Sell digital downloads

Sellers can sell files on your marketplace: e-books, sewing patterns, music, photos, templates, plans. The seller uploads the file to their listing, a buyer pays with Buy Now, and the buyer gets a private download link. Nobody else can open the file: not visitors, not search engines, not someone the buyer forwards an old link to.

There are two ways to sell files. Digital downloads (below) is the one to use: the file is kept privately on your site. The older way, a Dropbox or Google Drive field, still works on sites that use it.

Switch on digital downloads

Digital downloads are off until you switch them on. They work with Buy Now through Stripe Connect, PayPal or Escrow.com, so set up Buy Now first (see Let members sell with Buy Now).

1. Go to Make money and click Manage on the Take a commission on sales card to open the Commission on sales page.
2. Under Set your commission and switch on Buy now, switch on Digital downloads. It shows once Buy now is on there (Stripe Connect), or when sellers are paid through PayPal or Escrow.com is on.
3. In Downloads per purchase, choose how many times a buyer may download what they bought: from 1 to 100, 5 by default.
4. Click Save.

If the switch is missing, Yclas support has set it for your site; ask us through Support to change it.

How sellers add a file

1. In My Listings, open the listing’s menu (the ··· button in Nova, the download icon in other themes) and click Digital file.
2. Choose the file and click Upload file.

Each listing has one file, up to 200 MB. Sellers can upload documents and books (PDF, EPUB, MOBI, Word, Excel, PowerPoint), archives (ZIP, 7Z, RAR), audio and video (MP3, WAV, FLAC, MP4, MOV), images and design files (JPG, PNG, TIFF, PSD, AI, EPS), 3D models (STL, OBJ, 3MF) and fonts. To change the file, upload a new one with Replace file; Remove the file takes it off the listing.

The listing needs a price and Buy Now like any other listing. A listing with a file:

• asks the buyer for no shipping address and adds no shipping cost;
• is never marked as sold and takes nothing from its stock, so it can be sold again and again.

What the buyer gets

1. The buyer clicks Buy Now and pays.
2. The purchase email (ads-purchased) holds a Download link. The link works for 24 hours.
3. Signed in, the buyer can also download it any time from My Payments, with a Download button that shows how many downloads are left.

Each download counts towards the Downloads per purchase limit. When it is used up, the buyer sees Downloaded the maximum number of times and is asked to contact the seller. The file itself is handed out through a link that expires after a few minutes, so a copied link soon stops working.

Good to know

• Refunds and cancellations. A refunded or cancelled order can’t download the file any more.
• Deleted listings. Buyers who paid keep their download if the seller later deletes the listing.
• Removing the file. If a seller removes the file, buyers who already paid can no longer download it. Ask sellers to replace a file rather than remove it.
• Switching off. If you switch digital downloads off, sellers can’t add files and listings are sold normally again. Everything already bought can still be downloaded.
• Buyer instructions. A buyer_instructions field, for a licence key or how to install, still works: its text goes into the same email. See Special-purpose fields.

The older way: a Dropbox or Google Drive field

Before digital downloads, sellers attached a file from Dropbox or Google Drive through a custom field named file_download, and the buyer got that file’s own Dropbox or Google Drive link in their purchase email.

This still works, with these limits:

• The link is the file’s own sharing link. Anyone who has it can pass it on, and there’s no download limit.
• Google Drive files must be shared as anyone with the link can view, and Dropbox may expire its links after a few hours.
• Without stock control, the listing is marked as sold after its first sale. Switch on Stock Control in Settings › Payments and ask sellers to set In Stock to the number of copies they want to sell.

When a listing with a file_download link has a price, the link is never shown on the listing page: only the seller and buyers who paid (in their purchase email) get it. A listing without a price shows a free Download button instead of Buy Now in the Nova and Default themes.

For new files, use digital downloads instead: the file stays private and the number of downloads is limited.

Related guides

• Let members sell with Buy Now — payments to sellers, stock and quantities.
• Commission and service fees — what you keep from each sale.
• Checkout, payments and invoices for members — My Payments and My Sales.
• Special-purpose fields — buyer_instructions and other reserved names.