Tips and Tricks WP eCommerce

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How to Show a Download Button to Members and a Buy Button to Non Members

In this article (and video) I am going to explain how to offer a digital item for sale and for download with just one shortcode. Essentially what we will be doing is checking if the current visitor is an approved member or not, and then automatically displaying the appropriate button to them based on that criteria.

As expected, permitted members will see a download button for the digital item, while non (or anonymous) members will see a purchase button of some kind (buy now, add to cart, subscribe).

Before we continue, let’s make certain that you have the proper plugins and add-ons in place.

This tutorial requires the following plugins:

And the following free eStore add-ons:

How to Provide Digital Downloads to Members Only

Once all of the above software is in place, please follow along with the steps below.

  1. In your WordPress dashboard, go to WP eStore >> Members Only Button
  2. Enter in the WP eStore Product ID for the product that you want to setup. You can go to WP eStore >> Manage Products to find the ID for the product.
  3. Choose from one of the Fancy displays. You can start with “1” (without quotes) and modify it from the generated shortcode if you want to try a different product display later. Here are the different options.
  4. In the Permitted Membership Level IDs include all of the membership levels that you want to have download access to the product. Separate each ID with a dash or hyphen. You can go to WP eMember >> Membership Level to find the IDs for the membership levels.
  5. In the Button for Non Permitted Users box enter the value for the type of button that you want to use. 1 is for “add to cart” and 2 is for “buy now” but you can have it display a subscribe (3) or download (4) button for non-permitted members as well.
  6. Specify a button type for “permitted” users now. Here you would most likely use “4” to create a download button, although all other button types are still available.
  7. Click the Generate Shortcode button.
  8. Paste the generated shortcode into a post or page.

Please post below if there are any questions.

How to Use Buy Now buttons Using the WordPress eStore Shopping Cart Plugin

WordPress eStore allows you to create “Buy Now” type button functionality so your customers don’t have to add items to the cart. The “Buy Now” type buttons take the customers directly to the payment page for payment when clicked.

Creating a PayPal Buy Now Button

Adding a “Buy Now” type button is similar to adding an Add to Cart button. The main difference is in the shortcode that is used to place the button on a post or page. To insert a “Buy Now” type button add the following shortcode in a post or page:

[wp_eStore_buy_now_button id=PRODUCT-ID]

Replace ‘PRODUCT-ID’ with the actual product id of the product you are selling. For example:

[wp_eStore_buy_now_button id=1]

Try clicking on the following Buy button to see how it works:

product image audio selling
Name: Demo Product Four
Description: Demonstrates the
‘Buy Now’ type button
Price: $1.00

Each ‘Buy Now’ type button can have a unique return URL. When the return URL is used the customer is sent to the specified URL after Payment.

Customizing the “Buy” Button Image

You can customize the buy button image with your unique custom designed image by specifying the image URL in the “Button Image URL” field of the product.

For example I have used the well known “Belcher Button” image for the following buy button. It looks a lot like what you may have seen on may other sales pages, doesn’t it? 🙂

Using a Fancy Display with the Buy Now Button

Demo Buy Now button
Demo Buy Now button
This is a test description. This description is here to show how the description of this product looks like when used with the WordPress Shopping Cart.
Price: $1.00

Enter the following shortcode to display the product like the one above (1 is the product id of the product in this example):

[wp_eStore_buy_now_fancy id=1]

Display Buy Now button from Any WordPress Theme File

You can also use the following PHP function if you want to show the ‘Buy Now’ type buttons from your wordpress theme’s template files (eg. on the sidebar ‘sidebar.php’):

print_eStore_buy_now_button(PRODUCT-ID)

So adding the following line to a PHP file will display a Buy Now button for the product who’s product id is 4:

<?php echo print_eStore_buy_now_button(4); ?>

Creating a Buy Now Button For Other Payment Gateways

Check the following documentation to learn how to create a buy now button for the other eStore gateways: