Digital downloads

Hello all,

Hope all are well. I’ve decided to concentrate on just digital sales for a while, partly because I have crochet elbow :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: and partly because a trip to the post office might leave me with more than I wanted!

Just wondered if the lovely Folksy are planning on either creating a specific category for digital downloads (ie one with an altered refund statement). It would of course be fantastic to be able to offer an instant download, but I suspect that until more people are wanting to sell digital items then this might just be a pipe dream…!

I think digital downloads are the way forward for a lot of things. I use the other side for buying DD’s.

I hope @folksy bring this in soon too! The other week I used one of my votes on a voting thread about this :+1: :grinning:

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I would also like to see digital downloads available on Folksy. I design my own crochet patterns and at the moment offer them by email. Which is fine & works but downloads would be quicker for the buyer I think!

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Hi everyone! The reason we haven’t offered digital downloads so far is because of VAT Moss. By having the extra element of a manual interaction – ie you emailing the PDF to the customer – it ensures that the products are not subject to VAT Moss regulations. But we are currently working on a new improved listing page/app, so we could potentially add an option for digital downloads that you tick when listing a product and it then changes the returns policy (or adds a different one), and possibly also adds a banner/ribbon to the picture that tells customers it’s a download? Would that be helpful?

In terms of categories, would you want a specific section under ‘Supplies’, ‘Handmade Supplies’ or in ‘Patterns’ - or are there any other categories where it would be useful too?

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Thank you for the information. It helps to understand the reasons behind no digital downloads.
I think as regards categories I would personally search under “patterns” & whatever craft it was for ie. knitting, crochet, sewing etc.

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That sounds good. Perhaps add a note somewhere to explain about VAT Moss so buyers understand? Would you be able to add the VAT cost for the patterns if it is downloadable?

Under Patterns would be more obvious to the customer who is looking for patterns, I would think.

I’m not sure :thinking: The patterns I would be selling are for bead work :grinning:

A banner or ribbon on the listing sounds like a very good idea :+1:

This such a shame. I was willing to leave Etsy behind and move over to Folksy to sell my crochet and knitting patterns. Without instant downloads, it is too much additional work so I will have to shelve my account.

This feels like a very outdated approach, to something that customers want and a level of service they expect.

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Why is it too much trouble? I sell physical items on receipt of a sale, have to pick, wrap in tissue, print off a receipt, make up a box add to said box, weigh, print off a label then walk to the post box. Serving a customer to me is never too much trouble.

I also buy digital downloads from the dark side and some get instantly but others have to wait a day which to me is not a problem.

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Because selling digital patterns in this day an age should be an instant thing in my opinion, as it is on Ravelry, Payhip, Etsy, Shopidy, Squarespace…

I also sell on my own website and do as you do with hardcopies and all the physical items that I sell. Given that this is an additional sales channel, it needs to be simple for me, not add to the amount of admin that I already have to do.

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Sorry we don’t offer digital downloads - I wish we could.

The reason we decided not to was due to VAT Moss. If we offer instant downloads, that then counts as a digital service, which means our sellers would need to register for the VAT Moss scheme.

I believe some companies like Etsy decided to take on the tax liability on behalf of their sellers, but there are legal implications in doing that. The legal set up is different on Etsy anyway, as they receive the payment (through Etsy payments) and then pass the funds on to the seller, whereas on Folksy we don’t keep or retain any of the money at any point during the sale - the transaction goes through Paypal and Stripe, and directly to the seller. As a much smaller company, we sadly can’t afford costs associated with making the legal and financial changes to our structure that we would need to make to offer digital downloads, which is a real shame as technology-wise it wouldn’t be that hard for us to do.

You can read more about it all here https://blog.folksy.com/2015/01/08/vat-moss-folksy

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So this means I could sell digital designs that are customized for each customer and then use FOLKSY to sell through, BUT email the finished item when completed?

Yes, you would put a listing on folksy showing what the design was (use variations to add a text box so they can specify the customisation they want) and once the digital design was finished/ customised you would email it to the customer.