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Can I offer free demos of Digital Products in my store?
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Mail Bag


Answering Your Questions Since... 9:30am

Joined: 28 Aug 2005
Posts: 147


PostPosted: Sep 24, 2006 07:56pm    Post subject: Can I offer free demos of Digital Products in my store? Reply with quote

Quote:
Can I offer free demos of Digital Products in my store?

There are several options that you may choose from that will allow your store to offer free "demo" downloads. These options are listed below.

1. Direct Link
In your HTML template, or the product's long or short description fields, create a hyperlink directly to the demo file. This would be the simplest way to offer free product demos. Basically, this creates a link in your store that downloads the demo file. While quick and easy, there the file's source URL is made known to the user in this process, allowing them to potentially distribute this URL or figure out the links to download other demo files.


2. Custom "Secure Link" Script
We've developed a custom script that enables you to include a link to a demo download, but prevent the download's source URL from being displayed to the user. Using this script is as simple as uploading your files to a specific directory on your website, and adding two lines of custom code to the product in your store's Product Editor. (The custom code is provided by Modular Merchant.) The setup and installation of the "Secure Link" script requires an average of 1.75 hours of custom programming time. If interested in installing the "Secure Link" script in your shopping cart, contact Modular Merchant for more details.


3. $0.00 Product
The demo file could be set up as an actual product in your store, but with a price of $0.00. This would allow the customer to add the free demo product to their basket and check out to "purchase" it. However, depending on the way in which your store is configured, the customer may still need to supply a credit card number for validation during the checkout process.


4. Free Promotional Item
Another option would be to use Modular Merchant's Promotions & Giveaways module to create a rule to give the demo product away for free. This would allow the demo product to be automatically added to the customer's basket when certain criteria is met, such as the purchase of a specific product or an order of a certain dollar value.


5. Manual Distribution
Finally, another way to offer free demo of a digital product to a customer is to manually create a free order for them. The Digital Delivery module includes a tool to quickly create these free "gratis" orders. This tool is located in your store's Administration area at: Admin Home > Modules > Digital Product Module> Create a Gratis Digital Product Order. This allows you to select any number of digital products and send an email to the customer for them to download the files from your store's built-in secure download area.
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Last edited by Mail Bag on Nov 24, 2008 11:53am; edited 1 time in total

musicnuvo




Joined: 08 Mar 2007
Posts: 1


PostPosted: Mar 08, 2007 12:58pm    Post subject: Transaction Fees for Free Products Reply with quote

Previously you stated that we could offer free digital products in the store by setting the price to $0.00 - I would prefer this as it would allow me to track which customers are downloading the product through their account history.

However, assuming my store is set to automatically process credit-cards (and let's say I use Authorize.net as a gateway), will the gateway still charge me a transaction fee for each free product "ordered"?

If so, is there any way around this on a one off product basis while still tracking the free download through the account history?

dseaton


Modular Merchant: Support

Joined: 27 Feb 2007
Posts: 8


PostPosted: Mar 27, 2007 02:26pm    Post subject: re: Transaction Fees for Free Products Reply with quote

Hello,

If you set the price for $0.00, and you have a Payment Gateway set up, then your Payment Gateway will still charge you a small transaction fee.

Another possibility is to issue the customer(s) a coupon instead. When a coupon covers the entire price of the order, inputting a credit card is not required.

If you need further elaboration on how to complete this task, please respond to this post or contact us.

I hope this information was useful.

David Seaton
Modular Merchant Support
dseaton@modularmerchant.com
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