Alva Digital Downloads quick sell is for when you have a file and no product yet. One screen takes the file, a product name and a price, then creates the Shopify product, attaches the file for delivery and creates a checkout link that takes buyers straight to checkout. There is nothing to set up in Shopify first.
Before you start
Quick sell is part of checkout links, which need a paid plan. On the Free plan the Quick sell button does not appear, and the quick sell page shows "Checkout links need a paid plan". You need one file ready to upload — you can add more files to the product later. If the product already exists in Shopify, use Create checkout link instead.
Create the product and link
Open Alva Digital Downloads in your Shopify admin, click Checkout links and click Quick sell at the top of the page. If you have no links yet, the same button sits next to Create your first checkout link.
1. Upload your file
Under Your file, choose a file or drop it on the box. This is what the buyer downloads after paying. It is uploaded when you click Create product and link in step 4.
2. Name the product
Product name is filled in from the file name, without the extension. Change it to what you want buyers to see: it appears at checkout and on their download page. Names can be up to 200 characters.
3. Set the price
Type the Price as a plain number with up to two decimal places. A full stop or a comma both work for decimals, so 9.99 and 9,99 are the same price. Enter 0 to give the file away — buyers still go through checkout to get it.
4. Create it
Click Create product and link. The button reads Uploading… while your file uploads, then Creating… for a few seconds. When it finishes you see Ready to share with your link underneath.
What quick sell creates
Quick sell makes three things, in this order, and each one is an ordinary piece of your store that you can edit afterwards like anything else.
| What | Where | Details |
|---|---|---|
| A product | Shopify | Your name and price, product type "Digital Download", no shipping and no stock tracking. It is published to the Online Store sales channel once Shopify confirms the price, so it also appears in your store like any other product. It has no image or description until you add them in Shopify. |
| Your file, attached | Alva Digital Downloads | The file is attached to the product, so every paid order delivers it — whether the buyer came through the link or through your store. |
| A checkout link | Alva Digital Downloads | Named after the product, going straight to checkout. If the app is allowed to create URL redirects on your store you also get a short link on your own domain; otherwise you get the full address, which always works. |
The price is confirmed before anything goes live
Shopify creates a new product first, at 0.00, and sets its price in a separate step. Alva Digital Downloads creates it as a draft, which nobody can buy, and makes it active and publishes it to your Online Store only after Shopify confirms that price change. It then reads the price back from Shopify before it creates a link. If the price did not save, the product stays a draft, no link is created, and you are told why.
The message starts "Your link was not created, because we could not confirm that Shopify has the price you entered." The product is in Shopify as a draft. Open it, set the price you entered, then press Try again. The retry reuses that same product, checks the price again, makes it active, publishes it and finishes the link.
If Shopify confirmed the price change but the price cannot be read back, the link is still created, with the warning "We could not confirm the price" — or "We could not confirm the product is published" when Shopify did not answer in time. Open the product and check the price is right before you share the link.
If it stops part-way
Quick sell never deletes the product, file or link it has already made. If a later step fails, the result card lists What exists right now — for example, that the product was created and the file is attached — so you know exactly where you are.
- Try again reuses the product from your last attempt. It will not create a second one.
- If the card says a product may have been created, check your products in Shopify before trying again.
- If a reused product is not published to your Online Store, publish it in Shopify, then press Try again.
- If you already have an unfinished digital product with the same name, you are asked to pick Use that product or Create a new one anyway.
- Sell something else clears the form so you can start over with a different file.
A finished link can also carry a publishing warning. "Not published to your online store yet" means buyers cannot use the link until the product is published: open the product in Shopify and publish it to the Online Store sales channel. "We could not confirm the product is published" means Shopify did not answer in time: open the link settings and use Test this link — this often clears within seconds.
What to do next
Copy the address under Your link and share it anywhere a buyer can tap it. From the same card you can go further:
- Open the link settings to download a QR code, test the link, add a discount or turn on a pre-checkout page. See Discounts, expiry and usage limits on checkout links.
- Add to my link-in-bio page puts the product on your bio page. If you do not have one yet, Set up a link-in-bio page takes you there — see Set up your link-in-bio page.
- View in Shopify opens the product so you can add images and a description.
Posting the link on social media? Read Checkout links in Instagram and TikTok first.
When quick sell is not the right tool
Quick sell makes a one-tap link with no page in front of checkout, so it cannot sell a personalized product. If the file is already attached to a personalized product, it stops and asks you to create the link from the Checkout links page instead — see Sell personalized products with a checkout link.
Frequently asked questions
Yes. Quick sell creates an ordinary Shopify product with your name and price, no shipping and no stock tracking, and publishes it to the Online Store sales channel once Shopify confirms the price. You can edit it in Shopify like any other product, and orders from your store deliver the file too.
Alva Digital Downloads makes the product active and publishes it only after Shopify confirms the price. If the price does not save, the product stays a draft and no link is created. Set the price you entered on the product in Shopify, then press Try again to finish.
No. Try again reuses the product from your last attempt and carries on from where it stopped. Quick sell never deletes what it has already created, so nothing you made is lost.
Yes. Enter 0 as the price. Buyers still go through checkout, which is how the order is recorded and the download is delivered.
Yes. Quick sell attaches one file to start with. Open the product in Alva Digital Downloads afterwards to add more files.
No. Quick sell creates a link that goes straight to checkout, with no page where the buyer could type their personalization. Create the link from the Checkout links page and turn on the pre-checkout page with personalization capture.