If you have created your Shopify online store with a mission to sell digital products in PDF format, then you are definitely looking for the easiest way to do it.
There is one specific app on the Shopify app store that will help you sell PDFs on Shopify super easily, with just a few clicks, and we have decided to show you how to do it the right way!
How do you sell a PDF on Shopify? Quick guide
Shopify app store really has your back with everything, so if you are interested in selling digital products and PDFs, they have the right app for you that will make the whole process quick and gain your Shopify store a lot of revenue in a short time.
All you have to do in order to sell your PDf file on Shopify is follow these few simple steps:
- Sign up to Shopify and login
- Create your products on the “Products” page in Shopify
- Install the Fileflare Digital Downloads app from the Shopify app store – it’s free!
- Go to your Shopify admin > click “Apps” > click on Fileflare Digital Downloads
- Go to the “Upload” page in the app & upload the PDFs
- Attach the PDFs to your Shopify products
- Now, the app is armed and will deliver those files to customers who buy the products!
With this app, you will automate your store completely while protecting your PDFs from copyright & sharing.
Detailed guide
1. Sign up to Shopify
You can Sign up to Shopify here. Follow the steps they provide to create your store. Once you have created it, go to the next step.
2. Create your products on Shopify
- Go to the ‘Products’ page to create your products.
- Click the ‘Add product’ button to begin adding your products.
Make sure to mark the product as digital by selecting the physical product checkbox.
3. Install the PDF delivery app
The best app to use is Fileflare Digital Downloads. It’s a fully approved Shopify app featured on their app store, and it has a wide range of unique protection features to prevent customers from sharing the files.
It’s best to go with the right app at the start so that all of your download links to all your customers will continue to work forever. Fileflare has a free plan that is the most generous.
They also have a free plan which is perfect for beginners, giving you the ability to upgrade or downgrade at any time to unlock more features.
4. Upload your PDFs to the app
- Go to the ‘Apps‘ page in Shopify, then click on the Fileflare app to open it.
- Go to the ‘Upload‘ page
- Here, you can upload your PDF
5. Connect the PDFs to your products
Once the file is uploaded, click on the blue link and then attach it to the relevant Shopify products and variants.
That’s all you need to do! It’s really simple. Once the PDF is attached to your Shopify products, it is armed and ready to be delivered when a customer places an order for those products.
6. (optional) Set up PDF Stamping to protect your PDFs
The app features a wide range of settings to fully customise your PDF delivery so you can brand your process to suit your store.
They even have PDF Stamping, which prevents customers from sharing the PDFs they have just bought. This stamps the customers’ names, emails or order numbers on the PDF so that they will not want to share the files and reveal themselves as committing illegal activities.
The PDF Stamping can also lock the PDF, which stops the customer from editing their details out of it.
7. Market your PDFs to sell more
Here, you can begin to market your PDFs that you have now created on your Shopify store. You have many options, from paid advertising, SEO, social media marketing and much more.
- Meta ads
- Google ads
- TikTok ads
- YouTube
- SEO
You can speak to their support team if you have any questions about marketing. I did and they helped a lot and know loads.
Video tutorial – selling PDFs with this Shopify app
Example of an order
Here you can see the way the order page looks when you receive an order. It has a lot of data, so you can understand what your customer is doing with their PDFs.
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Why choose the Fileflare app?
The Fileflare Digital Downloads app is approved by Shopify & as one of the best digital downloads apps on the market. It allows your store to sell your digital downloads, such as PDFs. Using this app automates your store & gives you a bunch of protection tools to sell digital PDFs on Shopify.
Once you install this app and set up your store, all of your PDFs and digital products will be delivered to your customers as soon as they purchase.
Intelligent download system
It’s based on an intelligent system that works alongside Shopify’s eCommerce platform allowing you to start selling digital products. This keeps them 100% safe from all the other users and potential thefts. Unfortunately, Shopify doesn’t have its own system for selling digital products. But in turn, this has helped app developers create amazing applications to do this effectively and better than Shopify could.
All of your PDF files will be protected, and you will receive basic account details about all of the customer accounts, so in case you believe someone may be buying your digital items in order to generate ideas or resell them, you can always reach out to them, confront them, or even report them to the Shopify website.
Fraud protection
The app also features special systems preventing your customers from sharing your digital goods with anyone else. This is one of the main things you should look out for when dealing with apps like these because if you sell digital downloads, you need to make sure that no one else will be able to share them for free.
Flexibility & customisations
One of the best things about it is that you can sell multiple files all at once, but also that you can create customized digital downloads for specific customers.
You will also be able to create custom emails that will be sent to all of your customers, and you can brand yourself the way you want it.
Email marketing is really popular and important these days, especially if you are trying to sell exclusive content that is not a physical product, so I would recommend you to get someone who will create content that will make you stand out on the Shopify dashboard and make your customer come back once again.
More key features
With this app on your Shopify store, you will also be able to attach multiple files to any single product, giving you the flexibility to deliver as many digital downloads as you like.
- Send customer download emails using your own email address
- Sell personalised digital files
- No limits on file size upload
- Upload and sell any file type
- Email tracking – opened, delivered or bounced
- Order bandwidth & download tracking
- Add download links in customers’ accounts & ‘Order Summary’ page
- Fraud protection (halt the automated download email if fraudulent)
- File protection (limit downloads per file, set access to expire after a chosen number of days, and automatically remove access if the order is refunded)
Pricing
The app provides you with a free plan which is perfect for beginner stores, and in case you want to get more professional features as you grow, you can upgrade at any time.
FAQ
How do I make a PDF downloadable on Shopify?
Making a PDF downloadable on Shopify is easy. Just install the Fileflare Digital Downloads app and follow this guide.
How do you make a PDF sellable?
Making a PDF sellable is easy in modern e-commerce. Just start a Shopify store, install the Fileflare Digital Downloads app and add your digital products. You can also protect your PDF from copyright issues using this app, by adding PDF stamps on the PDFs.
Is it free to sell PDFs on Shopify?
Yes, you can install the Fileflare Digital Downloads app and use it for free. The only thing you will need to pay for is your Shopify subscription.
Summary
There you have it, a detailed guide on how to sell PDFs on Shopify safely & easily. If you have any more questions, please feel free to contact me.
