Case study · WordPress and WooCommerce · Built from scratch
EarnEdits
EarnEdits sells editable After Effects project files to video editors, with a membership tier, an affiliate programme and a tutorials library alongside the store. We built it from scratch on WooCommerce, planning the structure, designing the experience and interface, and developing the site.
| Platform | Engagement | Industry | Region | Live site |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| WordPress and WooCommerce | Built from scratch | Digital products for video editors | Worldwide | earnedits.com |
The storefront
The EarnEdits store as it runs today, at earnedits.com. Screens change; this page describes the build rather than the current merchandising.
Open live siteThe challenge
A store selling digital files has no inventory, no shipping and no scarcity, so none of the usual ecommerce levers exist. There is no free-shipping threshold because there is no shipping, and no stock urgency because a file cannot sell out.
What is left is a harder question: how do you persuade someone to pay for a file they cannot hold, in a category where "free After Effects template" is a bottomless search result?
The approach
The answers are structural rather than promotional, and the structure was planned before anything was designed. Products are browsed by editing style rather than by product type, because an editor arrives with an aesthetic in mind and not a product code.
A membership tier sits alongside one-off purchase, because repeat access is worth more to both sides than a single download. Tutorials and a blog carry real weight rather than existing for search, because teaching the tool is how trust is earned in a market where the competing product is free. Interface design and full development followed that structure.
What we did on this engagement
What the build carries
Four structural decisions do most of the work in this store. Each one is a constraint the design had to satisfy rather than a feature added at the end.
WordPress
The content side of the site — tutorials and blog — runs as a first-class part of the build rather than bolted on.
WooCommerce
The store, handling digital downloadable products rather than physical goods with shipping.
Style-led taxonomy
Seven editing-style categories as the primary browse axis, in place of a conventional product-type hierarchy.
Customer account area
A durable downloads library, because a digital purchase is re-downloaded long after the order is forgotten.
Notes from the build
The only WooCommerce build in this section
Three of these case studies are Shopify. This one is WordPress and WooCommerce, and the platform choice follows the product: the store is inseparable from the tutorials and the blog around it, and keeping those on one platform avoids running a marketing site and a storefront that drift apart.
Digital goods change the brief
No inventory, no shipping, no delivery date, no returns window. Every conversion mechanic the other stores in this section rely on is unavailable, so the work went into structure — how the catalogue is organised, how access is granted, and how the surrounding content earns the sale.
No figure on this page is presented as an outcome of our work. The engagement, scope and services listed above are the claims that are ours.
Questions this build answers
Four questions this project raised about building on WordPress and WooCommerce, answered in the terms the work actually set.
Can WooCommerce handle digital downloads at scale?
Yes, and it is one of the cases where WooCommerce is genuinely well suited. Downloadable products are native to it, file access can be tied to an account, and the surrounding content — tutorials, documentation, a blog — lives on the same platform rather than on a separate marketing site that has to be kept in step with the store.
How do you sell a digital product that has a free alternative?
You compete on the things free versions cannot offer: quality that is obvious in a preview, a catalogue organised so the right file is findable in seconds, and support when the file does not behave. Price is not the argument. Time saved is, because the buyer is a professional whose hours cost more than the download.
Should a digital store use memberships or one-off purchases?
It depends on how often the customer comes back. Memberships suit catalogues a buyer draws on repeatedly, and they turn an unpredictable series of small purchases into something both sides can plan around. One-off purchase suits the buyer who needs exactly one thing and should not be asked to subscribe to get it. Offering both is common and reasonable.
What does a customer downloads area need to get right?
Permanence, mostly. A digital purchase gets re-downloaded months later on a different machine, often after the original order email is long gone. The account area has to make everything ever bought findable without a support request, which is a different job from showing an order history.
The services behind this build
Building something like EarnEdits?
Whether it is a new store or one that already exists and needs work, the first conversation is about scope rather than a pitch.
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