Digital Product Automation Walkables File Downloads Automation
1. The Business
Walkables creates digital self-guided walking tours and travel experiences that customers can enjoy using their smartphone and headphones.
The products are delivered digitally, which means customers need access to their purchased files as soon as their order has been completed.
For a digital product business, the customer journey does not end when someone clicks the Buy button.
The files need to be delivered reliably, the customer needs to receive the appropriate information and the process needs to work whether there is one order or many.
This made the project an ideal opportunity for digital product automation.
2. The Problem
When a customer purchases a digital product, there are several steps that need to happen after the payment has been completed.
The appropriate product files need to be identified, the customer needs to receive access to those files and the order needs to be processed correctly.
Without automation, these steps could require manual intervention.
That might be manageable when a business is starting out and only receives a small number of orders. But as sales increase, manually processing every purchase quickly becomes repetitive.
For Walkables, the objective was to create a system where completed purchases could automatically trigger the appropriate file delivery process.
3. The Challenge
The challenge was to make digital product fulfilment reliable without adding unnecessary administration.
Unlike a physical product, there is nothing to pack or post. But that does not mean digital products have no fulfilment process.
The system still needs to recognise the purchase, determine what the customer has bought and provide the appropriate files.
There is also an important customer-experience consideration.
When someone purchases a digital product, they reasonably expect to receive access quickly. Delays can create unnecessary customer support enquiries and additional work for the business.
The goal was therefore to use digital product automation to make the fulfilment process happen automatically after a successful purchase.
4. The Solution
We created an automated digital delivery workflow for Walkables.
The digital product automation connects the purchase process with the appropriate file-delivery process.
Once an order reaches the appropriate completed stage, the workflow can determine what needs to happen next and handle the repetitive fulfilment steps automatically.
This removes the need for someone to manually process every digital order.
The customer still receives the product they purchased, but the administrative work required to make that happen is handled by the workflow in the background.
The result is a simpler process for both the business and the customer.
5. How It Works
The workflow can be represented simply as:
Customer Purchase → Order Completed → Automation → Identify Product → Prepare Files → Customer Receives Download
The digital product automation is triggered by the appropriate order event.
From there, the workflow handles the defined steps required to deliver the customer’s purchased files.
This means the business does not need to manually monitor every completed order and perform the same fulfilment process each time.
The automation does the repetitive work while the business remains in control of the overall customer experience.
6. The Outcome
The completed workflow provides Walkables with a more efficient way to fulfil digital product orders.
The key benefits include:
- Automatic digital product delivery
- Less repetitive order administration
- Fewer manual fulfilment steps
- Faster access for customers
- A more consistent delivery process
- Less reliance on someone manually processing every order
- A workflow that can support growth in order volume
The biggest benefit of the digital product automation is that fulfilment can continue in the background.
A customer can make a purchase without the business owner needing to stop what they are doing to manually locate files and send them.
That creates a better customer experience while also removing a repetitive administrative task from the business.
7. What We Learned
This project demonstrates that automation does not need to be complicated to provide real value.
Digital products are particularly well suited to automation because the fulfilment process is predictable.
When a customer purchases a particular product, there is a defined sequence of events that needs to happen.
That makes it possible to build a workflow around the process and allow technology to handle the repetitive steps.
It also demonstrates an important principle for growing businesses:
Don’t wait until a repetitive process becomes a problem before looking at automation.
Building the right workflow early can allow a business to handle increasing demand without increasing administration at the same rate.
8. Could This Work For Your Business?
Your business does not need to sell walking tours or digital downloads to benefit from this type of automation.
Many businesses have a process that begins when a customer makes a purchase, submits a form or completes an action.
After that event, someone may need to:
- Send an email
- Provide a document
- Create a customer record
- Generate a task
- Notify a team member
- Update another system
- Provide access to information
- Start the next stage of the customer journey
If those steps happen repeatedly, there may be an opportunity for automation.
Digital product automation is just one example of a much broader principle: when a customer action consistently triggers the same sequence of business tasks, those tasks may be suitable for automation.
At Simple Automations, we start with the process rather than the technology.
We look at what happens in your business today, identify the repetitive work and determine where automation can realistically make the process simpler.
You don’t need to know which software to use or how the workflow should be built.
Start with the problem. We’ll look at the process.
Explore Our Automation Solutions →
Learn About Small Business Automation →
Technology that makes business simpler.
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