How to test the customer experience for a digital product

Before you launch, place a free test order to see exactly what your customers get from ABC Digital Downloads: the download links on the Thank you page, the download email and the Order status page.

Before you start

Make sure that:

• the product is active in Shopify and available on your online store;
• a file is connected to the product in ABC (see Uploading and connecting files to products);
• ABC's blocks are on your Thank you and Order status pages (see Getting started);
• your plan includes the features you want to test, such as PDF stamping or streaming (see Plans and billing).

Step 1: Create a 100% discount code

In your Shopify admin:

1. Go to Discounts and click Create discount.
2. Choose Amount off products.
3. Under Method, choose Discount code and enter a code, such as TEST100.
4. Under Discount value, choose Percentage and enter 100.
5. Under Applies to, choose Specific products, click Browse, and add your product.
6. Under Maximum discount uses, tick Limit number of times this discount can be used in total and enter 1.
7. Click Save.

⚠️ Important: Anyone who has the code gets the product for free. Keep the use limit low, and when you've finished testing, set an end date under Active dates or delete the discount.

Step 2: Buy the product as a customer

1. Open your online store and add the product to your cart.
2. Click Check out.
3. In Discount code or gift card, enter your code and click Apply. The checkout shows "Your order is free. No payment is required."
4. In Email or mobile phone number, enter an email address you can check.
5. Fill in the billing address. Shopify asks for one even on a free order.
6. Click Complete order.

💡 Tip: If your checkout allows it, customers can also check out with only a mobile phone number. For this test, use an email address, so you can check the download email in Step 3.

Step 3: Check what the customer gets

The Thank you page

Shopify confirms the order, and ABC's Files block lists each file as a link with its size, for example "social-growth-playbook.pdf (526.90 KB)". Click a file to download it.

The download email

Shortly after the order, ABC emails the download links to the address used at checkout. The default subject is "Your digital download is ready! 🎉". Shopify sends its own order confirmation email separately.

The Order status page

The same Files block appears on the order's status page, where customers can come back to their files later. To open it from your Shopify admin, open the order and click More actions > View order status page.

Step 4: Check your delivery settings

• Open the downloaded file and check it's the one you expect.
• If the file is a PDF with a stamping template, check the stamp on your copy.
• If the file is set to stream, check that it opens in the player.
• If you use download limits or other restrictions, try them. When one blocks a download, the customer sees a short message instead of the file, such as "Download limit has been reached" with a request to contact your store.
• In ABC, open the order from Orders. The Downloaded count and File download activity show your test downloads.

If something doesn't work

• No Files block on the Thank you page: check that ABC's blocks are added (Step 1 of Getting started) and that Display download links on the Thank You page is on in Settings.
• No download email: open the order in ABC and check Email activity, which lists every email ABC sent for the order. Also check that Send order emails is on in Settings and that the Order Download Links email isn't disabled. To send the email again, see Resend a download email.
• Still stuck? Contact support.