If you’re trying to sell any digital products on your WordPress site but don’t want to use any complicated eCommerce plugin then there’s a simple way to do this. In this article, you’ll learn how to accept payments and sell digital products on your WordPress site without any ecommerce plugin.
Keep things simple!
So if you’re trying to avoid any complicated setup like installing eCommerce plugin, connecting it with Stripe, PayPal or any other such system and then managing/configuring it then you’ve come to the right place. In this article, you’ll learn how to keep things simple.
Selling digital products without ecommerce plugin in WordPress
This method that we’ll be discussing might/might not be suitable for everyone since there are different requirements for different users. This method is is also mostly suitable for selling digital products, subscriptions and pay what you want model. The pay what you want model allows customers/users to enter their own pricing when purchasing it.
So without any further talk, let’s get to the main point. The services that we’ll be using for this are Gumroad and Lemon Squeezy.
Both of them are an all-in-one platform that can help you sell your digital products and subscriptions. They’ll handle the ecommerce part, tax compliance, fraud prevention and much more so that you can focus on creating your product or subscription.
What you’d do is to first create an account with them by signing up, add your products along with details, images and the price that you want to sell and then you can get the link for that product. You can share that link on your social media or on your WordPress site. Let’s take a look at each of them in detail.
Lemon Squeezy
Both the platforms discussed above are much similar but there a few differences. One major difference is that Lemon Squeezy charges 5% + 50¢ for each sale, whereas Gumroad charges $10. There are no monthly or annual charges for both.
Lemon Squeezy is also a merchant of record, they handle the payment, tax compliance and also refund and chargebacks.
Some features of Lemon Squeezy are easily accept online payments, recurring billing/subscription, license key management, no-code checkout forms, upsells, discount codes and more.
Here’s how a checkout form looks like:
For payout, you can add your PayPal account details or bank account details (supported in selected countries) and their current threshold is $50. Once it reaches this amount, they’ll payout the amount as per their schedule.
Gumroad
Gumroad is also a good alternative, and in fact a much popular one. There are many solopreneurs who prefer selling their books, courses, subscriptions and digital products on Gumroad.
Gumroad is known for its simplicity, it will allow you to customize your storefront page, you can create simple memberships, setup subscriptions, and they’ll also collect VAT as required, and send it to EU.
They also have option to create discount coupon codes, generate license keys and sell multiple versions of your work (example, PDF, ePub or Mobi).
Sell services easily
Both these platforms allow you to not only sell digital products and subscriptions, but also services. For example, let’s say you’re good at creating Twitter header images or good at video editing. These platforms allow you to create it as a product and sell services also.
This would be one of the easiest way to sell your services and what’s more, you don’t even need a website!
How to link/embed Gumroad and Lemon Squeezy to WordPress
Now that you’ve created your product, it’s time to link it to WordPress site.
You’d basically get the checkout link and then link it on the site by creating a simple sales page, or on your blog posts/pages.
Another option is to create a button on the page and then link that button to the checkout URL.
Gutenberg editor allows you to add a simple button like below:
To add this button, just click on the + button from your editor, and then on “Button”.
You can then enter the text and the checkout URL.
Once the user clicks on it, they’ll be redirected to the respective product checkout page.
So that’s how you can create your own digital products, subscriptions and services and sell it online on social media, email, or even on your site. All you’d need is a service like Gumroad or Lemon Squeezy, create your product, get the link and share it with the world!
Hope this article will help you in accepting payment and selling digital product without using any ecommerce plugin on your WordPress site.