The popularity of downloadable products has increased drastically, both globally and in Magento in particular. It is not a surprising fact, though. Such products as eBooks, music, videos, Magento 2 extensions, updates, or instruction manuals are being actively sold. They don’t require additional manufacturing or shipping, which is an advantage.
Together with other Magento product types, the platform allows you to create downloadable products with free samples. The process doesn’t differ much from that of a simple product. However, you have to configure the downloadable product options before creating a downloadable product.
But let’s sort everything out. Keep reading to learn how to create a downloadable product in Magento 2.
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What is a Magento Downloadable Product?
Magento downloadable product is a digital type of Magento product customers can download from your store. As mentioned above, E-books, manuals, and applications are the best examples of this product type.
When creating downloadable products, you have an extensive set of options to set and make everything fit your policies. Besides, Magento allows you to upload free samples to give your customers a glimpse of the product.
How to Create Downloadable Products in Magento 2?
1. Navigate to Catalog > Products and choose Downloadable Product from the Add Product dropdown.
2. Enable a downloadable product, and choose Downloadable as its Attribute Set.
Note: you can also choose the default attribute set provided by Magento. However, it is aimed at the physical kind of products, not the non-tangible ones.
3. Set the Product Name, and SKU, and specify the Price. For more extensive options, you can set up Advanced Pricing.
4. Set the Tax Class, Quantity, and Stock Status of the Magento 2 downloadable product.
Note: downloadable products are non-tangible, thus they have no Weight.
5. Set downloadable product Visibility in your store and assign it to a corresponding Category.
6. Set the Product as New From To date frame during which the product will be marked "New" or displayed in the New category if you have one in your store.
7. Write a Short and Long Description of the Magento downloadable product in the Content section to give customers more information about your item.
Note: when creating the downloadable product in Magento you don’t set any Configurations since there can’t be any for the product type in question.
8. Add Images and Videos.
9. Set the downloadable product URL key and Meta Information.
If you want to preview how your product page will look like in search results, and make sure metadata is optimized for SEO, use Magento 2 SEO Extension.
10. Set product recommendations in the Related Products, Up-Sells, and Cross-Sells section, to encourage your customers to explore the catalog.
e.g. selling an e-book you can offer customers to buy the second edition of the e-book or encourage them to buy a pick-pocket eBook device to carry on reading wherever they go.
11. Set the Customizable Options to allow customers to choose the exact product variation they want.
18. Set the Website the Magento 2 downloadable product will be displayed on.
19. Configure the Design and Design Update of a downloadable product.
20. Specify if you want to Allow Gift Messages in the Gift Options section.
21. Set up the Downloadable Information. Begin with the Links customers can download your product from.
- Give the link a Title.
- Upload a File and a Sample if you want customers to be able to view the examples of the products.
- Set the Sharable option to specify if you want to enable your customers to share the link.
- Set the Max. Downloads field to define how many times customers will be able to download the product after the first purchase.
Then, upload the Samples of the Magento 2 downloadable product to allow your customers to try them before buying.
Once you have filled in all the necessary information, don't forget to Save the product and go to the storefront to check it out.
This is just one way of creating downloadable products in Magento. It may seem a little complicated given how many steps there are. Yet, if the instructions are clear enough, you should manage to complete the task effortlessly.
But there is also an alternative. You can create downloadable products programmatically and optimize the process.
