Creating a Downloadable Product in OpenCart 1.5

At times, you may want to sell a digital product such as an image, audio file, or e-book. This can be easily accomplished in OpenCart. To offer a downloadable product, you’ll first have to upload the file within OpenCart and then you’ll need to link the file to a product. 

Important! Remember to uncheck the “Requires Shipping” checkbox or your customers will be charged shipping fees by mistake.

Uploading Your Digital Product

  1. Log into your OpenCart Dashboard
  2. Go to Catalog > Downloads
  3. Click “Insert” in the upper right corner
  4. opencart_digital_1

  5. Fill in the fields with a download name, Select the file to upload on your local computer, and type in the number of downloads allowed per user purchase
  6. opencart_digital_2

  7. Click “Save

Linking the download file to a product

  1. Log into your OpenCart Dashboard
  2. Go to Products
  3. Click “Insert” to create a new product or click “Edit” next to an existing product
  4. Click on the “links” tab
  5. Scroll towards the bottom of the page, go to the “Downloads” section and select the file you want to be made available on this product
  6. opencart_digital_3

  7. While still editing this product, click on the “Data” tab and scroll down to the section called “Weight”. Enter a weight of “0” (zero) in the field. This tells OpenCart it is a downloadable product
  8. Click on “Save” in the upper right corner

Trial products

If you want to offer your customers a trial of your software, there are a few different routes you can take.

Prerequisites

As OpenCart cannot simply modify your downloadable products to offer some sort of trial, you will need to have one of the following to offer as the trial:

  • Two versions of your software; One that is fully unlocked that you will sell and one that only works as a trial
  • Offer a single product for download and sell the license key either within the software, or through another product on your site

Adding the trial product

If you are offering the trial product as a secondary item in your store, you can simply add it just as you would any other downloadable product, and sent the price to be free.

You could also place some sort of additional download link to the product within your main product page which would allow you to have a single page for both the trial product as well as the paid product.

If you need further assistance please feel free to ask a question in our support center website.

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Carrie Smaha
Carrie Smaha Senior Manager Marketing Operations

Carrie Smaha is a digital strategy, web development, and SEO leader with 20 years of experience. She built her foundation in fast-paced agency environments before moving in-house to InMotion Hosting, where she leads go-to-market programs, agency initiatives, and technical product marketing that connects product capability to real customer decisions.

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