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Introduction to products

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This article gives you an introduction to products and helps understand them better.

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What are products & how do I create them?

Products are the backbone of running your business on Vimeo OTT. They are what get sold to your audience from your Vimeo OTT site. They contain your video content and any extra digital material. Below are different types of products you can sell with Vimeo OTT.

⚠️Note: We are currently beta testing a free registration product option. Learn more.

Subscription Products (SVOD)

Subscriptions on Vimeo OTT allow you to charge your customers on a recurring monthly and/or yearly basis for streaming-only access to your video content. You can add new videos as often as you want. You control the branding, organization, and pricing.

You can see a detailed guide on setting up your subscription product in this guide.

Purchase / Rental Products (TVOD)

These types of products are similar to releasing physical copies of your work. You control what videos/extra material goes in them, the pricing, and the release. Here's a summary of how they work:

  • Purchase - After buying, the customer owns a copy of this product. They get unlimited streaming access and can download it if you have that set. They can log in anytime later to watch. Learn more.
    • Pre-orders - For purchase products, you can enable pre-orders. This allows you to collect payment prior to having the content ready to watch. 
  • Rental - Rent out streaming-only access to your video product for a limited amount of time, at a lower price point. 
    product_page.png

Learn more about creating purchase/rental products.

Sell both TVOD and SVOD

To sell both Transaction Products (TVOD) and Subscription Products (SVOD), you need to create a product for each. Here's how to get started:

  1. Click on the Products tab in the admin.
  2. Next, click Create Product at the top of the page.
  3. Here you can choose to make a Subscription or Purchase/Rental product.

There is no limit to the number of Products you create and sell. 

What do I do with products?

With Vimeo OTT, you can package, price, and organize your video content and sell it how you wish: recurring subscriptions, purchases, rentals, or pre-orders. Here are some tips for selling products:

  1. Organize videos into playlists, series, or movie collections - When selling subscriptions with lots of content, collections let you organize how you wish.
  2. Choose what videos to sell and how - Choose which videos you want to sell and package them into a Product accordingly. Consider these popular purchase/rental product packages: 
    1. Just the movie 
    2. The movie + bonus content (Deluxe edition) 
    3. Just the bonus content
  3. Price your work - Creating a product is also where you set the price of your content. 
  4. Offer free-trials - When selling a subscription, you can enable free-trials for a lower barrier to entry for your audience.
  5. Run a pre-order - Pre-orders allow your audience to buy your film before it's released. You can also give them instant gratifications for pre-ordering. Read our guide on creating a pre-order Product here.
  6. Embed a Product on an external website - With a buy form OR a trailer & buy button on an external site. Read our guide on this here.
  7. Include non-video bonus content - You can include other downloadable content like a soundtrack, PDF booklet, or photos within a product. That content will show on the watch page of your site if the customer purchases that product.

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