Selling digital products and downloads: access, licences and updates

Selling a file seems like the easiest thing in e-commerce: no stock, no shipping, no returned goods. Until the emails start: “I can't find the link”, “It says it has expired”, “Is there a new version?”, “I bought the machine and don't have the manual”. And the opposite problem: the download link that someone posts on a forum and that works for anyone.

This article is about how to sell and deliver files from an online store with access that is convenient for the customer and secure for you.

What is sold as a download

• Pure digital products: e-books, templates, patterns, music, fonts, software, PDF courses.
• Licences: the file is secondary; what is sold is the right to use it, sometimes with a key.
• Documentation for physical products: manuals, warranties, technical sheets, drivers, assembly drawings. They are not sold, but customers need them.

PrestaShop covers the first two cases out of the box with virtual products: you upload the file and the customer downloads it after payment, with a maximum number of downloads and an expiry date if you want. The third it does not: in PrestaShop a product is either physical or virtual, not both, and there is nowhere to attach the manual for a machine shipped by carrier.

Access: convenient for the customer, closed to everyone else

The balance lies in buyers always having their files to hand and nobody else being able to download them.

No public URL

If the file is in a web-accessible folder, anyone with the address can download it. Files must be stored in a protected folder and delivered through the store, which first checks who is requesting it and whether they are entitled to it.

Reasonable limits

• Number of downloads: enough for customers to download it on several devices or recover it after changing computer, but not unlimited if the file is valuable.
• Expiry: makes sense for promotions or temporary licences. For a book or a manual, expiring after a few days only generates support emails.

A fixed place in the customer account

The link in the confirmation email is fine, but emails get lost. Customers should find everything they have bought to download in a section of their account, with the purchase date and whether the download is still available. And, on the product page, a “Download” button visible only to those who have already bought it.

Updates

This is what sets a serious downloads store apart from one that sells a file and forgets about it:

• Decide what the purchase includes: lifetime updates, a year of updates or only the version bought. Put it on the product page.
• Announce new versions. An email to those who bought the product, explaining what has changed, saves a lot of questions.
• Look after earlier buyers. If you add a file to a product you had already sold (the manual you did not have, a new guide), those who bought before should see it too.

Licences and usage

If you sell templates, fonts, photos or software, customers need to know what they can do with them: personal or commercial use, in how many projects or devices, whether they can modify them. Put it on the product page in plain language and, if you have a full licence text, include it with the file.

If the software needs an activation key, think from the outset about how it is delivered and how it is recovered. A key that only travels in the order email gets lost with the email; a key visible in the customer account, next to the download, saves half the support work. And decide what happens when the customer changes computer: whether they can release the licence themselves or have to write to you.

The legal side: withdrawal and VAT

Withdrawal

Spanish consumer protection law excludes from the right of withdrawal the supply of digital content not provided on a tangible medium when performance has begun with the consumer's prior express consent and their acknowledgement that they lose that right. In practice: if you want an immediate download not to be subject to withdrawal, the customer must expressly accept this before paying, with a checkbox they tick themselves, and you must confirm it to them afterwards.

VAT

Digital products downloaded without human intervention are electronically supplied services for VAT purposes. When you sell to consumers in other European Union countries, the customer's country's VAT generally applies, declared through the One-Stop Shop (OSS), and there is a combined threshold below which you can continue to apply Spanish VAT. Review your case with your adviser, because it changes the store's tax configuration.

Checklist

1. Files kept out of public folders and delivered through the store.
2. Download and expiry limits designed for the customer, not against them.
3. A downloads section in the customer account.
4. Update policy written on the product page, and an email notice when there are updates.
5. A consent checkbox for immediate performance, if you need it.
6. Taxes reviewed for sales to other countries.

And the usual point: downloads go through store controllers that check permissions. Keeping PrestaShop and its modules up to date is what prevents a known flaw from opening those files to people who have not bought them.

How to do it in PrestaShop

RKR Mis Descargas gathers all the downloadable products a customer has bought into a panel in their account, with product, order, purchase date and whether the download is still available or has expired. It lets you attach manuals, warranties, technical sheets or software to any product, including physical ones without turning them into virtual products, and only those who bought them can download them; on the product page a download button appears just for them, showing how many downloads they have left. If you upload a new version of the file, it can notify buyers by email, and a repair tool links files added later to earlier orders. Files are stored in PrestaShop's protected download folder and delivered through the store.