Giving The Buyer Their Purchase
Mon, 8 October, 2007 – 6:16 pm
Here's a scenario for you…nnVisitor comes to your site, buys one or more products, gets whisked off to PayPal to pay. PayPal (via IPN) tells your server the buyer has paid in full. What does your server do now, what do you think it should do?nn
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- Email the Buyer their purchase(s) (of course I'm talking digital products here!).
- Email the Buyer a download link where they can obtain their purchase(s), perhaps giving them a chance to download X times.
- Make the Buyer create an account before they pay, and then on return they can log in and download their purchase(s).
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nnSee, option 1 is the quickest option. However the downside to this is the potential that the buyer doesn't receive the email, perhaps it's too large or it's blocked for some reason. Option 2 is a little extra work, but again, the email may not be received. Option 3 is by far the most professional but most time consuming option, however, is it overkill?nnI've been intending to set up option 3 on our main income site. At present we just sell about 80 products of the same subject. I'm also intending to throw a few eBooks into the mix, offering them for sale or as freebies for bigger sales. So I figured that setting up a download area for buyers to log into afterwards would be the best idea, they can grab all of the products they've purchased with ease, and no email actually required (although sales receipts would still be sent of course).nnHowever, then I got to thinking, once the buyer has downloaded their purchase, are they likely to return? Sure, we can perhaps offer a discount on new products as they are added to the site, maybe a free eBook when we get hold of others. Keep your original buyers happy and more will come? But is it worthwhile doing this if it's unlikely that the buyers will return to the download/login area?nnMy only other thought is that we could email the past buyers with information of the offers on, perhaps remind them to go to the site and see what's new etc. I don't know if the products we're selling would be bought that many times over (well they would be some people!).nnI just don't want to create an overkill system for a $10 product.nnIs it overkill or worth it? Or as a buyer, would you rather just get the product emailed straight to you, or a simple download link?
For the obvious reasons that you mentioned, the email delivery is really not the ideal way to do it. Neither is the third, login/membership type of delivery.nnOne of the best ways I've seen to do this is to dynamically create a link that redirects to the download link. Of course, you've got to give the link a time limit or a download limit. Some way of limiting the loss if it gets publicized.
By thatedeguy on Tue, 9 October, 2007
As a buyer I would want to receive a download link.nnAs a seller, you should have them log back into your site to get the product - this gives the chance of an upsell (if that's something you want to do), get them onto a maiing list (perhaps for new, product updates etc), and also to give your site better visitor stats should you ever want to sell it
By Gary on Tue, 9 October, 2007
So a buyer wants option 2, and a seller should use option 3. How about a combination of both? (Of course this is way past potential overkill now!).nnBuyer purchases product(s), is automatically emailed the download link (which would be unique and only work for say 2 attempts for 24 hours so publicising it isn't really an issue), but they're automatically created an account and emailed login details if they wish to use that method too, where details of offers could be given. I don't know what sort of upsell I could offer but it would give potential to offer new items to previous customers first, or offer discounted products to them.nnKills two birds with one stone? Buyer gets what they want and I can offer what a seller should offer which may be used by some buyers.nnWith this method I could get the download link bit done first and then launch the new set up, allowing me to get that out quicker but still continue to work on the login area for future usage.nnI'm just thinking out loud here really
Cheers for the comments. As a buyer I'd prefer option 3 but then again I only really shop on Amazon 
By Sarah on Tue, 9 October, 2007
If you want to do option #3, probably the most efficient way would be to create an account automatically on checkout and email the customer their password in the email instructing them how to download their order.nnA big advantage to this is that they don't need to ever log in when purchasing an item. If an existing customer returns to purchase something else, their order will be added to their existing order history because it would be index by their paypal email address. If they choose to add additional information to their account such as their name and address, they should have that option.nnThe PayPal IPN checkout is already complicated enough, having to jump from your site to theirs and back again. I wouldn't complicate it with a long registration form.nnIMO.
By Brian on Tue, 9 October, 2007
Hey Brian,nnThanks for your reply. I wouldn't have a long registration form plus I can push any information captured on my site through to PayPal anyhow
I would simply ask for a name and email (and maybe password or generate one for them). That's not too much to ask is it?nnHowever I think I'm going with a combo of 2 and 3 as per my other comment. Whether I grab their name and email on the site or just get their paypal email from the order and they can do their name another time if they want to update their account.
By Sarah on Tue, 9 October, 2007
From Buyers point of view..nI would like to have a mail with download link… in case email is not recieved, then a way to get that…nnFrom Sellers point of view (or rather developer's)…nSending mail for the first time… no problem as always used to benIf not recieved! provide a link with functionality similar to "Forgot Password" allowing buyer to give his email id and the mail being resent in the process.
By Jalaj P. Jha on Wed, 10 October, 2007
As a buyer, I'd prefer to have an account already created for me and the download link presented to me immediately after purchase. This would mean capturing a username/email and password pre-purchase, but it means I could be automatically logged into my ready-made account immediately after purchase.nnI'd also like an email confirmation with login URL, username and password in case my browser/connection dies after purchase, but before I get to download.nnSo,nn1) I decide to buy.n2) You collect my email and password.n3) I make the purchase.n4) You process the IPN and create my account.n5) You send an email confirmation with login URL and access credentials.n6) You redirect me to the download page within the secure area, logging me in automatically.n7) I download the product.
By Will on Wed, 10 October, 2007
Thanks for your comments both. Will I like your idea of auto logging in from a link. I should be able to do that easily enough. Not something I thought of but this way it'll get people straight into the user's area, straight to the download link but also allow them to look around whilst they're there.nnCheers
By Sarah on Wed, 10 October, 2007
Ah, I actually meant for me to be redirected and logged in immediately after payment i.e. before I even check for a confirmation email:nn1) I decide to buy.n2) You collect my email and password.n3) I make the purchase.n4) You process the IPN and create my account.n5) You redirect me to the download page within the secure area, logging me in automatically.n6) You send an email confirmation with login URL and access credentials in case (5) didn't work out.n7) I download the product.nnI did this a while ago using information from the transaction as login credentials so that buyer didn't even need to supply a password. To login, they used their email address and payment transaction reference.
By Will on Wed, 10 October, 2007
Cheers for your input Will. I think I'll probably go for your approach in the long run, but get the download link method working at first so that I can get this up before Christmas. I'd hope to get it all done by then but if we're moving in the next month I can't see it happening!
By Sarah on Thu, 11 October, 2007