How to sell digital downloads on Etsy in 2025
The term "digital downloads" refers to products that can be purchased and downloaded entirely online, without the need for any handling or shipping. While some of these products are designed for printing and are referred to as Etsy printables, others, such as fonts, eBooks, and software, are entirely digital and can be sold on Etsy.
Why it’s worth selling digital downloads on Etsy
Etsy merchants generate a large amount of traffic. There are other benefits to providing digital downloads on the platform: It is a method of creating passive income. Create your product and submit it once, so it may be sold several times without further effort. Etsy will process payments and charge just $0.20 per listing plus 6.5% per sale, with taxes varying by country. You are not responsible for product handling or delivery. Many digital items may be generated without requiring any unique skills, expertise, or experience. Once you've chosen the correct niche and items, your efforts and devotion might pay off rapidly.
Tweak pre-made digital products
It is feasible to develop and sell digital files without any design experience. Purchase pre-made items with commercial licenses, make adjustments, and offer them as Etsy digital downloads. We have picked the best platforms to assist you. Unsplash is the greatest stock picture marketplace, providing free high-quality images with business licenses. Contributors from around the world share the assets, which must be changed before they can be sold online. Shutterstock is a very popular stock platform. It offers a sophisticated subscription system, with two-credit bundles beginning at $29. Shutterstock is connected with other platforms, like Printify, making it simple to apply its designs to merchandise without paying upfront - just for the sold product. In addition, the program provides a free trial of ten photos.
Design Etsy digital downloads yourself
Depending on your talents and platform preferences, create the pieces from scratch or using templates and models. The following are some of the greatest possibilities for building your own download.
Canva is among the most popular design platforms. It provides access to a vast collection of visuals and allows for advanced editing. The platform is user-friendly, includes a feature-rich freemium option, and is accessible online. Adobe's products have long been the industry standard, and many professionals utilize the Adobe Creative Cloud. However, with Adobe's transition to a subscription-based service, many people have searched for more economical alternatives.
Hire a professional
Consider employing someone to create designs for your Etsy digital items; this is an investment that might pay off. There are platforms that may assist you in hiring reputable specialists at a reasonable cost. Consider the choices below:
Pointily specialists is a service that links you with specialists in content development, illustration, and design. Fiverr connects you with specialists in a variety of creative disciplines. Upwork boasts a large database of creative and technical expertise.
Register with Etsy and prepare your shop
Go to the Etsy website and click Sign In in the upper-right corner.
This is a consumer account; but, in order to become an Etsy seller, you must first have a Merchant account. Create yours by selecting the circular symbol with your photo from the upper-right menu. Choose "Sell on Etsy."
Complete the following steps. Note that you can change your input later.
Fill up the localization information (language, country, and currency).
Confirm whether you will be a full-time or part-time seller.
Give your Etsy shop a name. If required, use a name generator, such as Namely.
Set up your payment and invoicing choices. You must supply a bank account or card number. Cards are confirmed via micro-transactions, which might take many days.
Publish products and start selling
When you're ready to publish and begin selling digital downloads, you'll need to build mockups to serve as product images.
When producing mockups for a digital download, aim for a balance of good picture quality to highlight key product features and attract clients, but not so good that it may be used in place of the product.
To minimize unnecessary copying, develop representations of everyday events. For example, someone using a computer as an image of what you'll sell on Etsy appears on screen, or a toddler drawing on a page featuring your digital art. Upload up to 10 product images and one video.
Etsy SEO
When selecting titles, descriptions, and tags, take into account Etsy SEO. Use all 13 tags and the relevant keywords (ideally long-tail) with the features and attributes of your products. Pricing: Find out how much your competitors are charging for digital prints or social media templates, as many of these items sell for between $5 and $10. Some niches, such as software and plugins or educational content like eBooks, homeschooling materials, sewing patterns, and woodworking plans, may have higher prices. To determine a fair price, you must have a clear understanding of your competitors' margins and your own production costs. Watch our video about product pricing, and use tools like Rank to analyze competitors and get the best price for you and your customers.
Automatic renewal
To activate the automatic listing renewal feature, navigate to the Settings area and choose it. If not, Etsy's digital downloads will show as unavailable following a transaction. Once everything is configured, click Publish after scrolling down. If you need to halt the listing or want to see how it appears, you may save it as a draft.
Market your Etsy store well
Spending time mastering the fundamentals of Etsy marketing will increase sales of fantastic items. Try a few of these advertising techniques:
Make your target audience and specialty more precise
Use Etsy search engine optimization (SEO) to make your content more visible. Make use of keywords that customers seek for while searching for digital downloads in your titles, tags, and descriptions.
Optimize your product and shop photos by adhering to Etsy's rules
Post links to your listings on social media or your own website. Make use of Instagram reels and posts, Facebook groups and posts, and Pinterest boards and pins.Make advantage of email marketing techniques to expand your audience.
Best-selling digital products for Etsy
Exclusively digital assets
Provide digital tools or other materials, such as fonts, software, applications, bespoke website themes, plugins, social media templates, lightroom presets, or sets of prompts for Midjourney and Dall-e, that are not meant for printing.
eBooks and manuals
Create digital downloads in a written format.
Event printables
Digital printables for weddings, birthday parties, graduations, or gift tags and cards.
Baby and children
Digital prints for baby showers or tracking growth and learning material for children.
Leasure printables
Coloring in pages for children and adults, crossword puzzles, and games.
Utility downloads and printables for household chores
Calendars, digital planners, to-do lists, checklists, jar labels, candy bar wrappers.
Hobbies, DIY, and craft guides
Crochet, embroidery and knitting patterns, woodworking plans, electronics schematics.
Business-related.
Business cards and logos, calendars, resumé templates, printable custom stickers.
Art-related.
Images for wall art, prints, stock images, photography, digital art, and NFTs.
Religious content.
Scriptures from sacred books, religious worksheets, praying, and events calendars.
