Digital Variation and Multiple Downloads

[jaylat]

Love the plugin, please put his under the “it would be great if…” category.

I sell digital files in pdf or jpeg form. I’d like to give customers a chance to choose the digital variation AFTER they have made their purchase. Can this be done using the “Multiple Downloads” option?

I’d rather not use the “Digital Variation” option as it changes the “Add to cart” button so that all of my carefully-prepared product description posts get messed up. A lot of my buyers are foreign, so this may be confusing to them as well. Also, I don’t like the idea of forcing a customer to make an extra click before he can add a purchase to the cart. The fewer clicks, the more sales you get.

If I add multiple download links the customer can click on one or the other links after purchase, but there’s no way they will know which one to click on. (I guess I could tell them in the email / checkout page script, but this might be confusing. It’s much better to have a simple list saying click here for (1) PDF file: and (2) JPG file).

The other option I suppose is to add new product ID numbers for each product, but I now have dozens of products, and besides it will muck up the reporting, basically doubling the number of product sales.

So… is there a way to input a brief description before each file in the “Multiple Downloads” option?

[admin]

Nope, the variation must be selected before the payment because some people charge different money for different variation and that can only work if it is selected before making the payment.

[jaylat]

Thanks for the quick reply, but that’s not quite what I meant. I realize that you need the option to choose the variation before the payment. What I’m saying is that this is not optimal for those who offer multiple formats at the same price. Especially in comics (my product) there are numerous formats that will likely only increase over time. I think a lot of sellers would like to be able to offer the options to buyers after payment, in order to streamline the buying process.

For example, I’d like to give the buyer the option to download multiple formats if he chooses. What I don’t want is for him to hesitate to buy as he tries to decide between PDF and JPEG. And I don’t want to automatically give every buyer both formats as it will double the download size.

It seems the easy fix at this stage is to just add a note to the download page that says “Click on the first link for PDF and the second for JPG.” But again, this is kind of clunky and confusing.

BTW this is a feature I’d be willing to pay extra for. You might want to consider it as an add-on?

[cflyrun]

Me too, getting ready to launch my first instructional video with eStore, and giving customers the option to download multiple formats would be GREAT.

[wzp]

@jaylat and @cflyrun,

Here is one way to do it; try it and see if it meets your needs…

1. Create a download page, for the product, containing eStore Download Now buttons for each variation.

2. Using the new Authenticated Page Redirect (APR) feature, enclose the Download Now buttons inside APR short codes. This has the effect of turning the entire download page into a digital product:

http://www.tipsandtricks-hq.com/ecommerce/using-wordpress-permalinks-as-digital-products-apr-1217

3. What you are selling is access to the download page. Buyers get encrypted link to the APR protected download page, and then select the variation of their choice.

[cflyrun]

Hey, I think this is going to be PERFECT!!! I had no idea about the new feature.

How come it is that every time I come here to the forums looking for a solution, not only is the solution THERE, but it’s in an update to the store? Tongue in cheek, of course, as I love that the solution to almost all of my problems is that I just need the most updated version

[wzp]

[jaylat]

Thanks very much! However, it still requires adding an extra product code for each variation, right? That’s what I was trying to avoid doing for my 30+ products.

In that case, I think the same thing can be accomplished without the APR feature. Just add additional products for each variation, noting the format in the product name, and then combine them as multiple downloads. That way the buyer will see:

ABC Book (PDF version): link1

ABC Book (JPG version): link2

That should work just as well, I think?

[wzp]

I “think” what you are asking about is…

Using the “bundled product” approach, and then selling all the formats as one bundle. Then, what the buyer receives is a set of links to each format. That works too.

[jaylat]

Yes, “bundled products” was what I meant.

[wzp]

It should work.

[Author]

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