pdf invoices in the general tab we can configure some settings like how we would like to view the pdf so we want to open the pdf in a new browser window choose a template well we can only select simple which is completely fine and we leave the paper size set on a4 ignore the test mode and extend the currency symbol if it is not displaying properly leave it disabled for now and then we move to shop header logo click on set image and pick the same logo like we did previously and then we click on set image this logo will be visible on our customers their pdf invoice file now if you want to adjust the logo height you can do so by entering a different number in this field okay let's enter a shop name for example digital product store x over here at shop address we need to enter our store's information like chamber of commerce name and number vat id and international bank account number business address so street city and zip after we've entered all information we move to the footer section in this field we can enter a short code to our privacy policy or customer service pages but you can also leave it blank ok now click on save changes at the bottom of the page go to the documents tab and make sure to enable invoices and then we would like to attach them to completed orders so when someone finalizes an order they will automatically receive an email with the invoice attached to it enable display shipping address just to make sure all information is included same goes for email and phone number next up we want to display the invoice date and invoice number so select it in the drop down menus if you want you can adjust the next invoice number prefix and format we can also choose to reset the invoice numbers on a yearly basis but that is optional so we leave it in default settings for now do you want to allow my account inforce downloads well if our clients create accounts they have the possibility to check invoices in their account therefore i would like to keep it on only when an invoice is already created or emailed next up we don't want to enable invoice number column in the order list skip disable for free orders and then we choose to always use most current settings when enabled the document will always reflect the most current settings we do want to enable this one and then click on save changes after that we can go to packing slip if you don't know what a packing slip is it basically is a list of items quantity stock levels and the location well we sell downloadable products so it's not relevant for us in the status tab we can find some debug options but we can ignore those and click on save changes alright so i would like to show you where we as the admin can download pdf invoices and how that looks like but therefore we first have to create a test order but before we can make a test order we first have to get a payment provider now woocommerce is compatible with the most popular payment providers like paypal amazon pay and stripe personally i really like stripe stripe accepts all major debit and credit cards including many local payment methods other advantages are low transaction costs and you can easily monitor and report in the stripe dashboard however stripe is not available in all countries this is the list of countries that accept payments via stripe now i can see that the netherlands is included so let's go to the home page and click on start now now before we can configure our woocommerce store to stripe we first have to create a stripe account enter your personal information and after that create a password i don't need product updates so we continue now once the stripe account is created we are redirected to the dashboard i really like how you can monitor and report store performance stripe tracks various transaction metrics really useful in my opinion now before we can start we first have to verify our email then we click on open gmail and then we are automatically redirected we open the email and press the verify button within several seconds our account should be verified so once that's done we need to click on activate your stripe account start now next up enter your personal and business information so where are you from well i am from the netherlands what is my business website let's enter davidson.com enter the business description in my case i sell digital products and other digital goods i teach others how to build a webshop using woocommerce then we have to enter our account credentials for example what kind of a business structure chamber of commerce name and number vat company address and phone number let me speed up this process next up we need to enter a two-step authentication as a message find by me and if you do so too then we need to enter a mobile number and confirm it now i receive the six digit code and let's enter that for verification then i get an emergency backup code i want to keep this code somewhere safe then we click on done and submit the application stripe needs some time to verify the information our stripe account became active and in the meantime the interface changed as well now we can connect to our digital product store go to developers on the left side and select api keys now go to our wordpress dashboard in another window we first need to download the stripe woocommerce plugin hover over to plugins add new and search for stripe we need this plugin so we click on install now and activate next up we go to woocommerce settings select payments you can download various payment gateway plugins and then you can enable them in this tab right now we want to enable stripe credit card click on setup remove the stripe text go down and make sure the test mode is enabled and after that we have to copy and paste three test keys in these fields go back to stripe and toggle view test data and now we copy the publishable key and paste it in the first field after that we reveal the secret key copy it and paste it in the second field that brings us to webhook secret we need to copy this url and go back to the other window underneath developers we go to webhooks and then we add an endpoint paste the url and if you want you can add a description but that is optional next up we need to pick an event so we want to charge our customers and therefore we need to include 13 charges and after that we need to add the endpoint scroll down a bit so we can reveal the signing secret copy the code and paste it in the test webhook secret field after that we need to enter a statement descriptor because this will appear on the customer's bank or credit card statement let's enter digital product store x leave the capture and payment request buttons enabled so we can charge immediately we also want to allow google and apple pay now the other settings are fine as well leave these in default settings and click on save changes next up i want to make a test order and see if our payment gateway works open our home page in a new window go to the shop page and add an e-book to the card then we view the card and proceed to the checkout page here we enter our personal information and once that's done we can see that the test mode is enabled copy the test card number and paste it accordingly enter a valid expiry date and add some random card code numbers after that we agree to the policies terms and conditions and click on the place order button now it should process as you can see it works the payment is accepted and the order has been received when we click this button we will automatically download the word document you see and you can also let your customers download the document as a zip file and you have to edit the product page insert the zip file and then we click on the download button again and there we go let's go to stripe's dashboard to see if the test data is processed yes the data has been updated last thing we need to do is to turn off the test data on the left menu section hover over to developers and click on api and we copy the publishable keys and go back to the payment settings disable the test mode and paste the publishable key in this field next up we go back to stripe to reveal and copy the live key token i already got mine i make sure to keep this token somewhere safe and now we paste it in this field copy the url go to webhooks and click on add an endpoint configure the same settings like we did previously now scroll down and reveal the signing secret grab this key and paste it in the webhook secret box field at last save changes at the bottom of the page alright that's about it now we have created a payment provider account and configured one of the various payment methods so we just made our first test order which is also visible in the woocommerce dashboard as you can see the admin should receive a new order notification and the customer receives a completed order email i want to show you what these emails look like now you can see that these subjects should be adapted for example your order your ebook on etc is not proper english you can change these settings in the email tab over here add subject and email heading ok now let's open the first email this order is for the admins administration if we scroll down it also says congratulations on the sill now let's check out the other email as you can see the victor hansen logo is right here by clicking on this hyperlink you will download the digital product here we notice the price and taxes the billing information and because we installed the plugin our customers also receive an invoice attached to their email you see all right next we go to woocommerce orders click on the hyperlink to check out the order information and here we have the client's billing information if we scroll down we can open the pdf invoice by clicking this button and use it for our own administration if for some reason the status is still processing which actually never happens then you need to change it to complete it only then our customer receives the completed order email including the attached pdf invoice now let's see we covered everything from registering a domain name and web hosting to actually creating and configuring the online store now your next step is to start ranking in google search engines for more visitors subscribe to this channel for future videos about seo and for now i want to thank you for watching and if you have any questions leave a comment down below and i'll respond as soon as possible thanks again for watching and see you next time bye

Channel: René Delescen

Views: 21,836

Keywords: How to build a digital product store?, How to sell downloadable products?, Create online store selling downloadable products, Build webshop selling digital products, Build a WordPress / WooCommerce online store, Direct checkout WooCommerce, Remove product quantity WooCommerce, Sell online services, Sell downloadable files, Build an online store, Build an online product store, Make an online store selling digital products

Id: S9eaiHTX3H8

Length: 87min 13sec (5233 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 10 2020