eCommerce Software that supports digital downloads and multiple file downloads.

[Mike001]

I am trying to find a good software package, eCommerce type that supports selling digital downloads that have multiple files included in the download.

As I have looked over the last few months I have been amazed to see that most of the packages out there do not support multiple files with a download purchase. That truly surprises me. As many video sets can be way too big for a single download.

Does anyone have any suggestions.

I will look at both paid and open source and I want them stand alone. No hosting crap. I want to host all the files myself. I tried that hosting stuff once before and the only one that made any money on that deal was the hosting company as by the time they figured in all their little fees and percentages, for hosting the files and then percentages on the sale, they were the only one making any money.

I am currently using a package I wrote myself and it works very well but does not have near the capabilities of a full fledged shopping cart system. Coupons, discounts, store front, etc. I could work on a package myself but would rather not reinvent the wheel if something good is out there already.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for the help.

 

[ericplotz1]

I am trying to find a good software package, eCommerce type that supports selling digital downloads that have multiple files included in the download.

As I have looked over the last few months I have been amazed to see that most of the packages out there do not support multiple files with a download purchase. That truly surprises me. As many video sets can be way too big for a single download.

Does anyone have any suggestions.

I will look at both paid and open source and I want them stand alone. No hosting crap. I want to host all the files myself. I tried that hosting stuff once before and the only one that made any money on that deal was the hosting company as by the time they figured in all their little fees and percentages, for hosting the files and then percentages on the sale, they were the only one making any money.

I am currently using a package I wrote myself and it works very well but does not have near the capabilities of a full fledged shopping cart system. Coupons, discounts, store front, etc. I could work on a package myself but would rather not reinvent the wheel if something good is out there already.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for the help.

Why not just use Woocommerce with Wordpress and a file download manager?

 

[Mike001]

I appreciate the input but I would never use Wordpress.

I understand that a lot of people really like that CMS, and for what it was designed for it is a good blogging CMS but it is so back-end heavy and so difficult to work with for customization that after numerous attempts to deploy it with some of my customers, based on their requests, and finding out just how hard it is to customize, especially the data aspects, I just could not see myself using a platform like that. Even those customers after watching all the trials and tribulations we went through decided to move to a custom CMS System. Custom systems are not that hard to design, especially with frameworks like Bootstrap, and once itis designed you have complete control over all aspects of the sites. Once I write a good Admin system for them, which really doesn't take that long depending upon the amount of dynamic data, they control the whole site and they love it. But I digress.

The CMS that I use on the training site is completely self written, it is extremely fast, I stream hundreds of videos from this site, many times I will have 20 to 30 users streaming videos simultaneously and I have never had any impact on site performance. Knock on wood. I have tested it with 100 accesses to the same video file and have not seen any slowdowns. Not certain what will happen if I exceed that number but I don't believe that over 100 accesses to the same file at the same time is possible anyway.

I appreciate the input but I am going to continue to stay with a custom system. If I can't find a good shopping cart system that supports multiple file downloads as a single product then I will write one. I was just hoping to avoid that.

One of the engineers at Cube Cart is a friend of mine and he and I are looking at building a plug-in to do with Cube Cart. We just have to research how many areas of the software we need to touch to do it right. Still researching.

Thank you for the input.

 

[mrjock]

I was on the same hunt for you as years mate. Magneto offers this feature however the backends very slow also ands I ended up just going with wordpress and woocommerce.

 

[Ron Killian]

I put in another vote for Woocommece, even though you don't want to use it. I use it exclusively for digital products, would do everything you need. I am loving it myself.

I use to use OSCommerce for digital downloads but it's quite outdated now, without a very bright future. And a pain to customize. Rock solid cart though. I never did group products with it, but it has that option.

 

[Mike001]

Well maybe I need to see if I can use wooCommerce without implementing a full blown WordPress installation.

Maybe I can use WordPress for just the commerce feature. I had never thought of that but if that is possible based on what everyone is saying maybe that is the way I should go.

Do you all think it would be possible to set up WordPress just as a store front and link my site to that storefront?

Is that file download manager that Eric is talking about, is that a plugin, does it handle groups of downloads?

Just a thought.

Thanks for all the suggestions.

 

[Developer]

You can setup WooCommerce to be the front page, so even though it will be done through WP, it will not appear like a blog in the normal sense. I, too, would suggest at least LOOKING into it as you may be pleasantly surprised.

Having been a digital product creator and seller for years, I too have run into this very issue many many times. I finally created my own system and it's what I now use on all my sites. Nicest part of that since it is my own creation is that it is all my own coding and I can edit, update and upgrade whenever the need comes up... I don't have to rely on someone else to fix things for me or wait for someone else to come out with an update when the next latest craze hits the internet. I can just integrate new/updated features at my own pace, on my own time and it's all done around my own schedule.

If you are anything like me, there will never be anything on the market to meet 100% of your needs 100% of the time, so, perhaps the whole "If I can't find a good shopping cart system that supports multiple file downloads as a single product then I will write one." would be the best plan after all. I know you said you wanted to avoid that, but, if you do it now, and get it done, it will be, well... DONE, LOL.

 

[ulterios]

I was looking for something like this a while back and someone told me about a script on Code Canyon called "Digital Downloads Pro". I wound up not needing it but checked it out a bit and it would have worked for my needs. It's also lighter weight than a WP site, although the WP does have benefits.

Depending on your exact needs, you might check it out. The do have some others on CC (or at least they did when I was looking) with some good features.

 

[Ron Killian]

With Woocommerce it sets up a "shop" page, and I just set that shop page as the front end for the site in wordpress settings. So yes, they hit the domain they see the store. Easy peasy. Or you can to the shop page from anywhere.

Course, still going be a full install of wordpress.

Woo has builtin support for digital downloads and for each product you can have multiple files per product if you wish. No extra plugin needed, it's already there. I don't know exactly how many, I only use one. But looks like quite a few.

You can setup WooCommerce to be the front page, so even though it will be done through WP, it will not appear like a blog in the normal sense. I, too, would suggest at least LOOKING into it as you may be pleasantly surprised.

Having been a digital product creator and seller for years, I too have run into this very issue many many times. I finally created my own system and it's what I now use on all my sites. Nicest part of that since it is my own creation is that it is all my own coding and I can edit, update and upgrade whenever the need comes up... I don't have to rely on someone else to fix things for me or wait for someone else to come out with an update when the next latest craze hits the internet. I can just integrate new/updated features at my own pace, on my own time and it's all done around my own schedule.

If you are anything like me, there will never be anything on the market to meet 100% of your needs 100% of the time, so, perhaps the whole "If I can't find a good shopping cart system that supports multiple file downloads as a single product then I will write one." would be the best plan after all. I know you said you wanted to avoid that, but, if you do it now, and get it done, it will be, well... DONE, LOL.

It's like you sit in the corner until I am writing a post.

With the combination of Wordpress and Woocommerce, there are SO many plugins available for both, hard to find something the combination won't do.

 

[Developer]

Developer

Damn it Ron, was it that friggin obvious, LOLOL...

 

[Ron Killian]

Ron Killian

Well, you're not a quiet person, that might have something to do with it

 

[Mike001]

You guys crack me up. Listen to you all go back and forth. I do really appreciate all the comments and suggestions and I will look into them.

I am also going to look at that script "Digital Downloads Pro" that Ulterious talked about, see if that can have a future.

But Developer may be right, it may be time to break out the old SubLime Text 3 and get to codin. That is what we do best anyway.

Thank you all, you guys are great.

 

[Developer]

If ya' got the skills, put 'em to use pal? Not only will you have a system that does EXACTLY what YOU need and want, you could end up with a system which will make you moulah (sell it as a once off script or even break into the SAAS arena -- which is VERY lucrative, why settle for a once off payment when you could bring in some nice residual cash).

SHAMELESS PLUG:
And if you don't have the skills, contact me via PM. We could work together to get you exactly what you need.

 

[Mike001]

After all this conversation about WooCommerce and WordPress, after doing a bunch of research last night it does not appear that WooCommerce supports multiple download files with a single purchase either.

If I missed something let me know but based on all that I was reading they cannot do it either. It seems like someone here is missing the boat on a hell of an opportunity. This cannot be that big a deal.

I may have to stick with the little app that I wrote years ago. It works but doesn't have coupons, discounts, a nice looking storefront, or a cart feature.

Thanks everyone.

 

[Ron Killian]

Ron Killian

I've been using Woocomerce for a couple years now, just switched my main site over to it from OSC, like 8 months ago. I even looked in my product addition screen before I made my first reply to this thread. It does multiple files per product. You can click to add multiple files when your adding a new product, under the digital (downloadable files) area. I can post a screen shot for you.

Here's a screenshot:



Normal, by default, only one downloadable file input is shown, I just clicked the "Add File" button several times to show multiple files can be added.

Of course not trying to talk you into using it, just saying what it does

 

[Mike001]

Thanks Ron, is this a plug in or just a standard part of the WooCommerce application.

Again, thanks for the screen shot.

 

[Ron Killian]

Ron Killian

That is all Woocommerce. I just double checked, there are no extra plugin's for that and I don't remember adding any, as I never needed it. Only add-on for that screen is the two affiliate options at the end, that is an extra paid plugin I use.

 

[Hawker]

Chiming in.

Have you tried idev digivender?

Its independent. I used to use it when I used to sell Sick packets and templates and people can add/purchase/download multiple items.

I got DigiVendor 4.0 but there is a 5.0 out now.

I might get it again though so if you want to get it drop me a pm and we'll go halves on what the update price for me is if you want.

http://www.idevspot.com/digivendor.php

 

[Mike001]

Thanks again Ron I really appreciate the input.

Hawker, I have not tried digivender, I had not even heard of it. I take it it does support multiple file downloads for a single file purchase?

I will definitely check it out.

Thanks

 

[Hawker]

Hawker

Yeah I think so if I remember right I used to sell multiple files with it. It's just a digital products cart. They get an account to login and download whatever they purchased.

Can add coupons and that.

Send him a message ask him if he's got a demo you can try and ask him.

 

[Mike001]

Will do I appreciate the input.

I took a fast look at it and it does appear to do exactly what I am looking for. And it is open source and supports individual style-sheets outside their templates. That is a big plus.

Thanks again, Hawker.

 

[Mike001]

Hawker,

I took your suggestion and tried Digi-Vendor. I am really disappointed with the outcome. I ordered the product and their download system was not working. After numerous requests and emails I finally received the product.

The product does appear to support multiple file downloads as was the topic of the original discussion but I cannot get the product to allow me to log into the admin panel to actually add products or set up the software. This of course has kept me from actually confirming if the product works. I have tried reinstalling the product, working through the PHP files to see if there was something obvious missing, checking all the log in scripts, code structure etc, and nothing seems to work.

I have contacted support on three separate occasions on these issues and have yet to receive a response from them. They just ignore the requests. I am really disappointed in not only the product, but also their lack of support to their customers. Not a very good way to build an online business. After all for what this does it was kind of pricey. At 49.00 I would at least expect it to work.

I was also disappointed to see that this is suppose to be a new version of an existing product yet all the code is written in the original mysql, no mysqli anywhere in the code and many of the code string commands, although supported, have been deprecated for security reasons. All the PHP code is structural coding and no PDO or OOP. Another surprise since it is suppose to be a new product.

I could get past that if the code worked, but it does not even work.

I am going to give them a couple of more days to respond to the support request and if I do not get a response I will contact PayPal for a refund and post on the Script Developers sites just how poor their product and support is. I don't like doing that but I think I have been more than patient. After all most of us are trying to succeed on line with online businesses and I would never treat my users like that.

If I were you I would not order it. Obviously Arron over at Idev is far too busy to support his users. Or just doesn't care about the quality of his products.

 

[Hawker]

Ah man that sucks!! I'm sorry to hear about that Mike. I don't recall issues like that with it back then. Was a long time ago and I was using the 4.0 so I figured the new 5.0 version would have been better.

Have you asked him for a refund? If he doesn't refund you then yeah absolutely open a dispute with PayPal because if it's not working then you didn't get what you paid for you're legally entitled to a refund.

Anyway sorry my man, I thought it would be better than the previous version but at least we know now.

Sorry mate lol

 

[Mike001]

No problem Hawker, just wanted you to be aware before you made the purchase, if you are still thinking about it.

I was quite surprised actually but it is what it is.

I have not made a request for refund yet, I will give them a couple more days to respond to the support issues.

I am considering adding a blog to the website, after all from everything I am reading that is a good way to increase traffic to the site, and drawing better quality traffic is something we all strive for. I will focus the blog on web development, HTML5, CSS, JavaScript, etc and the changes that are taking place in the community.

If I do that I would probably use WordPress and based on some of Ron's input on WooCommerce that may be the way to go. I mean what the hell if I am using WordPress for the Blog front end I may as well implement the eCommerce portion also.

I mean Ron talks so highly of it I may as well consider it, he seems to know a thing or two about WordPress.

Thanks for the input I really appreciate it.

 

[Ron Killian]

Ron Killian

A blog "can" be a good way to get traffic, build trust and relationships. Least in my opinion.

Since Woocommerce products are different parts, not wordpress posts or pages, that's exactly what I do on my sites. I have a store and a blog all in on install. Or I have a membership and a blog all in one install. Then you can cross promote both. If you have a store, you can promote the latest products in the blog sidebar.

While Woocommerce is free, there is no official support (that I know of), but there are SO many pages and how-to's on the net. Any time I have a problem, a need to customize, ect, I just hit the search engines and have always found solutions. And there are so many add-ons, too many some times.

Course, Wordpress is not perfect and not for every one, but for people like me who don't want to waste time "trying" to code, it works well. Many years back I thought I'd learn PHP, what a HUGE waste of my time, and how much money I could have made just going with a paid solution and doing more important, more productive tasks.

I am not knocking any one who wants to code or create their own stuff, my hats off to them, seriously. But for the mass majority of people just looking to make some cash online, it's a trap that usually ends up costing them.

 

[Hawker]

Nice one Mike! Yeah, see what they say to your support requests then, hopefully they can fix it and you can use it but if it's no good and all buggy just get a refund don't waste any time on it.

Yeah WordPress is one of the easiest and most comprehensive CMS's out there that can be used as a blog or a full shebang thing, shopping cart etc.

I've not used it to sell digital downloads but I know it can be used for this as well.

Looking forward to hearing from you again mate.

Mike.