How can a shopper buy and download a software product when checking out?

[joseibarra]

Miva Merchant 9.0003
MivaScript Engine v5.22
Database API: mysql

We have a piece of third party software as a product for purchase and now want to let a shopper somehow buy it, fill out their customer information, pay for it and download the software from within Miva and of course there will be nothing to ship - we want them to just download the software.

I found this old topic but it is not enough information for me to figure out if this is the way to do it, if there is a better way to do it, can it be done without a third party module, and can't tell if this idea even worked or not:

http://extranet.miva.com/forums/show...ibute+shipping

Can someone help us get started on this idea or point us in the right direction and if we can get it working, there will be a better description of how to do it for somebody else some day.

[oliverands]

Re: How can a shopper buy and download a software product when checking out?

The eMediaSales Softgoods and Digital Downloads module will do this for you. I believe it's what Miva uses in the app store now.

http://www.mvtrocks.com/p-EMEDIA-ESOFTGOODS.html

[ids]

Re: How can a shopper buy and download a software product when checking out?

I also have an electronic download solution:

http://www.southbound.com/ids/produc...vdownload.html

Please Contact me directly if you have questions.

Scott

[joseibarra]

Re: How can a shopper buy and download a software product when checking out?

Duly noted and thanks for the reply.

The potential problem with that is it has a monthly subscription fee and for this one customer of ours the store owner may not think the module (while it looks feature rich) will make it worth the cost and recurring fee. The store owner just doesn't care for monthly fees in general, but I will bring it up as an option.

Any other ideas out there using features that are already in Miva?

[Bruce - PhosphorMedia]

Re: How can a shopper buy and download a software product when checking out?

So....how does the store owner pay for hosting the site...for his internet access...his phone...for oh, just about anything?

Almost ALL software developers are either going towards a subscription basis, or going out of business. Software is no longer a 'product' that can be made and delivered and then the check cashed and the author can walk away. The software industry, especially on the internets, is too dynamic and requires at least constant observation of ecosystem in which is used in order to keep working.

[Rick Wilson]

Re: How can a shopper buy and download a software product when checking out?

Also they sell it for a 2 year license. So you can buy it for $400 or so for the first two years, then if in 2 years we still haven't built it in, you can choose to pay for another 2 years or not. That for whatever reason sometimes makes it easier for people to get their head around.

Philosophically though Bruce is right, all software is fundamentally subscription (either for support, updates, or something) especially when it's mission critical.

[Bruce - PhosphorMedia]

Re: How can a shopper buy and download a software product when checking out?

Here's another point...

If this was "built in", or you could use 'built in' functionality to accomplish what the client needs, and you charge the client to set it up, do you go back in six months and make adjustments for changes to either Merchant or just business needs? If you do, do you charge the client for these changes?

This is why its often cost effective to use add on products EVEN if there is a way to do it with 'built in' capability.

A classic example, we sell a product called Easy Contact. While its more than JUST a contact us form, there several customers who use it primarily for that purpose. Now, there are many ways you can do a Contact us form with either "free" scripts or using built in functionality. However, when it comes to something like SPAM blocking, you'd have to go back into each installation and hopefully be able to block the latest SPAM methods. With Easy Contact, we do this all the time. When there is a new exploit, we patch it and all you have to do is update the module.

[joseibarra]

Re: How can a shopper buy and download a software product when checking out?

Understood.

Now the store owner says they don't really want/need the shopper to be able to actually download the software, somehow when the order is processed they will handle it in some way so the shopper gets an email (or something) that tells them where to go to download the software (not from the Miva store) and the guy who writes the software will somehow know about that and send them an activation/unlock code or something.

Too much somehow and something for me and I can think of lots of reasons that might result in a not so good customer experience if all those somehows don't happen in a timely manner (like pretty instantly).

I'm going to get the process of how they think it is supposed to work from end to end explained to me again since maybe I am just not getting it...

[Bruce - PhosphorMedia]

Re: How can a shopper buy and download a software product when checking out?

yea, someone (probably not you) is doing some serious "i don't care about my business so long as my preset notions are maintained" voodoo right now.

If you want, I'll personally tell him that that if he's not willing to pay 300/400 for this feature from IDS (or the 200 per year or whatever MVTROCKs wants), then he doesn't really have to worry about this feature at all since he'll be out of business in a year.