September 20, 2022
Hello, BFFs!
We’re back with week three in our Christmas in September series, where we’re releasing everything we’ve got in the BookFunnel vault. We hope you’re enjoying it as much as we are. Which is to say, a lot.
We’re kicking this week off with a feature that seems small, but is actually a game changer. If you’re selling direct and using BookFunnel delivery actions, we’re about to make your day.
Sales Delivery Conundrum
We’ve offered sales delivery for five years. Authors can integrate with their preferred sales platform, and BookFunnel will send their buyers a unique download link as soon as they purchase an ebook (or audiobook!). This works flawlessly for nearly every buyer. Why “nearly“? Because, email is… tricky. Sending your buyer a delivery email does not guarantee that buyer will receive the email. It may get delayed, or go to a typo’d email address, or get sent to spam or “Promotions”, or… just get gobbled up by email goblins.
This was the missing piece to our perfect sales delivery pie. The obvious answer is for authors to just send every reader to the same download link to get their book… but that isn’t what authors want. Authors want each buyer to get a unique link to download their (watermarked?) ebook.
So, how can BookFunnel get each buyer to their unique download link without relying on email? We needed somewhere to send readers after purchase that could magically detect who they were so they could get their books, and even start reading, instantly.
Checkout Delivery Pages
Enter the Checkout Delivery Page. It’s a small thing (just a link on your dashboard), but it’s a lifesaver. A checkout delivery page is exactly what you think it is—a delivery page you link to after checkout!
With a checkout delivery page, a buyer completes a sale in your online store and is sent to your checkout delivery page on BookFunnel to get their books.
Sounds simple, right? Did you miss the magic? Here it is again: A buyer—every buyer—is sent to a checkout delivery page—the same checkout delivery page across your entire store—to get their books!
You send every buyer to the exact same link. They all click the same URL, but they each see a different version of the delivery page. They see their own email address (even if they typo’d it), and a list of the books they just purchased, each with a unique download link to get their books. Sorcery!
How does it work?
The Checkout Delivery Page on BookFunnel is connected directly to your store delivery settings. When you send a buyer to your checkout delivery link, we can look them up! In most cases, the reader arrives on the checkout delivery page and BookFunnel can instantly find their most recent purchase and show their order details and download link(s).
If BookFunnel can’t find their transaction automatically, they can search for it using their email address. This is all specific to your store and your sales transactions. It is not a global search of all of their activity on BookFunnel or even just on your account. It only searches your sales transactions.
And, if a reader lands on your checkout delivery page and we can’t find their purchase, they can contact BookFunnel Help directly. No need to email you.
Use it Everywhere
Make it easy for your buyers to get to your checkout delivery page. Link to it everywhere you communicate with buyers post-purchase. Include your checkout delivery link:
✅ In the receipt email
✅ On the purchase thank you page
✅ In every automated follow-up email you send after purchase
✅ If your platform supports* it, redirect readers immediately after purchase to your checkout delivery page
Buyers will still receive their delivery email from BookFunnel, so you can incorporate your checkout delivery link gradually. You don’t have to rush out and change all of your product communication at once. But, you’re probably going to want to!
Customize Your Link
And, we wouldn’t be BookFunnel if we didn’t let you customize the link. You can change the slug (the last part of a full URL) to match your author or store name right on your dashboard. All checkout links are currently on our domain, but we’re working to add support for custom domains and themes on those pages as well. More to come on that.
So, that’s a Checkout Delivery Page, our powerful little problem-solver. We designed these pages to help our authors who are selling direct, and the number of you out there is steadily growing. We have authors setting up their own stores every single day and jumping into the direct selling pool.
Why make readers wait for an email when they can just tap a link and start reading? The faster your readers are enjoying their purchase, the happier we all are. Learn more about checkout delivery pages.
We’ve got more coming this week, so stick around!
* Not every sales platform has an automatic redirect or “bounce” option, but we’ll explore this option in a future post
