In addition to tangible products and services, you can sell downloadable items such as e-books, photos, music, video tutorials, and other digital products in your Lightspeed eCom (E-Series) online store. When you add a product to your online store, you can upload a file that will be delivered to customers automatically via unique download links after they make a purchase.

Lightspeed takes care of hosting your digital items and digital delivery. You can add as many files per product as you need in any format, every file can be up to 25 GB.

Some payment providers may impose restrictions on the sale of digital goods. Make sure that your payment provider supports digital products and services. PayPal or 2Checkout are examples of providers that support digital products, but you have the flexibility to select any other payment service that suits your needs.

Adding a digital product to your online store

You can add a single file or multiple files under one product. There is no limit to how many files can be attached to a downloadable product.

To add links to downloadable files like datasheet PDFs to your product descriptions, use the paid File Hosting app from the Lightspeed eCom App Market. It also allows you to share links to your files elsewhere. This way, customers can download files without going through the eCom checkout.

To add a digital product to your online store:

1. In Retail POS, go to Catalog > Products.
2. Create a product that you want to attach digital files to and make sure it's enabled for selling online.
3. (Optional) Turn off inventory tracking for this product.
4. In your eCom admin panel, navigate to Catalog > Products and open the product for editing. 
5. Open the Files tab.
6. Click +Upload Files.

7. In the pop-up, click Choose file:

   

8. Select the file on your device.
9. Click + to add more files. You can add as many files per product as you need, but you can add up to 10 files at once.
10. Click Upload Files.
11. (Optional) Enter the file description.
12. Click Save.

All done, the files are added to your product. 

After placing an order in your online store, your customers will automatically receive the download link for the product once the order status is updated to Paid. Orders that were successfully paid using online payment gateways get this status automatically. Unpaid orders (for example, if an online customer chose manual payment methods at checkout in eCom) can be marked as paid on the My Sales > Orders page in your eCom admin panel or on the Sell screen in Retail POS.

Customers in the EU must pay VAT on digital products at the rate applicable in their own country, regardless of where the seller is located.

Disabling shipping for a digital product

If you're selling a digital product, you most likely would like to disable shipping for it. This way, the online checkout process will not include the step of choosing shipping or delivery methods. This step will only appear for carts that include both physical and downloadable products.

To disable shipping for a digital product:

1. In your eCom admin panel, navigate to Catalog > Products and open the product for editing. 

2. In the General tab, untick Requires shipping or pickup:

   

3. Click Save.

Make sure the Download e-goods notification is enabled in your Retail POS, in the Online tab > Webstore > Notifications. Otherwise, your customers will not receive their download links by email.

Protecting download links

There are two ways you can prevent customers from sharing download links with others: 

• Set a lifetime for the link. This ensures that the link will automatically expire after a specified period of time.
• Limit the number of downloads per link. This ensures buyers can download the link only the specified number of times.

To set limits for download links:

1. In Retail POS, navigate to Online > Settings.

2. In the General tab, click Cart & Checkout.

   

3. Scroll down to the E-goods section:

   

4. Add a number of hours and/or download attempts. 

Here are some download limit usage examples:

• Lifetime is set at 24 hours, and the number of download attempts is empty: the link is available for 24 hours only, with an unlimited number of downloads.
• Lifetime is left empty, and the number of download attempts is set at 5: the link is available without any time limits, but can only be downloaded 5 times per order.
• Lifetime is set at 48 hours, and the number of download attempts is set at 3: the link is available for 48 hours and can be downloaded only 3 times per order.

Managing download links

You can manually turn off a download link for an order, or vice versa, generate a new download link for a buyer. For example, if they couldn’t download the file before the link expired.

To turn off or regenerate a download link:

1. In your eCom admin panel, navigate to My Sales > Orders.
2. Find the order and open its details.
3. Click Manage and choose the necessary action:

If you choose to renew the download link, the buyer will receive an additional “Files ready for download” email that will contain a new download link.

If you choose the option to turn off a download link, you will force its immediate expiration. Upon clicking on such a download link, the buyer will be redirected to an error page. There, it will be stated that no more downloads are allowed.

Offering digital products for free

You can offer free downloads in your online store so that customers can download a file without paying for it. You can use it for various purposes, for example, share sample files (audios, videos, etc.) or provide docs with instructions on how to use other products in your store.

There are two ways to offer digital goods for free:

1. Create a product with zero price: Your customers can add this product to their cart, place an order, and get the download links without paying anything. To make the process smoother, we recommend that you automatically mark the orders containing only a free product as "Paid". That way, you don't have to manually change the status of each order from "Awaiting Payment" to "Paid" in the eCom admin panel. The order status will change automatically, and the buyer will receive the download link. For this, you can set the Default payment status for orders with zero total setting to Paid in Retail POS, Online tab > Settings > General > Cart & Checkout (the Checkout Settings section).
2. Attach a file by adding a download link directly to the product description. By attaching a download link directly to your product, the customer doesn't have to place an order – they can download the file right from the product page. To do so, first, upload your file to any hosting service. For example, you can use SaberCat, which is free. Second, add a link to this file in your product description. Note: this option does not allow you to see the downloads in the orders list.

Placing a test order

After you've created a digital product, you can place a test order to see how it works.

Make sure to change the status of your test order to Paid so that you can receive the download link. You can do that on the My Sales > Orders page in your eCom admin panel or on the Sell screen in Retail POS.

Downloading product files as a customer

Your customers will automatically receive the download link for the ordered product as soon as the order status is Paid.

A buyer sees the download link right on the Thank you for your order page if their order is paid online.

Buyers also get the "Files are ready for download" email with the download links:

Besides, the download links for ordered products are available to buyers in their customer accounts in your online store.

Frequently asked questions (FAQs)

• You can modify the Download e-goods notification sent to your customers when they purchase a digital product in Retail POS, in the Online tab > Webstore > Notifications. Read the article on editing email notification templates for more information.
• If your customer has any connectivity issues, the file will automatically continue its download once the connection is reestablished. However, this only works if you do not limit the number of downloads.
• To offer buyers the option to purchase a product as a download or a physical product, you can list these product versions as separate products in your online store and upload a file to the digital product, then relate both products to each other. After that, when visiting a product page, customers will see that the product is available in another version, too, and can choose the preferred product.