BULK PURCHASES: what happens?

[ohamanda]

I'm setting up bulk purchases for my ebook & digital products.



So, if someone orders 100 copies of my ebook, what do they receive? Just a link that says, "you can download this 100 times"? Or 100 different links? If they want to give those 100 digital copies to other people--what's the best way to do that?



Is there a way I can personalize instructions on how/what they are allowed to do with those 100 copies--maybe on the thank you email or download page?



(I'm sure this has been addressed somewhere else. I searched the forum but couldn't quite find the answer & didn't want to purchase 100 copies of my book to find out!)

[E-junkie_Guru]

If you tick the "Let buyer edit quantity" box for a download product, the quantity ordered would multiply the Attempts you allow (without affecting the Hours limit) on the single link we issue to that buyer -- e.g., if you normally allow 5 Attempts within 120 Hours, a buyer ordering qty=100 of that item would receive one link valid for 500 Attempts within 120 Hours.



This help page explains how to customize the thank-you/download pages we generate for you, though bear in mind such customizations would appear for every buyer:

http://www.e-junkie.com/ej/help.custom.thankyou-page.htm



That said, bear in mind it's not even necessary to download a file multiple times to get multiple copies of that file. Users can freely copy or share any file on their computer, so they could just download the file once and share copies of it to 100 people. This is one reason we recommend providing ebooks in PDF format, which would allow you to set up our PDF Stamping feature to deter file sharing:

http://www.e-junkie.com/ej/selling-ebooks.htm



If you're selling a bulk purchase to a specific group of people, you may just want to take payment from the group leader independently of our system, and use the Send Free Download Link feature in your E-junkie Seller Admin to issue a link to the group leader, using their email address and something identifying the group as the First/Last Name. This also allows you to type a custom thank-you email to the recipient that would accompany the link, e.g. stating any special instructions or terms for the link you're providing. Free links sent in this manner would engage PDF Stamping if you'd set that up for the relevant product. The group leader would then download one master copy from this link and distribute it to the rest of the group on their own, by whatever means they wish (e.g. as printed copies, email attachments, DropBox, etc.).

[E-junkie_Guru]

Another approach you could take is to create 100 single-use Discount Codes good for the full price of the product, then provide a list of those codes to the bulk purchaser. They would distribute a code to each recipient, who would then use their code to place an order on your site for free. This is similar to setting up Gift Coupon codes, just without creating a product to sell the codes:

http://www.e-junkie.com/ej/tips.gift-coupons.htm#online



Note that the number of Free Checkout orders you can accept daily is limited according to your subscription plan:

http://www.e-junkie.com/ej/free-checkout.htm



Also, bear in mind only a few Free Checkout orders can be placed from the same IP address on the same day, so this approach may not be suitable if the free orders would need to be placed from the same location (e.g. office or school campus) on the same day or even over a span of a few days. However, if the recipient group could reasonably be instructed to place their orders from home or elsewhere, or if the coupon codes would be distributed sporadically on an individual basis, that would probably work out fine.