Posted by the FileFreight team. We build a flat-rate delivery tool for digital sellers: secure download links, per-buyer PDF stamping, and license keys. This is the exact checklist we walk sellers through when they move a catalog — including the parts where we're the wrong tool.
Most sellers don't switch delivery platforms because the math is unclear. They don't switch because migration sounds like a weekend of broken links and angry buyers. Done in the right order, it's an afternoon — and nothing breaks, because you never turn the old platform off until the new one is proven.
Before you touch anything (30 minutes)
- Export your customer list. Names, emails, products bought, dates. This is your asset, not the platform's — and on some platforms it's the only copy you'll ever get. Save it twice.
- Export your product list. Title, price, file(s), license terms for every product. A spreadsheet is fine.
- Download a clean copy of every file you sell. Not the version buyers get — the master. If your only copy lives inside the platform, download it now.
- Screenshot your current fee situation. Last 3 months of per-sale fees from your platform's dashboard. This is your before/after baseline — and your motivation on step 9.
Rebuild the catalog (1–2 hours)
- Recreate products smallest-first. Start with your slowest seller. Set price, upload the master file, set license terms (uses, expiry, revocation behavior) to match what buyers were promised on the old platform — changing terms silently mid-migration is how refunds happen.
- Reissue license keys deliberately. Existing buyers' keys were bought and paid for. Either honor the old keys forever (keep the old platform's delivery alive for them) or issue equivalent new keys and email them. Never just let old keys die.
- Do a real test purchase. Use a second email address, buy your cheapest product with a real card, and click the download link like a buyer: check the email lands fast, the link works, a PDF is stamped with the buyer identity if you use stamping, and a refund revokes access. If you haven't tested the refund path, you haven't tested migration.
Cut over (30 minutes)
- Point your own links first. Your website, link-in-bio, email signatures, pinned posts — anywhere you control the destination. Marketplace listings you don't fully control come last, or not at all (see caveats).
- Email your list once. Short version: "same products, new checkout, your old downloads still work." Include the support address. One email, not a sequence — this is logistics, not a launch.
- Run both platforms in parallel for at least 2 weeks. Old links in old emails keep working, stragglers land safely, and you can compare fee statements against your step-4 baseline with real numbers.
The honest caveats (read these)
- We have no automatic importer. Full disclosure: recreating a catalog in FileFreight today is manual. That's why we do it for you — free white-glove migration for our first 20 sellers (products, files, and license keys rebuilt by hand within 48 hours). If you have 300 products and no help, any platform without an importer is a real cost. Count it.
- We're not a merchant of record. No tax/VAT handling: payments go to your own Stripe account and tax responsibility stays with you. If your current platform remits digital VAT for you and you sell heavily into the EU, that's a service worth real money — price it before you move.
- We're not a marketplace and not a Shopify app. No discovery, no search traffic, no storefront. Keep whatever marketplace brings you buyers; move the sales your own audience generates. And never divert a marketplace-initiated order off-platform to dodge fees — several marketplaces prohibit exactly that, and they're right to.
- Below ~$200/month in sales, don't move. Per-sale fees at that volume cost less than a flat $19/month plan. The checklist above is for sellers whose step-4 screenshots show real money leaving every month.
When it's worth it
If your fee baseline shows $40, $80, $150/month in per-sale platform fees on direct sales, the afternoon pays for itself in the first month. That's the trade FileFreight is built for: FileFreight — Free plan is $0 + 5% per sale, Pro is $19/month flat with 0% per-sale fees, expiring download links, per-buyer PDF stamping, and license keys with revocation. First 20 sellers get the migration done for them, free.
Written from the migration walkthroughs we've done with sellers leaving per-sale-fee platforms, October 2026. Our pricing: getfilefreight.com/#pricing.
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