Creating a purchase / rental product on Vimeo OTT

This article discusses how to create a purchase/rental product.

In this article

• Create a purchase/rental product
• How do I distribute my product?
• Add videos to a released product

Create a purchase/rental product

You can create a new purchase/rental product on the Products page.

1. Start by clicking + Create product at the top of the Products page

2. Select Buy and rent

3. Add information and assets under the Basic Info tab, including:

• Title - Title the Product to describe what it contains.
  Example: “Purple Fitness - Weekend 1"
  
  
• Description - Describe the Product your audience will be buying.
  Example: "Buy or Rent Weekend 1 of Purple Fitness' Weekend Workouts!"
• If you have a translated version of your product title and description, click Add translations, select the language(s), and type in the translation. These translations will appear for users who select the corresponding language anywhere on your site, including the checkout page.
• Make sure you’ve enabled translations in your site settings in order for this to work.
  
  
• Thumbnail - This image appears in customer emails, trailers, Facebook, Twitter, your website, and in Vimeo OTT Apps. Images should use a 16:9 ratio. We recommend 1920px × 1080px to ensure it scales well.
  
  
• Additional thumbnails: These will be automatically generated based on your Thumbnail but you have the option to add custom assets when featuring this product in a different aspect or environment. Options here include a vertical, square, featured image, and featured mobile image.

4.  Next, head to the Distribution section to set the status of your video.

• Choose Pre-order If you want this product to be set to pre-order mode. If you want to sell pre-orders, follow this guide.
• Choose Ready to Sell if you're ready to start selling once the product is all setup.
• You can also choose to block or allow your content in specific countries.

5. Next, add your Content.

• If you've already uploaded your product's trailer, click Choose trailer; otherwise, click the upload link below it to upload a new video as the trailer.
• Below, add your main video(s), live events, or extras by clicking the Add Content button.
• Click the checkbox next to the items you want to add. Be sure to click Add at the bottom of the window when you're done.

• Once added, you can Enable downloads for each video. Download options are not available for content in the Live Events or Extras tabs.

6.  Pricing is where you'll set the purchase and/or rental price for your product.

• Pay what you want - Enable Pay-What-You-Want pricing to allow customers to pay more than the base price. 
• Rental period - Establish the length your customers can rent the product for.
  • The default setting grants unlimited, non-expiring access, with optional limitations of 30 days or 14 days.
    ⚠️Note: Products that include live events cannot be made available for rent.
• Tax model - This notifies you how your customers in certain countries will be taxed.
• Buy price - Set your purchase price. Purchases include unlimited streaming and downloads for the viewers
• Rental price - If you want to enable rentals, set your rental price.
• Accept international currencies - Enable international pricing for your product.

7.  Next, you can add Extras to your product.

• Click Add files to choose from your uploaded extras and add them to the product. Selecting Upload will take you to your uploaded extras. This step is optional.

8. In Advanced, you can customize the messaging we send when a customer makes a purchase. This is optional.

• If you have translated versions of your message, click Add translations, choose your language, and enter the translated version of your message.
• Customers who have translated your site into the corresponding language will see this version instead of the default English message.
• Make sure you’ve enabled translations in your site settings in order for this to work.

9.  Finally, click Save to create the product and it will be available for purchase/rental. See below for how to share it and sell it.

        Note that below your settings are two additional options:

• Pause sales: This will take your product offline and make it so that new users cannot purchase it. Any existing users that have already purchased will continue to have access to your product.
• Remove: This will take your product offline and make it so no one can buy it. Note that this is only an option if your product hasn't had any sales. If you've had sales, you can only pause it.

⚠️Note: At least one product (subscription, purchase, or rental) must remain published for your site to stay online. If no products are available, your site will automatically be taken offline.

How do I distribute my product?

If you have the product available, you are now selling. Here are some next steps:

• Share the checkout link so others can purchase / rent: Share it on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, etc. To get to the checkout page of your product, click the View checkout button on the main Products page and it will be copied to your clipboard. 
   
  This is what the checkout page to purchase your product looks like for others: 
  
• Add your product to a category: Categories allow you to group together videos, events, collections (for subscriptions, such as series), and transactional products. For example, each category could be a different genre.

How do I add videos to a released product?

If you want to add videos to a product that has already been sold and released to your audience, here are the steps:

1. Upload the videos you want to add to the videos page.
2. Navigate to the product's edit page and then to the Content tab.
3. Choose between videos or live events and click the checkbox next to the video you want to add.
4. Click Save on the product.

⚠️Note: If you're adding new content to a transactional product, we recommend exporting a transaction CSV, sorting by the product in question, and then emailing the customers using your email client or a marketing email service (if you have one) to let them know there is new content available.