Table of Contents
- Introduction
- The Strategic Advantage of Going Digital
- 10 Profitable Digital Products to Sell in 2026
- Creating a Seamless Customer Experience
- Marketing Strategies for Digital Goods
- Transparent Success: Understanding the Costs
- Setting Realistic Business Expectations
- Conclusion
- Digital Product FAQ
Introduction
Did you know that the global e-learning industry is projected to skyrocket to a staggering $848 billion by 2030? This astronomical growth highlights a fundamental shift in how consumers spend their money. We are moving away from an era defined solely by physical ownership and toward one defined by the acquisition of knowledge, convenience, and digital utility. For the modern merchant, this represents more than just a trend; it is an invitation to eliminate the headaches of traditional retail—shipping delays, inventory storage costs, and supply chain fragility—by embracing the world of digital goods.
The purpose of this guide is to move beyond the surface-level suggestions often found online. We want to provide you with a deep dive into the specific, high-margin opportunities available to anyone with a Shopify store. Whether you are a fitness coach looking to sell workout programs, a photographer offering editing presets, or a developer selling specialized templates, we will explore the landscape of digital commerce and identify the most profitable paths forward.
We will cover why digital products are the ultimate hedge against rising overhead, examine 10 distinct categories of high-demand items, and discuss how to leverage technology to keep your branding consistent and your customer data where it belongs—in your hands. At Tevello, our mission is to turn any Shopify store into a digital learning powerhouse. We believe that by the end of this article, you will have a clear blueprint for diversifying your revenue streams and increasing your customer lifetime value. The path to a scalable, recurring revenue model starts with understanding what are some good digital products to sell and how to deliver them through a native, seamless experience.
The Strategic Advantage of Going Digital
In the traditional commerce model, every sale comes with a "cost of goods sold" (COGS) that includes manufacturing, packaging, and shipping. When you sell a physical shirt, you have to buy another one to replace it in your inventory. Digital products flip this script entirely. Once the initial work is done, the cost of selling to your 100th customer is virtually the same as selling to your first.
Low Overhead and High Profit Margins
The primary benefit of digital goods is the elimination of physical constraints. There is no warehouse rent to pay, no postage rates to negotiate, and no risk of "dead stock" taking up space. This leads to profit margins that often exceed 90%. After accounting for your marketing spend and a flat-rate platform fee, almost every dollar you earn is pure profit. This financial stability allows you to reinvest in your brand, experiment with new content, and weather economic fluctuations that might cripple a physical-only business.
Scalability and Automation
Digital products are inherently designed for automation. With the right systems in place, a customer can purchase a course or a template at 3:00 AM and receive their download link or login credentials instantly. This "sell while you sleep" model is not a myth; it is the standard for digital merchants. Because there is no manual fulfillment required, your business can handle ten sales a day or ten thousand sales a day with the same amount of effort.
Building Brand Loyalty and LTV
Digital products often act as the "glue" that keeps a community together. While a physical product is a one-time transaction, a digital membership or an ongoing course creates a recurring touchpoint. This significantly increases Customer Lifetime Value (LTV). By offering digital value alongside physical goods, you become more than a shop; you become a resource. This shift is essential for building long-term brand loyalty in a crowded marketplace.
10 Profitable Digital Products to Sell in 2026
When considering what are some good digital products to sell, it is helpful to categorize them by the problem they solve for the customer. From education to entertainment, here are the most effective formats for your Shopify store.
1. Online Courses
Online courses are the gold standard of digital products. They allow you to package your expertise into a structured journey that helps customers achieve a specific transformation. Unlike a simple ebook, a course can include video lessons, quizzes, and community interaction, justifying a much higher price point.
Imagine a merchant who sells high-end coffee beans. While the beans are a physical commodity, the merchant can create a "Home Barista Mastery" video course. This course teaches customers how to dial in their espresso machine, steam milk like a professional, and create latte art. For the merchant, this is a high-margin upsell that requires no additional shipping boxes. For the customer, it adds immense value to their physical purchase. By keeping customers at home on the brand website during the learning process, you ensure they aren't distracted by third-party advertisements or competitor content.
2. Digital Memberships and Communities
Recurring revenue is the holy grail of e-commerce. Digital memberships allow you to charge a monthly or annual fee in exchange for ongoing access to exclusive content, a private community, or monthly perks. This provides predictable cash flow and allows you to build a deeper relationship with your audience.
We often see merchants successfully combine their community features with their learning materials. By providing profiles, member directories, and social feeds, you turn a passive purchase into an active experience. A fitness brand, for example, might offer a monthly membership that includes new workout videos every week and a community forum where members can share their progress.
3. Ebooks and In-Depth Guides
If you are a subject matter expert, ebooks are one of the most accessible entry points into digital selling. They are relatively simple to produce using tools like Google Docs or specialized design software and can be sold as standalone products or lead magnets to build your email list.
The key to a successful ebook is specificity. Rather than a broad guide on "Cooking," a successful digital product would be "30-Minute Plant-Based Meals for Busy Parents." The more specific the pain point you solve, the easier it is to market. Many brands find that generating revenue from both physical and digital goods is easiest when an ebook serves as a "how-to" manual for their physical inventory.
4. Professional Templates and Tools
In our productivity-obsessed culture, people are willing to pay for anything that saves them time. Digital templates—ranging from Excel budget trackers and Notion organization systems to Canva social media kits—are in extremely high demand.
A graphic designer could sell a "Brand Identity Starter Kit" that includes customizable logo templates, color palettes, and font pairings. These tools provide a professional result for the customer at a fraction of the cost of hiring a consultant, while the designer earns passive income from a single creation.
5. Digital Art and Printables
The "print-at-home" market has exploded. This category includes everything from nursery wall art and wedding invitation templates to printable coloring pages for children. Customers love the instant gratification of downloading a file and printing it immediately.
This model is also highly effective for artists who want to scale their reach. By selling high-resolution digital files of your work, you remove the barriers of international shipping and the risk of damage during transit. You can also see how one brand sold $112K+ by bundling courses and digital patterns, showing the power of combining creativity with a smart digital delivery system.
6. Photography and Video Assets
Content creators, marketers, and small business owners are always in need of high-quality visual assets. If you are a photographer, you can sell stock photos, Lightroom presets, or video overlays directly from your store.
Presets are particularly popular because they allow amateur photographers to achieve a "professional look" with a single click. For a merchant selling photography gear, offering these presets is a natural extension of their brand. We have seen instances of merchants generating over €243,000 by upselling existing customers through these types of complementary digital assets.
7. Music and Audio Files
From royalty-free background tracks for YouTubers to guided meditations and sound effects, audio products are a thriving niche. Musicians can license their beats to other creators or sell digital albums directly to fans, bypassing the thin margins of streaming platforms.
Guided meditations, in particular, have seen a surge in popularity as wellness brands look to offer more value to their customers. A brand selling yoga mats could easily offer a "10-Day Mindfulness Audio Series" as a digital companion to their physical products.
8. Software and Mobile Apps
While more technically demanding to create, software and specialized apps can be incredibly lucrative. This could be a simple Shopify app that solves a specific merchant problem, a browser extension, or even a custom-coded calculator for a niche industry.
The beauty of selling software is that it often becomes an essential part of the customer's daily workflow, leading to very high retention rates. This is especially true when you focus on retention strategies that drive repeat digital purchases by offering regular updates and premium add-ons.
9. Educational Resource Bundles
Bundling is a powerful psychological trigger in e-commerce. By combining several smaller digital products—such as an ebook, a set of templates, and a short video workshop—into a "bundle," you significantly increase the perceived value.
A "Small Business Startup Bundle" might include a business plan template, a basic bookkeeping spreadsheet, and a 20-minute video on legal basics. This "one-stop shop" approach is highly attractive to customers who are overwhelmed by information and looking for a curated solution.
10. Digital Coaching and Consulting Packages
While consulting is technically a service, it can be packaged as a digital product by selling "strategy sessions" or "audit packages" as SKUs on your Shopify store. This allows you to use your existing checkout process to manage your professional services.
To make this truly scalable, many consultants transition into a hybrid model where they sell a pre-recorded course alongside a limited number of one-on-one sessions. This ensures they are not just trading hours for dollars. If unifying your stack is a priority, start by a simple, all-in-one price for unlimited courses.
Creating a Seamless Customer Experience
One of the biggest mistakes merchants make when selling digital products is sending their customers to a third-party platform. Every time a customer is redirected to a different URL to access their purchase, you lose control over the brand experience and, more importantly, your data.
The Power of Native Integration
At Tevello, we believe in a "Native Shopify Integration." This means that your digital products live directly on your Shopify store. When a customer buys a course, they use the same account and the same checkout they would use for a physical product. There is no second login to remember and no confusing redirect. This reduces customer support friction and keeps your brand front and center.
Our mission is to provide an all-in-one ecosystem where physical products, digital courses, and community engagement live side-by-side. This unified approach is why we focus on all the key features for courses and communities being accessible within the merchant's own domain.
Protecting Your Intellectual Property
Piracy is a valid concern for anyone selling digital goods. While it is impossible to prevent 100% of unauthorized sharing, you can take steps to protect your work. Using gated access platforms ensures that only paying customers can view your content. Features like drip content scheduling also help prevent "serial downloaders" from taking all your content at once and then requesting a refund.
Marketing Strategies for Digital Goods
Selling a digital product requires a different marketing mindset than selling a physical one. Since the customer cannot touch or feel the product, you must work harder to demonstrate its value.
Use Content to Prove Expertise
Before someone buys a course or an ebook from you, they need to trust that you know what you're talking about. Use blog posts, social media videos, and free "mini-guides" to demonstrate your knowledge. If you can solve a small problem for free, customers will trust you to solve a bigger problem for a fee.
Leverage Social Proof
Because digital products are intangible, reviews and testimonials are your most valuable marketing assets. Highlight customer success stories and show real-world results. If you are selling a template, show "before and after" examples of how it helped a customer's business. Before you commit to a platform, it is always wise to begin by checking merchant feedback and app-store performance signals to ensure you are using a tool that other merchants trust.
Create Urgency and Scarcity
While digital products have infinite stock, you can still create urgency through "early bird" pricing, limited-time bonuses, or "enrolment windows" for your courses. This encourages customers to take action rather than putting off the purchase.
Transparent Success: Understanding the Costs
Many platforms in the digital product space use "success fees" or take a percentage of every sale you make. We believe this penalizes growth. If your business is successful, you should keep the rewards of that success.
The Tevello Pricing Model
We reject complicated tier structures and hidden costs. We offer The Unlimited Plan for $29.99 per month. That is it. No matter how many students you have or how many courses you sell, your price stays the same.
This plan is comprehensive and includes:
- Unlimited courses and students.
- Unlimited video hosting and bandwidth.
- Community features like profiles and social feeds.
- Drip content scheduling and interactive quizzes.
- 0% transaction fees.
We charge a flat rate so you can have a predictable pricing without hidden transaction fees. This allows you to accurately forecast your profits and scale your community without worrying about your platform costs eating into your margins. When you use a flat-rate plan that supports unlimited members, you are free to focus on what matters most: creating great content and supporting your customers.
Setting Realistic Business Expectations
While digital products offer incredible opportunities for recurring revenue and high margins, it is important to approach this business model with a long-term mindset. We do not promise "six figures in your first week." Building a successful digital product line requires effort in content creation, community management, and consistent marketing.
The goal of adding digital products to your Shopify store should be to diversify your revenue streams and build a more resilient business. By providing digital value, you are increasing your brand's authority and creating a stable foundation for the future. Our app is a robust tool designed to amplify your existing efforts, making it easier to manage the technical side so you can focus on the creative side.
Conclusion
Choosing the right digital products to sell is the first step toward transforming your Shopify store into a scalable, high-margin business. From the high-perceived value of online courses to the recurring stability of digital memberships and the accessibility of templates and ebooks, the opportunities are vast. By keeping your digital goods within your native Shopify environment, you ensure a seamless customer experience, maintain control over your data, and build a brand that is built to last.
Digital products are no longer just an "add-on"—they are the future of e-commerce. They allow you to share your expertise with a global audience, automate your income, and build a community that stays with you for years. Whether you are just starting out or looking to add a digital wing to an established physical store, the tools are now available to make that transition smoother than ever.
To build your community without leaving Shopify, start by reviewing the Shopify App Store listing merchants install from. You can start your 14-day free trial and build your first course now, giving you the freedom to build your entire curriculum and test all the features before paying a cent. Remember, with Tevello, you keep 100% of what you earn because we charge 0% transaction fees.
Digital Product FAQ
Can I sell both physical and digital products on the same Shopify store?
Absolutely. This is one of the most effective strategies for modern e-commerce. By using a native integration, your customers can add a physical item (like a yoga mat) and a digital item (like a 30-day yoga course) to the same cart and check out in a single transaction. This increases your average order value and provides a more comprehensive solution for your customers.
How do I handle delivery for my digital products?
When using our native Shopify solution, delivery is automated. As soon as a customer completes their purchase, they are granted access to the digital content directly through their customer account on your store. There is no need for you to manually send emails or download links; the system handles the permissions and access control instantly.
Is video hosting included in the monthly fee?
Yes. Unlike many other platforms that require you to pay for external video hosting services like Vimeo or Wistia, our Unlimited Plan includes unlimited video hosting and bandwidth. This ensures that your students have a high-quality, buffer-free viewing experience without you having to manage multiple subscriptions or worry about hitting data caps.
What happens to my data if I decide to move platforms later?
We believe that you should own your business data. Because our app integrates directly with your Shopify store, your customer list and order history remain within your Shopify admin. We make it easy to manage your students and content, but we never "lock" your data in a way that prevents you from having full ownership of your brand's most valuable asset.
