Digital products: what to create, where to sell and how much the seller keeps

A digital product is a file or access that you create once and sell many times: an e-book, a template, an online course, a photo. You need no warehouse, packing or shipping, the buyer receives the product immediately, and the thousandth sale costs the same as the first.

That does not mean the money comes by itself. The product has to be created, it needs buyers, and the platforms that have those buyers take part of the price. This guide is about which digital product is worth creating, where to sell it from Lithuania, how much the seller keeps and which rules – on taxes, consumer rights, licences – you need to know in advance.

What kinds of digital products there are

How much the seller keeps

A digital product has no cost per unit, but it does have a cost of sale: the platform fee, or advertising and time costs if you bring in the buyers yourself. The diagram shows the rules of the main platforms, checked on their own pages.

The figures are not directly comparable. 37% from a buyer the platform brought can be more money than 100% from a buyer you would never have found. So the question is not “where is the fee lower” but “who will bring the buyers”.

Platform or your own website

A common route is to start on a platform, where it is easier to get the first sales and reviews, and later invite regular buyers to your own website. Just remember that some platforms, Etsy among them, prohibit moving transactions off the platform.

How to choose what to create

Start small: one set of templates, a short guide, a series of ten photos. A small product shows more quickly whether the topic sells and teaches you the whole process – from creation to payment.

Taxes in Lithuania

Regular sales of digital products are an activity that has to be made official and on which taxes are paid, regardless of whether the money comes from Lithuania or from a foreign platform.

• Form of activity. Most often – self-employment under a certificate (individuali veikla pagal pažymą). Which form suits you is explained in the ACS.lt article “Self-employment: registration certificate or business certificate”.
• VAT registration. Mandatory when income in Lithuania exceeds 45 000 € per year.
• Sales to residents of other EU countries. Digital products are treated as electronic services. As long as the value of such sales (together with distance sales of goods) does not exceed 10 000 € per year, they are taxed in Lithuania. Above the threshold VAT is paid at the rate of the buyer's country – the OSS system is intended for this.
• E-books. From 1 January 2026 the reduced 5% VAT rate applies to them.
• Platform data. Platforms, when required by law, pass sellers' and transaction data to the tax authorities.

Consumer rights: withdrawal within 14 days

When you sell to consumers online, the Civil Code rules on distance contracts apply: the buyer has the right to withdraw from the contract within 14 days. There is an exception for digital content, but it works only when the buyer has expressly agreed in advance that the content be supplied immediately, has acknowledged that they lose the right of withdrawal, and has received confirmation of the contract.

Marketplaces have their own download and refund procedures. When you sell on your own website, you have to implement the consent checkbox and the confirmation email yourself. More detail is in the part of the guide on online courses.

Copyright and artificial intelligence

• Sell only what you created or what you hold a licence for. Fonts, photos, illustrations, music – everything in the product has to be permitted for commercial use.
• A tool's licence is not copyright. Canva allows you to create designs for sale from the elements in its library, but prohibits selling those elements separately.
• Platforms treat AI content differently. Etsy requires AI use to be stated in the listing description. Adobe Stock accepts labelled AI images, Shutterstock and Getty Images do not.
• Ownership of AI works is legally unclear. Canva itself warns that in many countries you may not be the copyright holder of a generated image.

Where to start

1. Choose one type of product and one audience.
2. Create the smallest sellable version within a few weeks, not months.
3. Choose one place to sell and read its fee and content rules.
4. Make the activity official before the first sale.
5. Sell to the first ten buyers and ask what was missing.
6. Only then expand: more products, a second platform, your own website.

If you do not have your own product yet, you can also earn from digital products without creating them – by recommending other authors' products for a commission.