Sell digital products

Sell files such as e-books, guides, and templates. Buyers get a private download link by email after they pay, and you manage each delivery from the order.

Use digital products to sell files, such as e-books, PDF guides, templates, and other downloads. Nothing ships. After a buyer pays, Runner emails them a private link to a delivery page on your storefront, where they download the files within the limits you set.

How it works

1. Create a Digital product. Choose Digital as the product type. Digital products have no shipping and no stock count.
2. Add benefits. A benefit is what the buyer receives, such as a set of files. Benefits are reusable across every product in your store.
3. Write the delivery email. Runner sends it once payment is captured.
4. Publish. Runner checks that every benefit has a ready file and that store email is on.
5. Manage deliveries on the order. Resend the email, revoke or re-grant access, and decide what happens to access after a refund.

Before you start

Entry path: Workspace → choose a store → Store Operations → Products

If Digital is not in the Product Type list, digital products are not yet enabled for your account. Contact Runner support to request access. If the product form says Your store needs an update before it can sell digital products., your store runs an older version; contact support to update it.

You need:

• a published store, because buyers open their purchase on your storefront;
• store email turned on under Project → Apps → Run your store → Email while the delivery email is on (see Enable store email); and
• a payment provider, so buyers can pay. See Stripe payments.

1. Create a digital product

1. Open Store Operations → Products and select Add.
2. In Product Type, choose Digital.
3. Enter the name, description, images, and price as you would for any product.

A digital product has no shipping section, and its stock is not tracked: the product list shows - under Inventory. Shoppers who buy only digital products check out without a shipping step.

2. Add benefits

The Benefits section lists what buyers receive. Buyers get every benefit on the list.

Create a benefit

1. Select Create benefit.
2. Enter a Name, such as “Field guide files”. Buyers see it on the delivery page and in the email.
3. Drop files on Drop files here, or select Browse files. A benefit holds up to 20 files, 5 GB each. Files stay private: buyers download them only through their link.
4. Under Access rules, choose:
   • Limit downloads and the Downloads per item. A failed download can be retried within 15 minutes without using another download.
   • Link expires and how long the Link works for, in hours or days. A resend gives the buyer a fresh link.
5. Select Create to start uploading the files. Keep the dialog open until the uploads finish and the benefit appears in the product’s Benefits list.

To reuse a benefit you already made, select Add existing benefit. Drag benefits, or use Move up and Move down, to set the order buyers see. A digital product keeps at least one benefit.

Choose a benefit type

When you create a benefit, choose its Type. You can’t change it later.

If Type shows only File downloads, your store runs an older version; contact Runner support to update it.

Single-use codes or links

1. In Add codes or links, paste one code or link per line, up to 10,000 at a time. Repeats are skipped, and every value is stored encrypted.
2. The benefit shows how many values are Ready to sell and how many are Sold or held for orders, and warns you when only a few are left. When the list is empty, the product shows as sold out and checkout refuses it.
3. Each unit a buyer pays for gets its own value, which the buyer reveals on their delivery page.
4. To take back a value nobody has bought, remove it from Unused values.

On the order, the Digital delivery card shows the end of each value and whether the buyer revealed it. Select Reveal to see the whole value, or Copy to copy it.

Shared invite link

Enter the Invite link, starting with https:// or http://. Every buyer gets the same link, so set its expiry where the link lives, such as in your community’s settings. The order card shows whether the buyer opened it.

Note

Write the note in Private note, then choose its Visibility:

• Visible: buyers see it after purchase, on the order confirmation and their delivery page.
• Hidden: granted on purchase but never shown to the buyer, for example to tag orders you fulfil yourself.

A published product keeps at least one benefit buyers see, so you can’t hide its only visible note. You can’t hide a note that a product’s delivery email names either: remove it from the email first. Hidden notes have no email variables.

Pause a benefit

Turn off the switch next to a benefit to pause it for every buyer of every product that uses it. Buyers can’t download it until you turn it back on. New purchases wait, and their email goes out once you turn the benefit back on.

Change files later

You can add files to a benefit at any time; existing buyers see them on their delivery page. Removing a file removes it for every buyer. A benefit that products sell keeps at least one file: add another file first, or remove the benefit from those products.

3. Write the delivery email

The Delivery email section controls the message buyers get once payment is captured.

Select Preview to see the email for a sample order. The editor refuses a variable it doesn’t know.

Under Advanced settings:

• Customers can resend the email lets buyers send it again from their delivery page, up to 3 times a day, to the order’s email address.
• Resend automatically on a temporary bounce retries once after 30 minutes with the same link.

4. Publish

Set Status to Published and save. If something is missing, Runner saves the product as a draft and shows This product can’t be published yet with what to fix:

What buyers get

1. The buyer checks out. A cart with only digital products has no shipping step.
2. Once payment is captured, Runner emails the buyer a link to their delivery page on your storefront. The order confirmation page also shows the purchase for 24 hours.
3. On the delivery page, the buyer downloads each file. Every download counts against the limit, and the link stops working when it expires or when you send a newer one.
4. If you allow it, the buyer can ask for the email again from the delivery page.

Manage deliveries on an order

Open Store Operations → Orders and select an order. The Digital delivery card shows each benefit with its state, Downloads used, Link expires, and Last activity.

Use the actions on the card:

• Resend emails a new link, optionally to a corrected address. Earlier links stop working, and used-up downloads are restored.
• Revoke stops new downloads for one benefit or the whole order. A download link issued in the last minute can still finish.
• Re-grant restores revoked access with a fresh download allowance and emails a new link.

Delivery history lists every email and its result, and Journey lists every event, such as Email opened, Delivery page opened, and Downloaded. Select Export CSV to download the journey.

To find orders that need you, turn on the Needs attention filter on the order list. It shows failed deliveries and refunds without an access decision.

Refunds

When you refund an order with digital items, choose Keep the buyer’s access or Revoke the buyer’s access in the refund dialog. A refund made elsewhere, such as in your payment provider’s dashboard, shows on the card that the order was refunded and access is still active, with Keep access and Revoke access, so you can decide later.

Create a digital product in chat

You can also ask Runner in chat. Attach the files to your message and describe the product, for example “Sell this PDF as a $12 e-book”. Runner creates a draft product with a benefit for the files and drafts the delivery email. It stops where only you can act, for example when store email is off. Review the draft in Products before you publish.

Files attached in chat are limited to what chat accepts: documents up to 10 MB and images up to 32 MB. Upload larger files in the product form.

Troubleshooting