Digital Delivery System Options

Product fulfillment on the Web is a dream if you have a digital product -- software, information, e-books, member-only subscriptions, and entertainment. Delivery takes place by download, -- and it's completely hands free for the merchant. Yes, there may be some web hosting fees for storage and additional traffic charges, but the cost is low.

The chief difficulty with digitally delivered products is that they are subject to fraud. A private download URL can be given to a friend (who may post it on an online bulletin board). And fraudulent credit card transactions using stolen credit information, leave the merchant to susceptible to damaging chargeback fees.

Here are some systems you can use to sell and deliver digital products. (I am excluding ClickBank from this list because it only handles the sale, not the digital delivery.)

Kagi (www.kagi.com). Berkeley, California company handles transaction, download, and product registration. No sign-up or monthly fee. Charge is a percent of the sales price. The sliding scale assesses 12.5% of a $20 product, 7% of a $100 product, and 4.1% of a $600 product. Compatible with several affiliate programs.

DigiBuy (www.digibuy.com). Set-up fee of $29.95, plus $9.95 for each additional product. Handles transaction, download, and registration. Charges 13.9% of the sale or $3, whichever is greater. Compatible with several affiliate programs.

Synergyx (www.synergyx.com). Paul Galloway's Perl-based CGI program costs $1,500 installed on your server. Requires a merchant account and a payment gateway, but you won't be paying high percentage fees. Includes an excellent affiliate program.

Yahoo! Store (http://store.yahoo.com) includes a crude digital download feature. We link to others in the Digital Download Software section of our E-Commerce Research Room (www.wilsonweb.com/cat/cat.cfm?page=1&subcat=cs_Soft-Digital).