If you are like me who works from home and has her own business, then I am sure that you are always on the lookout for more ways to make an income. Or maybe you want to start your online business but you are not sure what to do or where to begin. And if you are someone who is an expert in a certain type of field (an example is in the creative field), then the best way for you to start making money while making a name for yourself as an artist is by selling digital products. Small businesses and big businesses alike are now starting to sell their own digital products and for good reason – digital products are efficient and easily accessible.
In this article, I will review the best ecommerce platforms you should use to sell digital products.
What Are Digital Products?
But before I start with the review, let me first tell you what digital products are. To put it simply, digital products are downloadable products or pieces of media that may be sold and shared online over and over again without the requirement for inventory replenishment or restocks. Yes, this means that you will not have to worry about going out of stock (unlike physical items) since you will always have a copy of your digital product with you. These items are frequently available as easy digital downloads or streamable digital files, such as MP3s, PDF files, movies, plug-ins (WordPress plugin, etc.), and templates.
But to have your own e-commerce store, you must first build your own online shop for potential buyers to browse through your products. With that said, I have here 11 different platforms you can choose from:
The Best Platforms To Sell Digital Products
1. Sellfy
Sellfy is definitely one of the best and most popular ecommerce platforms out there to start selling your digital products. It is an ideal place for creators looking for a simple yet effective way to sell their digital items. The platform is simple and affordable, and they even have a print-on-demand feature that lets you offer shirts, hoodies, hats, and mugs for special cases. The platform also lets you start building your own digital store in just 5 minutes. You can insert your logo, organize the layout, and even connect your domain name.
You can start selling all types of digital products on Sellfy for free including eBooks, memberships, music, art, and many more. Sellfy offers a special 15% discount to my readers! It works on their monthly plans by using the coupon code ‘ANASTASIA‘ at the checkout. Try Sellfy here!
2. Thinkific
If you are looking for one of the best platforms to sell your online courses on, then Thinkific is the one for you because this website specializes in building online courses for creators. With Thinkific, you can simply drag-and-drop elements on their course builder – no coding skills required. You can also add photos, videos, and music to make learning much more fun for your students.
And the best thing about it? They have a free basic plan you can start with.
More of their features include:
- A custom domain and URL
- SSL certificate
- Audio, PDF, survey, video and download support
- Exam-based lessons with certifications
- Assignments for individual students
- And more!
You can get started at Thinkific for free. Their plans start at $49/month (Basic Plan), $99 (Pro), $499 (Premier).
3. Podia
Podia is an all-in-one online course platform for digital downloads, webinars, and subscriptions with over 50,000 members. Their selling point is that they give focus on membership options. Podia offers several community-centered features including interacting with members, giving tiered plans, and integrating with Facebook Groups and Slack.
They also offer:
- Course pre-selling
- Drip courses
- Membership coupons
- Standalone courses that include images, video and audio files, MP3x, PDFs, quizzes, and more.
- Affiliate Marketing
Podia has a generous free plan and the monthly plans start at $33/month (Mover), $75 (Shaker), $166 (Earthquaker).
4. Systeme.io
Systeme provides online businesses and creators a platform to create their online courses. You can host your online training, receive payments from your students and sell your courses using their sales funnels or emails marketing.
The program has a statistics tool that displays a sales report, the value per e-mail contact, and the value per customer on the dashboard. They also have:
- Sales funnel
- Email marketing
- Email list
- Easy website builder
- Business automation
- Evergreen webinars
- Product selling
Systeme’s monthly plans start at $27/month (Startup), $47 (Webinar), $97 (Enterprise).
5. Payhip
Payhip is another big eCommerce platform where you can buy and sell digital goods such as ebooks, courses, software, design assets, music, and more. A good thing about this platform is that customers who buy your digital products will be able to download them immediately.
You can also easily embed the checkout or shopping cart page to your blog or social media!
Payhip has a free plan available and no features will be locked away behind higher plans. Instead, there will just be a difference in transaction fees per plan.
6. Gumroad
If you are an artist at heart and you want buyers and other creators like yourself to know about your work, then Gumroad is perfect for you. Gumroad is one of the best platforms for you if you want to share your animations, tutorials, applications, music, tales, comics, and other digital assets (while also getting paid). They also have a built-in analytics tool so you can keep track of your views and sales.
And the best part? You can start selling on Gumroad for free!
More of their features include:
- Support for various payment types
- Subscription and payment plans are available
- Options to generate license keys for selling software
- Embeddable checkout buttons for your website
- Customizable checkout pages
- Discount and coupon creation
- Affiliate marketing tools and management
7. Creative Market
Creative Market is one of the biggest online marketplaces for digital artists to sell their work. The company lets you sell graphics, WordPress themes, stock photography, and other digital goods for use by web creatives. Creative Market has over 8 million users so this means that you will get at least one or two purchases from buyers. It’s also very easy to sign up and create on their website. You just need to link in your email address or Facebook, fill up some information, and you are good to go!
8. Squarespace
If you want to have the freedom to design and customize your very own website, then Squarespace is your trusty all-in-one website builder. And if you are someone who has no experience with coding or website building, then there’s no need to worry because they have ready-made templates for online stores which you can freely customize to fit your branding. And if you need more help with customizing your website or online store, their customer service is very quick to help.
The platform also has an analytics tool so you can see your audience demographics, top-selling products, and more.
Their plan starts at $19/month with all the features and security you need in starting an online eCommerce business.
9. SendOwl
If you have your own blog and you want to start selling your digital products on that blog, then SendOwl can let you do just that. SendOwl allows you to quickly create an online store that you can then embed or add to your blog. SendOwl is an all-in-one solution designed to help creators successfully sell and deliver audiobooks, e-books, photography, software, memberships, event tickets, online courses, and much more.
Another great thing about SendOwl is that they won’t charge any transaction fees to you or your buyers.
You can try SendOwl for free for 30 days and then upgrade to their plans starting at $15/month!
10. Shopify
I am sure that most of you already know what Shopify is. Shopify is one of the best-known eCommerce platforms where you can sell both physical and digital goods. You can easily customize the design of your shop from their thousands of themes. No design experience or programming skills are required. You can also set up different payment methods and you can also create your own membership subscription page.
You can test Shopify for 14 days with the free trial, then upgrade to their plans starting at $29 per month.
11. MemberPress
If you already have a successful WordPress blog and you want to sell your products on your website, then you will need a MemberPress plugin. MemberPress lets you build easy WordPress membership sites, sell online courses, and other digital downloads. You can configure what your members will have gain access to including posts, pages, videos, categories, tags, feeds, communities, digital files, and more with powerful paywalling.
This plugin also lets you create coupons for your customers, affiliate marketing, different payment gateways, and more!
Their plans start at $179 per year with unlimited members and course options.
Why You Should Start Selling Digital Products
Digital products are items that are sold online and do not have any physical form. These could be ebooks, music, web plugins, and more. Sure, your traditional physical products are great, but if you want to continue working at home in your sweatpants, then digital products are still the way to go.
If you need more convincing, then here are some reasons why you should start selling digital products:
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No inventory issue
The beauty of digital products is that you will never run out of stock. If somehow, your prepared items on sale have run out, you do not need to contact any manufacturer and wait for months to have them restocked. Instead, you can simply copy the item you need (how many times you want) and you’re all set to sell again!
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No shipping issues
Digital products are good for both sellers and buyers. First, because the product is digital and does not have a physical form, you won’t have to go out to your post office to ship the product. No need to spend hours on your packaging as well. You just need to send your product via email or have a download button ready.
The same goes for the buyers. They won’t have to continuously monitor where their product is currently at or worry if their parcel got lost along the way.
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No need for extra costs
Personally, the best thing about selling digital products is that you can start your own store or business without breaking the bank. Why? First, you do not need to find a warehouse to store your items. You do not need to buy extra stuff for your packaging. And lastly, you do not need to hire a lot of people. All you need is your creativity and knowledge, and an internet connection to start your own digital business!
TYPES OF PROFITABLE DIGITAL PRODUCTS TO SELL
There are countless products out there that you can sell digitally. But if you are looking for those that really do well and are highly profitable, then here are some of the most best selling digital product ideas to choose from:
Ebooks
Self-publishing is a fantastic method to make money online and establish a name for yourself. If you are an aspiring author or writer, then you can start selling short stories in the form of ebooks or PDFs. If you are an expert on a certain topic, then write about it!
People nowadays are glued to their phones and tablets as they are looking for ways to entertain themselves when they are going to work or just staying at home.
Digital Art
If you want to make a name for yourself in the art industry but you do not have the resources to maybe start your own gallery or art show, then I do recommend selling your art online. If you are someone who does traditional art (like painting on canvas), then you can simply scan your painting, and you can easily sell it as digital art! There is no need for you to draw the same picture by hand over and over again as you can simply duplicate your art – easy as that!
Digital Templates
There are tons of different people out there looking for templates that will fit their needs. For example, you can make resume templates for those who are just starting out in job seeking. You can also create presentation templates for marketers online who do not have the time to dabble in designs and whatnot. You can also make Adobe Photoshop filters, video editing templates and backgrounds, icons, fonts, and website templates for UX/UI designers, and so much more!
Online Courses
Selling online courses is a great way to build your own community while establishing yourself as an expert in that certain field. For example, I have more than enough knowledge in Pinterest marketing and blogging, which is why I have already created several courses related to those topics. And through these courses, I was able to talk and build a long-term community with my students where we share ideas and tips on Pinterest marketing and blogging.
And another good thing about online courses is that you basically just need to do everything once. You can record or make your presentation once, and when you publish it, it will stay online forever unless you delete it of course.
Stock Photos
Bloggers, influencers, and business owners are always on the search for high-quality photos on the internet – and yes, they pay for it! So, if you are a photographer or maybe your hobby is taking photos, then you can easily earn money selling stock photos that you took yourself. Selling this type of digital product is also a great step to establishing your name as a photographer.
Final Thoughts
Who would not want to make money while they sleep, right? By selling digital goods online, you can keep making passive income while also building your own brand and business. Sounds like a win-win situation here, if you ask me. If you have more digital eCommerce platforms you want to recommend, then feel free to share them in the comments section below.
I’m Anastasia and I’m a full-time blogger, online entrepreneur, and Pinterest marketing strategist. I help digital entrepreneurs and bloggers drive targeted traffic from Pinterest either through my online courses or through Pinterest consultancy.
