How to sell digital downloads online
A digital product is made once and sold again and again, with nothing to pack or ship. That makes it popular for guides, templates, presentations, music and artwork. Here is what to think about before you list your first one: what to sell, how customers receive it, how to price it, and what the fees look like on different platforms.
What you can sell
Almost any file can be a product. Common choices are:
- PDF guides, workbooks, checklists and ebooks
- Templates for documents, spreadsheets, resumes or presentations
- Printables such as planners and wall art
- Photos, illustrations, fonts and graphics
- Audio files, such as music or guided meditations
- Patterns, recipes and plans
Choose something you can make well and explain quickly. A narrow product that solves one problem usually sells better than a broad one, because shoppers can see at once whether it is for them.
Prepare your files
Use the format your buyers can open without special software. PDF works for documents and printables; common image formats suit artwork; MP3 suits audio. If you sell a template, name the program it opens in, and mention which versions work.
Check file size too. Payly accepts any file type, with each file up to 50 MB. If a package is larger, compress images, or split it into several files and attach them all to one product. If you have a very large download, consider whether it needs to be that big before you reach for a workaround.
A few habits help buyers: give files clear names, such as weekly-planner-letter.pdf, include a short "start here" page that explains how to use the product, and open every file yourself on a phone and a computer before you upload it.
How delivery works
Customers expect the file immediately after paying. In Payly, you attach the files to a product, choose the Digital / downloadable product type, and customers get download links once they have paid. There is no shipping charge on a digital product, and if a cart holds both a digital and a physical item, only the physical one is charged for shipping.
Customers receive the links in the order confirmation email, and they can also sign in to their account on your store, where each file appears under the paid order. Each link works for 7 days, and the account page gives a fresh link whenever the customer opens it. If you refund an order in Payly, the account page stops offering links for it. Be careful when you remove a file: removing it takes it away from every customer who already bought it, so upload a replacement if buyers should keep access. The steps are in Sell digital downloads.
Before you launch, place a test order in test mode. You will see the receipt email and the link exactly as a buyer does.
Pricing a digital product
Digital goods cost almost nothing to produce each time, so the price should reflect the value to the buyer and the time you spent making it, not a per-unit cost. A few ideas:
- Price against the problem solved. A budgeting template that saves someone an afternoon is worth more than its file size suggests.
- Offer a bundle of related files at a lower combined price. Buyers like a deal and your average order grows.
- Use a "compare-at" price to show a sale when you launch.
- Remember the fixed part of the processing fee: a $5 download pays proportionally more than a $50 one, which is a reason to bundle low-priced items.
How fees compare
With digital goods, platform fees matter more because your margin is high and the percentage comes straight out of it. Here is how a $10 download looks on different routes, using published US rates:
| Where you sell | Fees on a $10 sale | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Etsy | About $1.40 (14%) | 6.5% transaction fee, 3% + $0.25 payment processing, and a $0.20 listing fee. Etsy has its own shoppers. |
| Squarespace, Basic plan | 7% digital content fee plus processing | The fee falls to 5% on Core, 1% on Plus and 0% on Advanced, which cost more each month. |
| Payly with PayPal Checkout | About $0.84 (8.4%) | 3.49% + $0.49 processing, paid to PayPal. Payly adds nothing. |
| Payly with Stripe | About $0.59 (5.9%) | 2.9% + $0.30 processing, paid to Stripe. Payly adds nothing. |
On Squarespace, the plan price is separate too: Basic is $19 a month billed yearly or $25 billed monthly. For the Etsy row, the listing fee is charged when you list or renew, so the real cost per sale depends on how many sales each listing makes.
Etsy and similar marketplaces send shoppers to you, which can be worth the fees when you are starting out. Payly does not bring marketplace shoppers: it is your own store, so you bring the visitors. In return, Payly has no monthly fee, no transaction fee and no commission, and customers pay your own PayPal or Stripe account directly. See What does Payly cost?, or check PayPal's fees and Stripe's pricing.
Questions
Can customers share the download link?
Each link works for 7 days and the customer must sign in to get a new one. That limits casual sharing, but no system stops a determined person from sharing a file they have downloaded. Consider adding a short license note to the product description so buyers know what they may do with the file.
How much storage do I get?
Files and images share your store's storage. On Cloudflare's free plan that is 500 MB. The paid plan, $5 a month paid to Cloudflare, includes 5 GB.
Do I have to charge tax on downloads?
It depends on where you and your customer are, and rules differ. Check with your state tax agency or an accountant. Payly does not look up rates or file tax for you.
Prices as published by each company for the US in October 2026. Prices can change; check each company's own pricing page.
