The Challenge
Some Shopify problems come up for merchant after merchant, and no theme tweak solves them cleanly.
- Parcel Rules began with Orchard Street, a store on Shopify’s Advanced plan. Custom checkout rules built for one store only work on Shopify Plus, the most expensive plan. The store’s choices were to upgrade or pay for a separate monthly shipping app.
- Vaulted Downloads began with Little Preppies, an Australian store selling school-readiness printables, moving from WooCommerce to Shopify. The download app they would normally have used wouldn’t install on their store, and other options meant storage caps, bandwidth fees or price rises.
The Approach
I built each as a solution for the client first. When it was clear the same problem was waiting for other stores, I turned it into a public app on the Shopify App Store.
Each app does one narrow job, works with the way Shopify is built rather than against it, and can be installed by a merchant without a developer. Both are priced simply, with a free trial.
The Solution
Vaulted Downloads (Shopify App Store listing) lets merchants sell digital products such as PDFs, audio, video and course content.
- Safe by default: files are stored securely, either set up for you or in the merchant’s own storage
- Downloads where customers look: buttons appear on the order email, thank-you page and customer account
- Control over access: limits and expiry can be set, and access is removed automatically on refunds and cancellations
- Unlimited downloads: customers are never blocked by a plan limit when they come back for their file
- Protected course links: a lesson can link to a file that only people who bought it can open, and the link keeps working when the file is updated
- Video and audio that plays online, with seeking
- Easy upkeep: staff can look up an order, restore or remove access, upload a new version of a file and export a list
- Stamped PDFs: a PDF can carry the buyer’s order number, so a leaked copy can be traced
- Private: the app doesn’t hold customers’ personal details
Parcel Rules (Shopify App Store listing) adds shipping and checkout logic using Shopify Functions, so rules run natively in checkout on Basic, Shopify and Advanced plans, not just Plus.
- Free shipping by collection: customers earn it by spending enough within chosen collections, counted separately from the rest of the cart
- Delivery zones by postcode: restrict certain products to certain areas, with a message you write
- Free gift with purchase, added and removed automatically, and never charged
- Checkout rules: require a field, or set delivery date rules such as no Sundays or blackout dates
- Delivery option rules: hide or reorder delivery options once an order passes a spend, without ever removing the last option
- A heads-up when other discounts stop free shipping combining
The Result
Both apps are live on the Shopify App Store, available to any merchant.