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Selling Physical Products

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Owen Allen
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In addition to digital products, ClickBank also lets you sell physical products. You can sell a wide variety of physical products, such as books, DVDs, fitness equipment, food products, cosmetics, or supplements. Offering physical products that complement your digital products can appeal to a wider group of customers. This article explains how you can start offering physical goods to customers.

The following subjects are covered in this article:

Admin-Controlled Features

All vendors can sell physical products. However, some additional capabilities are admin-controlled. Contact ClickBank if you want access to any of these capabilities:

  • Selling physical products with a $0 initial price
  • Providing return information

Physical Product Requirements

The requirements for physical products vary depending on the type of product. Some types of products have additional requirements, and some types of products are prohibited.

  • Flat Media – This category includes books, CDs, DVDs, and other physical media products.
  • Consumables and Cosmetics – This category includes dietary supplements, food, pet food, cosmetics, skin care products, over-the-counter drugs, medical devices, essential oils, and pet care products.
  • Other Physical Products – This category includes any physical product that does not fall into the above categories, such as flashlights or tools.
  • Prohibited Products – Products listed here cannot be sold through ClickBank.

See the Promotional Guidelines article for more information about the terms that can be used to promote many types of physical products.

Flat Media

This category includes books, CDs, DVDs, and other physical media products.

You must meet the following requirements to sell flat media products:

  • You must use ClickBank’s Customer Support Ticket System to respond to tech support or refund requests.
  • You must send Shipping Notifications for all orders.
  • You must fulfill flat media orders from the United States.
  • You must display shipping and refund policies on your website.

To submit a flat media product for approval, you must supply the following:

  • A version of the product (either a physical copy or a digital copy).
  • The URL of your sales or pitch page.

See the Creating a Physical Product section for more information about submitting a product for approval.

NOTE – You do not need to fill out the Physical Product Submission Survey for flat media products.

Consumables and Cosmetics

This category includes dietary supplements, food, pet food, cosmetics, skin care products, over-the-counter drugs, medical devices, essential oils, and pet care products.

You must meet the following requirements to sell consumable and cosmetic products:

  • You must use ClickBank’s Customer Support Ticket System to respond to tech support or refund requests.
  • You must send Shipping Notifications for all orders.
  • You must fulfill consumable and cosmetic orders from the United States.
  • Consumable and cosmetic products must be finished in the United States.
  • You must display shipping and refund policies on your website.

To submit a food or supplement product for approval, you must supply the following:

  • A high-resolution digital copy of the label.
  • A sample of the product. (ClickBank may waive this requirement for specific products at our discretion.)
  • A cGMP or NSF.
  • Any relevant Certificates of Analysis.
  • A certificate of Product Liability Insurance with Click Sales Inc. listed as an additional insured and with the following coverages (minimum):
    • Commercial General Liability Aggregate Limit – $2,000,000
    • Products/Completed Operations – $2,000,000
    • Each Occurrence – $1,000,000
    • Advertising Injury and Personal Injury Aggregate Limit – $1,000,000
    • Umbrella or Excess Liability – $2,000,000
  • A certification that product is compliant with Proposition 65 (California’s Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986).
  • Copies of all warning letters, complaints, consent decrees, orders or other documents related to legal, administrative, or regulatory proceedings, investigation, or action relating to you or your product, without limitation and in perpetuity or confirmation that there are none in existence.
  • The URL of your sales or pitch page.

See the Creating a Physical Product section for more information about submitting a product for approval. Use this link to schedule a 30 minute consultation with a business development manager as well as complete the Physical Product Submission Survey when you submit a cosmetic or consumable product for approval.

NOTE – All FDA-regulated products must be fulfilled from the United States, and can only be shipped to locations within the United States.

Other Physical Products

This category includes any physical product that does not fall into the above categories, such as flashlights or tools.

You must meet the following requirements to sell other physical products:

  • You must use ClickBank’s Customer Support Ticket System to respond to tech support or refund requests.
  • You must send Shipping Notifications for all orders.
  • You must fulfill all orders from the United States.
  • Your products must be finished in the United States.
  • You must display shipping and refund policies on your website.

To submit a physical product for approval, you must supply the following:

  • A sample of the product. (ClickBank may waive this requirement for specific products at our discretion.)
  • The URL of your sales or pitch page.

See the Creating a Physical Product section for more information about submitting a product for approval. Use this link to schedule a 30 minute consultation with a business development manager as well as complete the Physical Product Submission Survey when you submit a physical product other than flat media for approval.

Prohibited Products

The following products cannot be sold through ClickBank:

  • Any FDA-regulated product that is not fulfilled from the U.S.
  • Any FDA-regulated product manufactured in a non-cGMP-compliant facility, or without cGMP certification.
  • Any product manufactured in a facility with previous, serious negative FDA enforcements (requires review).
  • Any product with express or implied disease claims based on its ingredients. See the Dietary Supplements and Food Products section of the Promotional Guidelines article for more information.
  • CBD products.
  • Drugs that require a prescription.
  • Medical devices without an FDA registration number for device.
  • OTCs (over-the-counter drugs) that do not confirm to an existing FDA-approved monograph.
  • Topical or sublingual products labeled as dietary supplements.
  • Erectile dysfunction products. ClickBank may allow this type of product at our discretion, but rigorous review is required.
  • Products that contain NDIs (New Dietary Ingredients) of any kind.
  • Products that include an FDA-banned substance.
  • Any product/ingredient that is excluded from ClickBank’s insurance umbrella.
  • Products that are being actively reviewed by the FDA, USDA, WADA, ATF, etc., or any other federal regulatory or consumer protection agency, or receiving significant press scrutiny.
  • Human body parts or fluids.
  • Any product found to be in violation of any FDA/FTC regulation at any time.
  • Any product SKU that has been recalled or is expected to be recalled.
  • Explosive items or contents under pressure.
  • Items that are prohibited for sale to minors (alcohol, tobacco, or firearms).
  • Live animals or plants.
  • Lottery tickets, airplane tickets, concert tickets, stamps, precious metals, gems, currency or other items / commodities used for monetary exchange.
  • Marijuana products and any derivatives.
  • Products used for gambling including lottery machines, etc.
  • Used clothing, shoes, or other previously owned garments.
  • Recalled or defective products.
  • Stolen or counterfeit property.
  • Lock-picking, hacking devices, or spy-related equipment (devices disguised to appear as something else), etc.
  • Any nicotine-delivery products, i.e., patches, gums, etc.
  • Weapons. (ClickBank may allow this type of product at our discretion, but rigorous review is required.
  • E-Cigarettes, nicotine gels, other Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems (ENDS)

Commissions on Physical Products

When you sell a physical product, the affiliate's commission is taken from the price of the product itself, and not from the shipping and handling charges. If you want to offer commissions on the shipping and handling charges, you will need to select that option in your Shipping Profile.

Shipping Profiles

The process for creating a physical product is similar to that of digital ClickBank products, but requires that you create Shipping Profiles. Shipping Profiles, which can include custom or pre-defined regions, tell ClickBank where you’re willing to ship products, and how much you charge to ship to different locations.

Shipping Regions

The first step in creating your Shipping Profile is telling ClickBank where you’re willing to ship, and what you’ll charge. To make this as simple as possible, we’ve created a number of pre-defined regions, which are made up of groups of countries around the world. You may also create custom shipping regions, which allow you to group any countries you wish. For example, if you only want to ship to the United States, the UK, Canada, and Australia, you can create a custom region with only these countries.

The pre-defined regions are shown below. This table may be updated from time to time as ClickBank updates its list of approved countries.

Region Countries
Oceania Fiji, Kiribati, New Caledonia, Nauru, Niue, Solomon Is, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, Cook Is, Christmas Is, French Polynesia, West Samoa
East Asia China, South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan
South East Asia Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, East Timor, Vietnam, Cambodia
South Asia India, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Nepal, Bhutan
Canada Canada
Australasia Australia, New Zealand
Mexico Mexico
Western Europe Austria, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, France, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, Netherlands
Eastern Europe Czech Republic, Estonia, Andorra, Latvia, Poland, Slovenia, Slovak Republic, Albania, Bulgaria, Georgian Republic, Croatia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Romania, Ukraine, Russian Federation, Turkey, Armenia
Northern Europe Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Greenland, Svalbard & Jan Mayen Is
Southern Europe Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Cyprus, San Marino, Vatican, Malta
UK and Ireland Britain, Ireland
United States United States
US Protectorates Palau, East Samoa, Micronesia, Guam, Marshall Is, Northern Mariana Is, Puerto Rico, Virgin Is US
Middle East & Africa Gibraltar, Botswana, Cape Verde, Comoros, Egypt, Israel, Morocco, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, UAE
Caribbean Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda, Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, Cayman Is, Cocos Is
South America Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Bouvet Is

Creating a Shipping Profile

A shipping profile specifies the countries to which you are willing to ship your product, and what the shipping costs are for each country. You can use existing regions or create custom regions to include only the correct countries in your shipping profile.

If you plan to sell multiple physical products with different shipping locations or shipping costs, you can create multiple shipping profiles with different countries and shipping prices. Each product can only have one shipping profile.

By default, the customer pays the shipping charge per item, so increasing the quantity purchased increases the shipping charge. Alternatively, you can configure a shipping profile to use a flat rate, so customers pay the specified amount for shipping the product, regardless of the quantity purchased.

If an order includes multiple physical products, the shipping profile for each product is applied separately. For example, if you include two physical products in an upsell flow, you can use flat rate shipping for one product and normal shipping for the other.

NOTE – All FDA-regulated products must be fulfilled from the United States, and can only be shipped to locations within the United States.

To create a shipping profile:

  1. Log in to your ClickBank account.
  2. Click the Settings tab.
  3. Click My Products.
  4. Click Shipping Profiles.
  5. If you want to create one or more custom regions:
    1. Click Shipping Regions.
    2. Click Add Region.
    3. Select one or more countries to include in the region.
    4. Click Save Changes.
    5. Repeat steps 1-4 for each region.
    6. Click Shipping Profiles.
  6. In the Add New section, click Shipping Profile.
  7. Enter a profile name (North America, for example).
  8. (Optional) If you want to provide a commission on shipping and handling charges for products that use the shipping profile, check the Pay commission on shipping price checkbox. If you are offering a $0 plus shipping and handling product, this option lets you give affiliates a commission. This option does not change which commission rate is used. If you select this option, ClickBank's portion of the sale is also taken from the shipping & handling amount.
  9. (Optional) If you want to charge a flat rate for shipping a product, regardless of quantity, check the Apply flat rate shipping per line item checkbox.
  10. Choose a profile currency. The currency you use for your shipping charge must match the currency you use when selling the product.
  11. Configure one or more shipping regions:
    1. Select a region from the list of pre-defined and custom regions.
    2. Add a shipping price for the region.
    3. To add another region to the profile, click Add and repeat steps A-B. Repeat until you have included every country to which you are willing to ship your product. If a country is not included in your shipping profile, customers in that country cannot purchase the product.
  12. Click Save Changes.
    You can now create a physical product and use your new shipping profile. See the Creating Your First Product article for more information.

Creating a Physical Product

Creating a physical product is similar to creating a digital product, but with a few unique steps:

  1. Review the Physical Product Requirements to verify that your product meets the requirements and is not prohibited.
  2. Create a Shipping Profile to indicate where you are able to ship the product.
    NOTE – All FDA-regulated products must be fulfilled from the United States, and can only be shipped to locations within the United States.
  3. If your physical product is not a flat media product, use this link to schedule a 30 minute consultation with a business development manager as well as complete the Physical Product Submission Survey.
  4. If your physical product is a recurring product, review the Selling Recurring Products article to be certain you understand the additional requirements for recurring products.
  5. Go to the Creating Your First Product article to create your product in the ClickBank system and submit it for approval. You will typically receive the results of your request within three to five business days via email.

You can create as many physical products as you want, up to a limit of 500 products per account.

Fulfilling Orders

Once you have offered a physical product for sale, you must fulfill the order. You can do so in multiple ways:

  • Fulfill the order and send a shipping notification yourself.
  • Use a third party to fulfill the order and create a shipping notification.

Your preferred method may depend on your order volume and on whether or not you have a developer who can help you work with the ClickBank APIs.

This section explains several potential workflows for order fulfillment, including shipping the product and creating a shipping notification.

NOTE – All FDA-regulated products must be fulfilled from the United States, and can only be shipped to locations within the United States.

Fulfillment Using CSV Reports

You can perform fulfillment using CSV reports and the ClickBank APIs. To do so, you must either have development experience or find a developer who can help you.

The general workflow is as follows:

  1. Download a Shipping Report as a CSV file from the Reporting tab's Shipping section at scheduled intervals.
  2. Email the CSV file to your fulfillment center.
  3. Have the fulfillment center send you a CSV file containing the order number, tracking number, and carrier information for the fulfilled orders.
  4. Create an interface to process a CSV file from the fulfillment center and create shipping notifications using the Ship Notice API.
  5. The fulfillment center ships the product.

Scripted Fulfillment

You can perform fulfillment using an automated process and the ClickBank APIs. To do so, you must either have development experience or find a developer who can help you.

The general workflow is as follows:

  1. Pull down shipping information from the Shipping API using a script that you create.
  2. Send the shipping information to your fulfillment center, by having your script either call their API or send a CSV file.
  3. Have the fulfillment center send you the order number, tracking number, and carrier information for the fulfilled orders, either by sending you a CSV file or by creating a tool that lets them supply the information.
  4. Use the shipping information to send a shipping notification using the Ship Notice API.
  5. The fulfillment center ships the product.

Third-Party Fulfillment

You can use a third party to both fulfill your orders and create shipping notifications for them. The third party options include:

  • PackageBee – PackageBee is a software as a service app that has integrated ClickBank with multiple fulfillment warehouses, and can add new warehouses that use 3PL central or Veracore. They gather order information hourly, ship products, and generate shipping notifications. See their Integration Request page for pricing information on integrating a warehouse.
  • Disk.com – Disk.com is a fulfillment company focusing on CDs, DVDs, and other media. They can retrieve and fulfill ClickBank shipping orders and generate shipping notifications.
  • ShipZOOM.com –  ShipZoom is a fulfillment company capable of shipping a variety of products. They can retrieve and fulfill ClickBank shipping orders and generate shipping notifications.

Viewing Shipping Addresses

You can view unshipped orders, including the shipping address, through your account.

  1. Log in to your ClickBank account.
  2. Click the Reporting tab.
  3. Click Shipping.
    By default, the unshipped transactions are displayed. You can edit the filter options to display shipped transactions.

Sending Shipping Notifications Manually

To manually create a shipping notification for a product you’ve sold and are preparing to ship, take the following steps:

  1. Log in to your ClickBank account.
  2. Click the Reporting tab.
  3. Click Shipping.
    By default, the unshipped transactions are displayed. You can edit the filter options to display shipped transactions.
  4. To change a transaction’s status so you can let customers know the order has shipped, click Generate Ship Info.
  5. Enter the relevant shipping information:
    • Ship Date – The date on which the product was shipped. This date must be between the date of purchase and the current date. You can create a shipping notification prior to shipping the product, but you must then ship the product on the same day.
    • Carrier – The carrier used to ship the product.
    • (Optional) Tracking Number – The tracking number of the order.
    • Shipped To – This field displays the shipping address provided by the customer.
    • (Optional) Comments – Any comments relating to the order or the shipping.
  6. Click Submit.
    A notice is delivered to both you and the customer, indicating that a shipment is planned for delivery. Additionally, ClickBank customer service representatives are able to see the shipping information in case they need to provide this information to customers on your behalf.

Processing Address Changes

Customers can change their shipping addresses, either through clkbank.com or by contacting you.

If a customer changes their address through clkbank.com, ClickBank sends you an email notification of the change. If the customer contacts you, you can use the ClickBank APIs to update their information.

If an order has already shipped when a customer changes their address, as indicated by a shipping notification, ClickBank advises the customer to contact you directly.

Refund Requests

Customer refund requests for physical products are processed differently based on whether you have sent a shipping notification. If you have not sent a shipping notification, our refund process presumes that you have not yet shipped the product. Refund requests from you and refund requests that involve ClickBank customer support are processed in the same way as refund requests for digital products.

Refunds for physical products include the shipping and handling initially paid by the customer.

Customer-Initiated Requests

Refunds initiated by the customer are processed in the following timeframes:

  • If you have sent a shipping notification and have provided return information, the customer is provided with the return information so that they can return the product, and a tech support ticket is created. Once you receive the product, you open the ticket and acknowledge the receipt to complete the refund process.
  • If you have sent a shipping notification and have not provided return information, a refund ticket is created. You have the opportunity to contact the customer and solve any issues. After 19 days, if no other action has been taken, the order is refunded and the ticket is closed.
  • If a customer requests a refund after the day of purchase and you have not sent a shipping notification, the refund is issued within one business day.
  • If a customer requests a refund on the day of purchase and you have not sent a shipping notification, the refund is issued immediately.

Vendor or ClickBank-Initiated Requests

Refunds requested by you or requested through a ClickBank customer service representative are processed in the following timeframes:

  • If you request a refund on an order, it is issued immediately.
  • If a customer contacts a ClickBank customer service representative as part of a refund request, the representative can issue a refund immediately, regardless of shipping notification status.

Providing Return Information

If you want customers to return physical products to you when they request a refund, you can provide return information. This information is provided to the customer when they request a refund.

If you leave this field blank, we send a standard refund email to the customer. If you update the field, the new text is used for future refund requests, but the new information is not sent for any refunds that are in progress.

NOTE – This feature is admin-controlled. Contact ClickBank if you want access to this feature.

  1. Log in to your ClickBank account.
  2. Click the Settings tab.
  3. Click My Site.
  4. Find the Physical Product Management section and click Edit.
    The Return Information field is displayed. For example:
    This screenshot show the Physical Product Management section. The Return Information field is displayed, with a listed character limit of 3500 characters. The buttons at the bottom are Save Changes and Cancel.
  5. In the Return Information field, enter the information required for the customer to return a product, including the return address and any special instructions.
  6. Click Save Changes.

Acknowledging Return of a Physical Product

When a customer requests a refund and receives your return information, the ticket type is changed to technical support. Once you receive the product, you change the ticket type to refund, and the refund is processed.

  1. Log in to your ClickBank account.
  2. Click the Reporting tab.
  3. Click Transactions.
  4. Locate the transaction and click the ticket icon to open the ticket. For example:
    This image shows the Transactions table. The ticket icon is highlighted in the Actions column. The other columns shown are date, time, refund expiration, receipt, item, amount, quantity, and transaction type.
  5. Select Refund Request.
  6. Click Send.

Shipping Reports

You can view shipping reports, showing which physical product orders have been shipped and which have not been shipped. You can also view physical product orders within a specific time frame, or generate shipping notifications.

  1. Log in to your ClickBank account.
  2. Click the Reporting tab.
  3. Click Shipping.
    By default, the unshipped orders are displayed.
  4. (Optional) Edit the filter options and click Filter to display a different set of transactions:
    • Receipt – Enter a specific receipt number to display that order.
    • Ship Status – Select shipped orders, unshipped orders, or all orders.
    • Start Date – Enter a date to view orders after this date.
    • End Date – Enter a date to view orders before this date.
  5. (Optional) To change a transaction’s status so you can let customers know the order has shipped, click Generate Ship Info.

Video

Compatibility

Physical products are compatible with other ClickBank features, including Order Bump and Upsell Flows.

If a physical product is included in an Upsell Flow, or offered as a bump product, the first product's order form asks for shipping information even if it is not a physical product. This enables the physical product purchase to be made with minimal additional information, but it can be confusing for some users.

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