The content creation and e-commerce industries offer lucrative profits for their owners because they rely on simple, accessible methods for everyone.  In a previous article on our blog, we wrote about how to start your e-commerce business without capital and the profit opportunities you can achieve, starting from affiliate marketing strategies to e-commerce, dropshipping, and how to create and sell a digital product.

Salla: The Future of E-Commerce, An Easy Platform to Start Your Business

What Are Digital Products?

Before asking yourself how to create a product and how to market a product, it might be worth defining digital products. They are intangible products that provide diverse, useful solutions to users, whether they are entrepreneurs or learners.

The biggest advantage? You do not need to reproduce them every time.  In other words, production costs do not increase with higher demand.
You create them once, which is why their production cost is low.

Types of digital products include: educational courses, various subscription and music services, mobile applications, computer software, all kinds of videos and media, and digital gift cards for your store.

Advantages of Selling Digital Products

Before learning how to create a digital product, several advantages make choosing to sell digital products a preferred route for promoting products online:

* Low Investment, (Potentially) High Returns

Online marketplaces and e-commerce tools are relatively inexpensive compared to renting a physical location or stocking physical inventory. This translates to the potential for higher profit margins.

*More Profitable Than Physical Goods

Digital products are sold at higher profit margins than physical products. This margin improves over time because you don't need to spend any money producing additional units.

* No Inventory, Shipping, or Rent Hassles

In addition to not having to cover the cost of producing, storing, or shipping physical items, you also avoid logistical complications. We will mention shortly the shipping services that Salla offers, which you can utilize to eliminate this hassle.

*Continuous Cash Flow Even When Busy

If you already have a day job that keeps you busy, the digital products you sell online can keep money flowing in even if you spend most of your week at your full-time job.

Inspiring Ideas to Help You Determine How to Create a Digital Product:

Online Educational Products.

Gone are the days of having to sit in a classroom to learn something new. With e-learning platforms like Coursera and Skillshare just a few clicks away, learning something new is now easier than ever, wherever and whenever you want.

So, if you have a unique skill or a passion you want to share with the world, this is the perfect opportunity to turn your knowledge into an online business. Try hosting monthly webinars, downloadable tutorials, or an online training course.

According to Statista, the number of monthly podcast listeners is expected to reach 164 million by 2024, and the number of readers in the digital publishing sector is projected to hit 1,632.6 million in 2025. Thanks to mobile apps like Spotify, Audible, Amazon Kindle, and Scribd, hosting your own podcast or self-publishing your book is accessible to almost anyone.

Music and Art.

Do you have an artistic side? You might already be monetizing your talents in tangible ways, such as performing live shows or selling custom t-shirts, but there are plenty of ways to turn your artistic abilities into digital products as well.

If you are a professional musician or simply enjoy recording music in your spare time, try selling snippets of your songs for use as ringtones; or, if you are a filmmaker, you can sell movies or video clips online. Many graphic designers create and sell digital art, whether mobile or desktop wallpapers, printable cards, or wall decals. Many artists sell digital downloads of their artwork on platforms like Etsy or Society6.

Digital Tools and Templates.

Many professionals often lack the time and resources to handle all the necessary tasks for their business. They may lack the expertise or tools required to execute a specific task, and that is where you can step in and save the day.

There is a vast number of digital tools and templates that can help customers perform daily tasks and make their lives easier, such as:

• Digital media planners.

• Mobile applications for businesses.

• Graphic design templates for print materials and websites.

• Fonts, logos, icons, and UX kits.

Memberships.

Instead of selling digital products individually, you can also bundle several products and services together and offer them to customers. This can include online training courses, fitness classes, business tools, or online coaching.

Digital Gift Cards.

A digital gift card enables your customers to gift their purchases (a digital product, digital card, or donation product) from your store to their loved ones by creating distinctive digital gift cards.

How Do You Find the Right Platform to Sell Your Digital Products?

After learning how to create a product and deciding which digital product you want to sell, the next step is choosing the right selling platform. In 2020, there were more than 7.1 million e-commerce websites in the market, so options are abundant.

However!

While many e-commerce platforms may be well-suited for selling physical products and services, there is a big difference between selling physical and digital products online. To help you choose your ideal platform, here are some guidelines worth considering:


Digital Storage.

Since it can be easy to run out of space on a self-hosted platform, finding a platform with ample storage capacity for your digital files is critical. If you can find a platform that offers unlimited storage, even better.

Unfortunately, many platforms do not offer unlimited storage; instead, they charge fees based on how much storage space your website requires. The more storage capacity you need, the higher the price.

Shopping Cart.

Studies indicate that 69.8% of shoppers abandon the checkout process after placing items in their shopping cart—yet by optimizing checkout design, an average-sized e-commerce store can boost its conversion rate by 35%.

Cart abandonment is no longer just a unique issue that only some online store owners struggle with; it has become a widespread challenge faced by the largest retailers at high rates daily. According to a recent statistic, the cart abandonment rate reaches around 77.24%, meaning that for every ten people who enter the store, seven leave their cart without completing payment.  

Integration with the Best Payment Gateways.

To make the purchasing experience smoother, your e-commerce information must also include a variety of payment gateways. Although payment solutions like PayPal and Stripe are among the most popular, they may not always be the most convenient for every budget or geographic region. Therefore, it is essential that your website offers a wide range of payment options to accommodate all customers.

Moreover, some platforms now offer one-click payment solutions such as PayPal One-Touch, which allows customers to enter their payment details once and use the one-click option every time thereafter.

No Hidden Transaction Fees.

There is nothing worse than making a huge investment in a platform only to discover later that there are more costs to pay. At first glance, many e-commerce platforms may seem like an easy opportunity to increase your sales and make money quickly. Unfortunately, many platforms charge hidden fees for things like hosting, web development, website themes, and add-on plugins or apps, and these fees can add up over time.

For example, with WooCommerce, merchants have to cover the costs of hosting, SSL certificates, and other features, which e-commerce platforms like BigCommerce and Shopify already include in their pricing.

Or, in some cases, the platform may charge additional fees for not using their own payment provider—Shopify, for instance, charges an extra transaction fee of up to 2% on every sale for not using their payment provider.

Salla delivers all of that for you! Launch your store now and profit from your very first digital product.

Why Choose Salla to Sell My Digital Product?

1. Diverse Payment Solutions:
At Salla, we have made integrating with payment gateways and managing all transactions effortless in several ways:

1. Ease of integration: If you wish to connect with any payment gateway, you will typically face a complex series of lengthy procedures, such as the need for a commercial registration and other verification documents. At Salla, all you need is to verify your store via Absher along with an IBAN certificate, and you can then activate all payment methods with the click of a button! Just like that, without any additional requirements or complications.

2. Fast payout cycles to your bank account: All funds paid via electronic payment reach you within 24 to 72 hours, depending on your plan.

3. Competitive payment processing fees: Salla's payment gateway fees for mada are SAR 1 + 1.75%, and for Visa, Mastercard, and Apple Pay SAR 1 + 2.20% (exclusive of VAT). You can also forecast and calculate your fees using the fee calculator on the platform.
   
   

We also streamline all other procedures for you at Salla, such as:

1. Integration with other payment gateways besides Salla’s: such as (Moyasar, PayTabs, QPay Tap), although these will only appear for specific stores, such as charitable organizations and others.

2. Integration with digital wallets: At Salla, we allow you to connect with PayPal and STC Pay, which are popular payment methods in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

3. Option to integrate Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) methods: Studies have shown that offering deferred payment options encourages your customer to purchase from your store. Salla has enabled you to integrate with Tamara, Tabby, and Spotii, which allow your customer to split their purchase bill over 3 to 4 months.

4. Adding other payment methods: such as Cash on Delivery and bank transfer, with support for attaching a receipt image when paying by bank transfer.

5. Adding payment rules and restrictions: You can add rules to display or restrict specific payment methods (such as Cash on Delivery), based on conditions like a minimum order amount, number of orders, purchasing from a certain category, or belonging to a specific customer group or country.

2. App Maker to Build Your Custom Store App:

Salla enables you to create a dedicated app for your store on both Android and iOS and manage it easily from your control panel, offering numerous benefits such as:

1. Ability to build the app directly from Salla: Some platforms act merely as an intermediary between you and an app development agency, which can lead to procedural delays.

2. Time-saving: Salla allows you to create your store's app within 72 hours, whereas other platforms take much longer—potentially several weeks depending on the volume of products and store details.

3. Native App: Salla allows you to build a Native app rather than a WebView. A native app features more attractive visual elements, a superior user experience, and faster, higher performance. In contrast, a WebView is merely a replica of the mobile web version with no differences, often resulting in performance issues like slow loading of elements or sluggish usability.

4. Full control right from your store dashboard: At Salla, when you purchase the App Maker service, you will be able to manage your entire store design, settings, promotions, and send push notifications directly from the same dashboard.

5. Distinguishing your store app from the web: Among the benefits of a native app is the ability to differentiate your store on the app from the browser across various aspects:

•  Product Visibility: You can control the visibility of certain products so they appear only on your browser store, exclusively on the app, or across both.

•  Tailored Offers and Discounts: You can create custom promotions and discount coupons exclusively for the store app, the browser, or both to encourage customers to use the app.

• Customized Design: You can customize your store's layout in the app differently from the web, leading to an enhanced user experience.

1. Dedicated Technical Support: If your app encounters any issues, an integrated technical support team dedicated to store applications is available to assist you.

Integration with Top App Tools: You can integrate with leading marketing and analytics tools designed for mobile apps, such as Smartlook, AppsFlyer, and Firebase.

3. Digital Theme to Highlight Your Digital Products:

Store design is one of the most critical factors contributing to success and showcasing products effectively. Statistics show that a well-designed store can increase sales by 200% compared to a store with poor design or user experience. For this reason, Salla provides you with three flexible solutions to control your store's design:

1.  Theme Marketplace: Salla offers a wide variety of themes tailored to suit your store's branding and business niche. There are themes developed by Salla and others by third-party developers. You can browse, preview, and select what suits you best—whether free or paid—and customize elements for each theme while managing your store design from a single page. Salla's "Raqmi" (Digital) theme is uniquely optimized for selling digital products.

2.  Design Customization via CSS & JS: If you wish to modify an element or add extra features to your store layout, you can fine-tune your store design using CSS and JS. Salla also provides numerous articles to help you enhance your store design yourself or with the help of a specialized developer.

3. Developing a Custom Theme for Your Store: If you want to create a brand-new theme tailored specifically for your store, Salla enables you to hire a developer to build a bespoke theme using Salla Twilight.

4. Instant Digital Product Delivery Right After Payment:

At Salla, we have made it easy for both the customer and the merchant:
The Customer: Receives their product immediately upon payment.
The Merchant: No need to confirm orders manually or stay online to respond to customers.

How to Add Your Product to Salla Once You Know How to Create a Digital Product?

1. From the side menu of the control panel, click on (Products).

2. From the Products page, click on (New Product).

3. Select the product type as a Digital Product.

4. Enter the primary product details, then click (Save).

1- Add one or more images of the product; see more details about uploading product images and videos.

2- Product name: the product title that will be displayed to the customer.

3- Product price: the selling price of the product.

4- Product quantity: the available quantity of the product.

5- Product category: helps customize product displays, view product reports, and more.

6- Product details: to customize specifics such as quantity, price, barcode, and others.