A few weeks ago I posted a list of digital marketplace services that we musicians can utilize to sell our products, both digital and tangible. Well the great thing about the Internet and business nowadays, there are always more options out there. So today I’m going to go through a few more sales platforms that will help you get your goods up for sale quickly and easily.
1. Selz
Selz is a great full-featured sales platform for anyone wanting to sell digital content. Selz allows for files up to 4GB apiece so this is good news for anyone looking to sell video. One of the main selling points Selz claims is you can be up and selling in minutes. There is provided WordPress integration, and you also get a Facebook store and a standalone web store provided by Selz with each account. Your fans can check out previews of your audio and video products before they buy. You get unlimited bandwidth and storage, and there is no monthly fee. There is just a flat commission of 5% + $0.25 per sale. Similar to other platforms that charge monthly service fees, Selz also offers multiple ways to analyze your sales data without the extra charge. Selz is free for any digital goods you want to “sell” for free, and you can also set up a pay-what-you-want option for your products.
2. E-junkie
E-junkie is a oriented more as a shopping cart solution, providing you the ability to add Shopping Cart and Buy Now buttons for your products on your website, eBay, Craigslist, and other sites. They aid in selling both digital and tangible products, handling the file downloads for digital goods, and shipping and inventory costs calculations for the tangible products. Compared to some of the other solutions, E-junkie makes it easy to use , as they don’t require installing anything to get your goods out for sale. You simply set up your product in their system and get the button codes to paste into your site(s). Based on your plan you will have a certain storage limit for your digital files on their server. If you wish, you can instead choose to store the files on your own server. That is an option most of the other services do not offer. E-junkie offers multiple payment options for customers, name-your-price options, donations, and more.
Pricing for E-junkie plans starts at $5/month and goes up from there depending on file storage needs and if you want to store files on your own server. There is no transaction fee or any hidden fees. You just pay the flat rate for whichever plan you choose. Of course you will still have to pay transaction fees if you set it up to use a payment service like Paypal for your payment handling.
3. BlueSnap (formerly known as Plimus)
BlueSnap is definitely geared at the more “business-oriented” sellers as it offers a huge range of features aimed at expanding your online sales. They offer some of the most extensive payment options of any of these digital goods distribution services. You can also examine how well your products are selling with a wide selection of pre-made standard reports or create your own. They offer built-in piracy and copy protection options like a few of the other services do. Unlike some of the other services, BlueSnap offers a built-in newsletter feature for marketing to your customers. You can implement One-Click buying options, In-App purchase options (should you create your own mobile app), manage your promotions and licensing, and more all from within their service. Unfortunately, their site doesn’t provide information on exact pricing costs. They state their rates go as low as 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction, but that pricing may change based on your sales volume. When you go to sign up for their service, one question you have to answer is projected annual volume in USD. So depending on how much you expect to sell and actually sell is how much your pricing will be. If you have a lot of products to sell then BlueSnap may be your best option. Otherwise you may want to look elsewhere if you just have a handful of products to sell.
4. DPD
DPD is another service that offers a wide range of features but with a few that are not offered by many of the other services. Aimed at making it quick and easy to sell your digital products, DPD still offers you a lot of advanced features. Like other services, DPD lets you sell your goods on multiple sites but takes it a step further by letting you customize the setup for each site individually. You can customize your cart, checkout, and delivery pages with a WYSIWYG editor. You can even customize the emails it sends your customers. DPD is another service that sticks to a flat monthly fee with no per-sale transaction charges. In addition to selling standard digital goods, you can also sell keycodes, subscriptions, and physical products. Bandwidth and sales volume is unlimited and your monthly fee is based solely on how much storage space you need and how many products you wish to sell with plans going from $10/month to $130/month (though they do offer additional plan options that cost even more but are for those who will be selling in high volume). They offer a 30-day trial and if you don’t use the service then your account closes without you being charged.