In recent years, the popularity of digital products both as a form of content marketing and as products to be purchased has grown immensely. This isn’t exactly shocking, as intangible assets offer numerous advantages for consumers and businesses alike!
To start, these items don’t require the purchase of any physical materials to create, allowing sellers to focus their funds on other areas of managing their business. What’s more, there’s no need to ship digital products, which means that shoppers have access to their purchases right away. It’s also super simple to begin and then scale your business, as fulfilling 1,000 orders/day doesn’t take that much more work than fulfilling 10 orders/day.
If you’re considering launching your own ecommerce website selling digital products exclusively or in conjunction with physical goods to boost your income, it can be difficult to determine what specific digital product or products you should be selling to your target audience.
To help spark your creativity and better inform your decisions, keep reading to discover what some of the top digital products are today!
What are digital products?
Before we start to get into what digital products are most in demand, let’s first define what they are.
To put it simply, digital products are intangible goods that can be sold repeatedly on the internet. While physical products can be held in the hand, digital products exist solely in a digital form. However, with some kinds of intangible items, such as an ebook, it’s possible to transform a product into a physical version by printing it out.
Is selling digital products worth it?
Selling digital products online offers numerous advantages for entrepreneurs and businesses.
To start, items such as ebooks, software, music, and courses have minimal overhead costs since they don’t require physical materials or storage space for tangible stock. This can significantly increase profit margins.
Digital products also allow for instant delivery to customers worldwide, providing a global reach without the logistical complexities and costs associated with shipping physical goods.
Furthermore, they can be sold repeatedly without depleting inventory, creating an opportunity for passive income. They can also be easily updated and adapted to meet changing market demands or customer feedback without the need for physical recalls or modifications.
Another key advantage of opting to sell digital products is the ability to automate sales and delivery processes using online platforms and software, which minimizes manual involvement and streamlines operations. This efficiency not only enhances customer satisfaction with quick access but also allows sellers to scale their businesses more effectively.
However, selling digital products online also presents unique challenges like securing digital content against piracy and ensuring delivery systems are reliable. Customer trust can be difficult to build without photos or videos of a physical product.
To manage these challenges, implement robust security measures such as encryption, security tools, and secure delivery platforms. In addition, offering free samples or limited-time trials can help build trust and allow customers to evaluate your products.
Regularly updating your digital content and maintaining active customer support can also enhance credibility and encourage repeat business, helping to navigate the competitive landscape of digital sales effectively.
Popular items: What digital goods are in high demand right now?
Nowadays, you as an entrepreneur have a wide range of possibilities at your fingertips when it comes to online business ideas. While this list of digital products to sell on the web is by no means exhaustive, it can serve as a helpful source of inspiration for beginning.
In no particular order, here are 15 of the most popular digital products that you might want to consider offering on your own ecommerce website!
1. Ebooks
Ebooks are one of the most prevalent digital products that you will find online today. According to Statista, worldwide revenue from ebooks is expected to reach 14.61 billion U.S. dollars in 2024, with an expected growth that amounts to worldwide revenue of around 15.3 billion U.S. dollars by 2027.
The popularity of ebooks with creators and users alike comes down to several key factors.
Because ebooks only require written content and several high-quality images, they’re relatively simple to make. In addition, although you can opt to use a third-party marketplace to publish and sell your ebook, it’s not a necessity…you can alternatively easily create your own ecommerce store to get your creation out into the world.
Furthermore, an ebook can be written about practically anything imaginable! As long as you’re knowledgeable and passionate about a topic, you can write an ebook about it. And if writing’s not your strong suit, you can even work with a professional content creator to translate your ideas and knowledge into simple-to-understand text that resonates with your audience.
This digital product’s flexibility also extends to the methods customers can use to read it. E-readers, tablets, laptop or desktop computers, and mobile phones—all are viable options for consuming ebook content!
While an ebook is a great intangible product to sell online, keep in mind that you can also use it as an effective form of content marketing. For instance, our WiziShop ecommerce solution has created an ebook centered on SEO for ecommerce, featuring helpful advice from some of the top SEO experts around the world. Access to the ebook is completely free, and users only need to provide their email address in order to check it out!
2. Online courses
These days, if people want to learn a new skill or develop knowledge in a specific area, they don’t necessarily need to attend a brick-and-mortar location for education.
With significant advances in technology and, let’s be honest, the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, e-learning has grown immensely in recent years. If you’re considering launching your own online course as a non-physical product to sell, it’s an excellent time to do so!
Similar to other types of digital products, an online course may be the only thing your business sells, or they can be used to complement the physical products that you offer. For example, if your ecommerce store features tangible goods that are particularly complicated to use, you might create an online course dedicated to helping your customers learn how to make the most of your products.
Depending on your level of knowledge and experience and your goals, you might opt to create the e-learning digital products you'll be selling in the form of a single online course, a series of courses, or even a subscription offering in which users can pay to have access to courses that you create on a regular basis, e.g., monthly courses. In addition, you have various options concerning the format for your course, such as audio, text, and/or video. Whichever format you choose should be based on your budget, skills, and needs of your target market.
Note that goods involving e-learning can take a lot more time and effort to make than other intangible items. Nevertheless, if you have loads of expertise in a specific area, creating an online course to share that knowledge can be very profitable for your business!
3. Digital art/graphics
If creating art is your passion, note that one way to use your artistic skills in ecommerce is to create digital art and/or graphics to sell as digital products. Consider thinking about how you might be able to apply your creativity in practical ways that may benefit other businesses and entrepreneurs.
For example, with an increasing number of people launching their own businesses and new startups being created every day, there’s a pretty big demand for custom logos. If you’re already skilled in this kind of digital art, it will be a fairly easy transition from creating amazing designs as a hobby to selling them online.
Although there are several great options available today for creating free logos, there’s nothing like getting one custom made by somebody who’s super proficient in graphic design. For this reason, many people are willing to pay for a high-quality unique logo that perfectly corresponds to their brand.
4. Software as a service (SaaS)
As people use computers and mobile devices on a daily basis, it’s not surprising that the software industry is already enormous. What’s more, its growth doesn’t appear to be slowing down anytime soon!
Consumers and businesses are constantly looking for new ways to make their lives easier. If you’re able to write code and create a SaaS product that allows users to perform an action more efficiently or more enjoyably, there’s a good chance that you can earn a profit from it.
Although developing a SaaS product can take a lot of time and/or money, the resulting product could be quite financially rewarding, especially if it provides consumers with a solution to a significant problem.
Keep in mind that a good strategy for helping you to make your first online sale when it comes to selling any kind of software is to offer users a free trial. This can be really helpful for building trust and confidence in your brand. Once these users see how wonderful your product is, they will want to purchase it for full access and may even tell their friends and family about it too. That’s free marketing for you!
5. Mobile apps
In many areas of the world, smartphones are ubiquitous. Whether you’re on the subway, jogging in the park, or sipping coffee in your favorite café, it's likely that there will be somebody there focused on their phone…maybe even you!
It’s no wonder then that the popularity of mobile apps has skyrocketed in recent years. Statista notes that the number of mobile apps downloaded globally grew from 140.7 billion in 2016 to 230 billion in 2021, representing an increase of 63% in just 5 years.
If app development is a particular interest of yours, why not take advantage of this booming market and create an amazing new app to sell online?
Just like with SaaS products, launching an app can be a time-intensive process. You will need to do plenty of research to find the right niche product and determine how to make your creation stand out. Regardless if your app centers on fitness, nutrition, skin care, astrology, sleep, or something completely different, it will be essential that your product has features or tools that no other app on the market already includes.
Duolingo, for instance, is one of the most popular language-learning apps around the world and is especially known for its extensive variety of languages and features that users can enjoy even in the app’s free version.
6. Photography
Consider how often you see photography used everyday…in blog posts, social media platforms, ads, product pages, presentations, packaging, clothing, etc. If you already have some pretty great skills behind the lens, selling your photos may be a worthwhile venture!
Although you’re bound to come up against quite a bit of competition if you opt to sell your photography online, the good news is that there are numerous paths to take with this kind of digital product. You might, for instance, take photos that people can add as their website or phone backgrounds, portrait photos, photos for special events, or stock photos that can be used in a wide variety of ways.
Unfortunately for photographers, the vast amount of competition present means that it can be difficult to sell their images for a high price. However, if your photos are of excellent quality and you price them competitively, it’s still very possible to have a successful business with this digital product. If you find that your online store isn’t selling like you’d hoped, you can also re-evaluate your pricing for your images and adjust as needed.
Because there are so many people selling photos online, it’s especially crucial that you decide on a specific niche for your photography and always think about your target market when deciding what kinds of photos to take.
In addition, it’s important that you have a top-notch website that showcases your work in the best light possible to entice potential customers. This can help to not only get people in your audience to buy the photos that you’ve already taken but also to attract clients who may want to commission you to create custom images for a specific project.
7. Video
With consumers’ increasing demand for video content from brands in everything from social media platforms, blog posts, product pages, and more, high-quality video is one of the most popular digital products purchased by businesses and individuals alike!
For many people, video offers a far more fun way to consume information than via text, making it one of the top types of content online in terms of engagement. Whether you opt to create videos that are educational, entertaining, informational, or a combination of the three, you’ll find that shoppers are often happy to pay for video content when it’s high quality.
Furthermore, there are numerous kinds of videos that you can create and sell on the web, such as stock footage, drone footage, short films, tutorials, webinars, reviews, etc. Note that when planning your videos to sell online, you’ll need to take into account not only the time required to brainstorm and film a video but also the time to edit it, which can be a rather lengthy process.
8. Podcasts
If you’re passionate about a certain topic and enjoy talking about it, creating a podcast may be a profitable business venture for you!
Podcasts are a hit with consumers around the world, with a large portion of their popularity attributed to their ease of accessibility and the wide range of topics available. What’s more, with audio downloads, people can listen to podcasts at home, during break times at work, and even on the go.
This is another digital product that offers a lot of flexibility. You can create a podcast on any subject matter and can start it any time with the right equipment for audio recording. In addition, you can choose to host your podcast either alone or with another person, depending on what best suits your individual needs and budget.
Many brands launch podcasts as a form of audio content marketing to share their knowledge with their target audience and boost authority and awareness, often then converting listeners into customers who buy their products or services. While a podcast does take some work to prepare, it’s an effective way to reach a large number of people.
However, don't forget that your audience will likely be able to find podcasts to listen to for free, so it might be difficult to convince consumers that yours is worth buying. To help you in your efforts to sell your podcast, you will want to be sure that you’re offering the best content possible—premium content that your potential customers can’t find anywhere else. You also might opt to create a free version to pique people’s curiosity and then have the paid version you sell go much more in depth!
9. Templates
Staring at a blank page or screen when you’re in the midst of trying to write or create something can be incredibly intimidating. When you don’t know where to start, having a framework that you can build from will often be just what you need to launch your project. For this reason, templates tend to do quite well as a digital product sold online.
When selling templates you’ll have the added benefit of there being lots of freedom concerning the types of templates that are in demand with consumers today. For instance, you can design templates for CVs and resumes, social media posts, websites, email marketing, presentations, business proposals, spreadsheets, and much more, all available as digital downloads to suit the specific needs of your target audience.
10. Music/sound effects
Do you love to sing, play the piano, strum the guitar, or create any other kind of music? If so, perhaps selling melodic creations online is right for you!
The global appreciation for music makes it one of the best digital products to sell online today. People often listen to music to relax, focus, or get inspired, but there’s also a significant demand from both businesses and individuals for original music to use in their own work, e.g., films, ads, social media content, etc.
Music libraries like Tracklib shown below make it easy for music producers of all experience levels to access a wide range of music samples as digital downloads in one place.
If you’re considering selling this kind of digital product on the internet, note that there are numerous ways to do so. Here are several options that may be appealing to you as an artist, songwriter, and/or producer:
- Licenses: Grant people copyright-free access to your original tracks or sound effects to use as they wish for their own creations.
- Downloadable tracks: Generally best if your music is already well known to your audience, this option allows shoppers to buy individual songs or entire albums for non-commercial use.
- Sheet music: If people are interested in learning how to play your songs, selling sheet music for your tracks is an easy way to earn some extra income.
11. Planners
Handy for both business and personal use, planners serve to help users organize their tasks and schedules in order to better achieve their goals. Digital planners are especially useful for people who spend much of their days in front of a screen, be it a computer or mobile device. They allow users to easily keep track of the tasks required to complete either a short-term or long-term project throughout the day.
This digital product works well for nearly any kind of niche: novel writing, fitness, home or office organization, pet training, nutrition, education…you name it!
Depending on your target market’s needs, you can create premade digital planners that shoppers can purchase and view immediately or customize them to suit your customers’ unique objectives. For added flexibility, you can also give shoppers the option to print out their planners once they receive the digital file if they prefer a paper option.
12. Fonts
Although fonts may not be the first item that you think of when you’re considering what digital products to sell online, they’re actually one of the best-selling intangible goods today.
With design trends and consumer preferences always changing, brands and content creators feel the pressure to stay up to date on everything from their products and packaging to their social media posts and website. And guess what? All of the above usually require the use of fonts in one way or another!
Fonts can come in all kinds of different styles, so understanding your target market is key to knowing what types of fonts are going to be the most advantageous for you to design when brainstorming for this type of product. Once you have an idea in mind, you can create your font with the help of tools and software such as Adobe Illustrator, FontLab Studio, BirdFont, FontStruct, Fontself, and others.
13. Professional services
While technically not products, professional services can be sold just like digital products on an ecommerce platform. In the eyes of online shoppers, there’s often not a huge difference between purchasing a professional service and a digital product on the internet either. In fact, many of the digital products in the list can involve a professional service.
Need an example?
Say that you’re a photographer and sell your photos as digital files online. If a customer simply purchases your photo from a stock image bank, the customer is purchasing a product. However, if you offer a tailored service in which the customer pays you to provide custom photos, that’s what’s known as a “productized service.”
Some of the common productized services that you’ll find on the web today include consulting, coaching, social media managing, web designing, copywriting, virtual assisting, translating, etc.
You can choose to offer your service for a fixed price, where you set the price of your service beforehand, or price your service on a case-by-case basis, where you provide the customer with a quote, and both of you agree on the final cost before getting started.
14. Subscriptions
One way to secure recurring revenue with your digital product offerings is to create a membership website. Your customers would then purchase subscriptions to be able to have access to the exclusive content on your website, with new content being shared regularly.
The content shared on membership sites can involve nearly any topic, but keep in mind that it generally serves to educate users. Although you can offer members access for or any length of time, typical options are monthly, quarterly, or annual subscriptions. However, if you plan on creating high-quality content for a while into the future, you might even consider giving people the option to purchase a lifetime membership for a higher price.
This strategy can be particularly profitable if you already have a large following on social media and/or well known in your industry.
For example, Kayla Itsines, an Australian personal trainer, author, and entrepreneur, first grew to fame on Instagram, sharing her clients’ before-and-after-photos to highlight their progress using her strategies for fitness and nutrition. She now has 14.6 million followers on the platform and has authored a series of fitness ebooks and created Sweat with Kayla, a meal-planning and workout app with several subscription tiers, as shown in the below image.
15. Craft patterns
With more and more people turning to crafting either as a hobby or as a way to launch their own ecommerce business selling crafts online, there’s definitely an increase in demand for patterns to aid them in realizing their DIY undertakings.
While crafting itself is an enjoyable activity for many individuals, making the patterns for their projects is often what they look forward to doing the least. Creating a pattern frequently involves different skills than creating the actual craft, and depending on the complexity of the project, it can be a very time-consuming task.
For this reason, many crafters are happy to buy ready-made, easy-to-download printable patterns on the internet. These digital product downloads allow them to cut out the most tedious step of crafting and head straight to the parts that they enjoy doing.
No matter what type of craft patterns you want to begin making to sell, be it for crocheting, knitting, sewing, or another activity, ensure that you do test prints of your creations before you start to sell them to shoppers online. It's crucial to verify that the printed version resembles your vision.
How can you boost your chances of success when you start selling digital products online?
Regardless if you're completely new to ecommerce or simply want to begin selling intangible goods in addition to the physical products you currently offer via your online store, here are a few tips to help you succeed.
Identify your niche
Choose a specific area that aligns with your interests and expertise. Whether it’s ebooks, software, courses, or graphic designs, a focused niche can attract a targeted audience.
Look for a market with a strong demand but not oversaturated with competitors. Analyze potential profitability and consider your ability to produce unique and valuable content consistently within that niche.
Create high-quality products
Although intangible goods generally require fewer resources to create than physical items, you will have to spend some time at the start when you begin making the original digital product to ensure that it's something your audience will actually want to buy!
Any digital goods you wish to sell online should be professionally crafted, offer real value, and meet the needs of your target market.
Set up your selling platform
Setting up your selling platform for digital products involves choosing between online marketplaces or creating your own ecommerce website.
Marketplace platforms like Etsy offer built-in traffic and ease of use but often come with fees and competition. So where can you sell digital products other than Etsy if you're looking to bolster your bottom line? Having your own store offers more control over branding and customer experience but requires more effort in marketing and maintenance to attract and retain customers.
Optimize your product descriptions
When it comes to the product descriptions for your digital downloads, it's best to focus on clarity and appeal. Clearly articulate the benefits and features of your digital products. Be sure to also use engaging, SEO-friendly descriptions to improve visibility on search engines.
Remember that it's important to be concise yet descriptive, explaining how the product solves problems or enhances the user’s experience. You might opt to use bullet points for easy reading and include any testimonials or reviews to build trust and credibility.
Offer free samples
Think about providing a snippet, trial version, or free module to give potential customers a taste of what they’re buying, which can help mitigate the hesitation associated with digital purchases.
This can strengthen trust, increase customer satisfaction, and often lead to higher conversion rates and more positive reviews!
Accept preorders
Accepting preorders at a discounted price for digital products can generate early buzz and secure sales before launch, providing initial cash flow.
It also helps gauge customer interest and collect feedback, enabling fine-tuning of the final product to better meet consumer expectations and enhance satisfaction.
Implement strong security
Despite the many advantages of selling digital products online, one of the drawbacks is that you'll face the possibility of unauthorized access and piracy with these types of goods.
It's therefore crucial that you use reliable digital rights management (DRM) to protect your products from piracy and unauthorized distribution, enhancing consumer confidence. Robust security measures ensure that your intellectual property remains safe and that customers’ personal and payment information is secure, building trust and maintaining your reputation as a reliable seller.
Market your digital products
To spread the word about your new digital products, it's best to employ a mix of strategies to appeal to potential customers in your audience. Each channel can help you reach different segments of your audience, boosting visibility and sales.
For instance, you can utilize social media platforms to engage with potential customers and share valuable content; leverage email marketing to nurture leads and announce new products. You'll also want to optimize your website for SEO to attract organic traffic and take advantage of email marketing for an excellent return on investment.
If your budget allows, you can avail of paid advertising for targeted reach. Don't forget to also encourage word-of-mouth through customer reviews and referrals.
Collect and leverage feedback
No matter how much time and effort you put into making your non-physical items, it's likely that you'll need to make changes to your creations down the road at some point.
By actively seeking customer feedback via email marketing or social media platforms after you've made your digital downloads available, you can use it to refine and improve your product offerings. What's more, customer reviews can serve as social proof to prospective buyers.
Digital products: Another path to becoming successful in ecommerce!
With the many advancements in technology, growing concern for the environment, and increasing desire for convenience, our world is becoming progressively digital. Although tangible goods are still very profitable when it comes to online sales and unlikely to ever become obsolete, digital products offer an alternative way to achieve success in ecommerce and increase your income.
Use this list of some of the most popular digital products to sell to help inspire you as you brainstorm ideas for your future online store. Then, once you have a stellar idea (or ideas) in mind, you’ll want to be sure to choose an excellent ecommerce platform to launch your business and sell your digital products.
The WiziShop solution makes it easier than ever to get started as an ecommerce entrepreneur with a plethora of tools and services available from the moment you sign up.
With over 400 amazing tools and features to assist with your marketing efforts and get more conversions, access to our professional team of Business Coaches, complimentary training on a wide range of ecommerce topics, 50+ tools to boost your online store’s technical SEO, and more, WiziShop is an all-in-one platform that’s dedicated to your success.
In addition, the platform offers a revolutionary AI tool to aid in writing all kinds of text content for your site, including product descriptions, translations, blog posts, and more!
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Sign up today for a 7-day free trial and see for yourself just how great WiziShop, the best platform for selling digital products and physical products alike, really is!
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