Product types: physical, digital & downloadable

Updated Jun 3, 2026 Products & Catalog

In TitanCart you don’t pick a “product type” from a dropdown when you create a product. Every product starts as a physical item, and you turn it into a digital download — or a product that is both — using two checkboxes in the product editor. This article explains the three cases and how each behaves at checkout.

1. Physical products (the default)

A new product is physical out of the box. That means:

It needs to be shipped — Requires shipping is on, so the cart shows the shipping section, picker and cost.
It has shipping details — weight and dimensions on the Shipping tab feed your shipping rates.
Its stock can be tracked — the Track inventory setting on the General tab decrements the quantity after each sale.

If your whole catalogue is physical goods, you don’t need to change anything here.

2. Digital / downloadable products

To sell a downloadable file, a license key, or anything delivered electronically, open the product’s General tab and tick Digital product (“This product is delivered digitally — no inventory, no shipping required”).

Turning this on changes three things:

No shipping. It automatically unchecks Requires shipping, so the cart skips the shipping section and cost for this product.
No inventory. Digital products have infinite supply, so Track inventory is switched off and ignored — you never run out.
A Downloads tab appears. This is where you attach the file(s) the customer receives.

Note: The Downloads tab only shows up after the product has been saved at least once with Digital product ticked. Save the product, then reopen it to see the tab.

3. The Downloads tab

On the Downloads tab you upload the files customers get after a paid order. Each buyer receives a unique signed download link — they can’t share a single public URL. Two limits govern those links:

Download link lifetime (TTL) — how long the link stays valid after purchase. Blank or 0 means unlimited (or inherits your global default).
Maximum downloads — how many times each customer can download a file before the link is exhausted. Blank or 0 means unlimited.

Use + Add file to upload each file. You can add several files to one product.

Tip: The per-product TTL and max-download fields are overrides. Leave them blank to inherit the store-wide defaults you set under Settings, and only fill them in for products that need different limits. Remember these override values save when you click Save on the product editor, not when you edit a file in the list.

4. Products that are both shipped and downloadable

Some products are physical and come with a digital file — a vinyl record bundled with a download, for example. For that case:

On the General tab, tick Digital product and add the file on the Downloads tab.
Then go to the Shipping tab and re-tick Requires shipping (“This product needs to be physically shipped”).

Because ticking Digital auto-unchecks shipping, re-checking it on the Shipping tab is the step that makes a product both downloadable and shippable. Set its weight and dimensions there too so it gets a shipping rate.

5. Download limits and agreements

Store-wide download defaults (the link lifetime and max-download count that apply when a product leaves its fields blank) live under Settings. If you need customers to accept terms before downloading, TitanCart also has a Download Agreements area under Settings where you can require and version an agreement. Set these once and most products can simply inherit them.

Coming from WooCommerce

If you used WooCommerce’s Downloadable and Virtual checkboxes: TitanCart’s single Digital product checkbox covers both — it removes shipping (the “virtual” behaviour) and lets you attach files (the “downloadable” behaviour). A product that needs neither shipping nor a file (a pure service) can simply have Requires shipping unchecked. When you migrate from WooCommerce, downloadable and virtual products are detected and flagged automatically, though you should re-check that each download file is attached afterwards.

Troubleshooting

The Downloads tab isn’t showing. Tick Digital product on the General tab, save the product, then reopen it. The tab is only present for saved digital products.
My digital product is asking for a shipping address at checkout. Open the Shipping tab and confirm Requires shipping is unchecked. If another item in the same cart is physical, the cart will still collect a shipping address for that item.
A physical + digital bundle skips shipping. Ticking Digital unchecks shipping automatically — re-tick Requires shipping on the Shipping tab for bundle products.
The stock field is greyed out. That’s expected for digital products — they have infinite supply, so inventory tracking doesn’t apply.
A customer says their download link stopped working. Check the product’s download lifetime (TTL) and maximum-downloads limits — the link expires once either is reached. Increase the limit or place a fresh order to issue a new link.