Writing Offers 3.0: The Digital Solution for Online Businesses

1. How to write compliant and convincing offers.
2. How does an offer become a digital product?
3. This software helps you with writing offers
4. Conclusion: Digital products are best offered with a tool like elopage!

Are you tired of manually entering your offers (on Excel)? Is the time and error rate too high for you? Then we'll show you how to write your offers in a legally secure and easy way in the future. All you need is a simple software solution. But first a few words about what an offer actually is.

How to write compliant and convincing offers.

According to the legislator, the offer is a declaration of intent requiring reception. For the conclusion of the contract, the second party to the contract only needs to give their consent. A valid contract is therefore only created by (at least) two declarations of intent which are in accordance with each other and are given in relation to each other (see §§ 145 ff. BGB).

From a legal point of view, the offer belongs to the business letters. The mandatory information for business letters (according to § 125a Commercial Code, in connection with § 177a HGB) are:

• Name and contact details
• Address of offer creators*in
• VAT ID
• Address of offer recipients*in
• Description of the good or the service
• Quantity
• Prices incl. freight and packaging costs
• Offer and validity date
• Payment terms
• Delivery time

The offer is verbally, by telephone, by mail and by e-mail legally binding, if it contains all this information.

You should bear this in mind when writing your offers as an online company

Most potential customers*in obtain several offers and compare them with each other. Depending on the product or service, the price does not have to be the decisive factor. Especially for costly purchases, the overall impression and quality are among the most important decision criteria.

Unlike the cost estimate, the stated price is binding (with the KVA it may deviate by up to 20 percent). However, you can minimize the binding nature somewhat with certain clauses. The legal retention period of currently at least six years applies to your offer creation, since it is relevant for taxation (see Principles for the proper management and storage of books, records and documents in electronic form as well as for data access).

Mandatory components of the offer

• Company address: Use, for example, your letterhead.
• Offer date: From this day, your offer is valid.
• Recipient*in: Include the complete company address in your offer.
• Subject: Refer, for example, to a specific request (number).
• Service or product: Describe your offered product or your offered service in as much detail as possible.
• Prices: Name the exact prices per position (e.g. product, service or travel costs), the total price net, the total price gross and the sales tax
• VAT ID: It is waived for small entrepreneurs*in through the small business regulation according to § 19 UStG. Instead, this must be on the invoice.
• Discounts and surcharges: Name all factors that affect the price. These can include quantity discounts and urgent charges.
• Delivery terms and packaging: This includes the delivery time and type (Incoterms), shipping costs, packaging material or file formats (digital products).
• Payment terms: Name the chosen payment method (for example, PayPal or on invoice)
• Validity: This day ends your offer's validity (for example, it is customary to have a three-month period of validity).
• Reference to the terms and conditions: Refer to your terms and conditions.

Other useful components

• Logo
• Contact person*in
• Further contact information (for example, homepages, telephone numbers, email addresses, and social media channels)
• Place of jurisdiction
• Customer number
• Optional offer positions
• Signature

Exemption clauses, which make the binding nature of the offer depend on certain conditions or limit it

• „non-binding“: Offer can be changed or withdrawn
• „Prices subject to change“: Prices are non-binding
• „While stocks last“: Quantity is non-binding

If your customers agree to the offer, they essentially submit a new offer. For the contract to become effective, a new declaration of intent from you is necessary. This can, for example, happen by the so-called silent declaration of intent (§ 151 BGB), by not reacting to it.

How does an offer become a digital product?

We know digital contents such as e-books, video courses or e-tickets as digital products. However, it should also be mentioned at this point that services such as consultations can also be sold digitally. Whenever booking and/or payment occurs online, the service performance also counts as digital products.

The payment page includes the exact scope of the offer, the provider's terms and conditions, the selection of payment methods (invoice, PayPal, etc.) and the available payment intervals (one-time payment or installments).

For example, agencies can offer individual modules according to customer wishes, in addition to a flat-rate consultation. Customers*in accept the offer - digital or non-digital products - at the moment of booking and payment.

This software helps you with writing offers

Digital products are only created once and then sold as many times as you want. This means that your overheads are particularly low and your profit margins are very high. The booking process can be automated with elopage from invoicing to payment collection and the reminder system.

The tool was developed in Berlin and covers both the sales process and the payment process. With more than 60,000 users*in are founders, SMEs and whole enterprises. An all-in-one platform with which you can quickly and legally offer your services, physical or digital products.

In addition, elopage allows you to expand your service portfolio with further digital products:

• Services: Counseling & Service
• Coaching: Online courses, member areas, e-tickets
• Files: E-books, stock photos, digital artworks
• Teaching: Class templates

Set up payment pages for your (international) offer creation

With elopage, you can create such payment pages. On it, you can sell your digital products and settle payments. Simply set up a payment page to your liking. You can set information, payment options, tax rates and withdrawal conditions individually. All common payment providers are integrated and therefore the most popular payment methods are selectable: PayPal (installment payment), credit card, purchase on account, advance payment, direct debit, iDEAL and immediate transfer.

There is a lot to consider when selling digital products.

Whether your customers want to pay in Euros, Dollars, or Pounds doesn't matter - elopage offers you a broad selection of currencies. The entire processing takes place fully automated. In addition, you can flexibly intervene and, among other things, cancel orders or adjust due dates. With the dashboard, you keep an eye on your KPIs such as order entries and sales.

High customer orientation

Make it as easy as possible for you and your visitors:

• Create your individual design with recognition value.
• Ensure an optimal shopping experience via mobile or tablet with a responsive design.
• Use marketing automation (e.g. set up Order Bumps and Upsells).
• Use up to seven different conversion tools:

1. Recommendation

2. Season Timer

3. Countdown

4. Social Proof

5. Trust-seal

6. Availability

7. Automatic filling

Sell as regular seller or reseller

Example of staggered transaction fees.

Advantages of sales automation with elopage payment pages (checkout pages)

elopage is the quick and easy way to write your offers. As an established growth company, you can save a lot of cash in particular by automating your payment processes. As a young company, you can push your sales in a short time with the professional payment pages. The checkout pages have five essential advantages.

So your payment pages might look like this

• Clear: All functions for the sale of your digital products are bundled in one platform.
• Fast: It only takes you five minutes to release your first own product for sale.
• Easy: With the generous selection of payment methods, your customers can always shop with you.
• Automated: You take care of your product or service. elopage does the rest and handles everything from invoicing to payment processing for you.
• Safe: elopage takes care of your GDPR and compliance conformity and protects you from fraud (e.g. with blacklist management).

The main functions of elopage

Simply connect elopage with all your IT systems or replace them to centralize your data processing.

• Offer digital products: Create digital products like downloads, certificates, codes, online courses, member areas and e-tickets. Congratulate your course participants on passing the test and possibly award them with certificates. With voucher and license codes, you can turn documents into a digital product with just a few clicks. In elopage you can earn the trust of new customers through cheap and free entry products. In the next step you then offer your main product. Conduct advertising campaigns as well as affiliate marketing and use the free lead magnets.

• Fully automated purchase processing: You can access invoice templates or start manually. Customers trigger the purchase process themselves by entering their data and selecting a payment option. This accepts your offer (from a legal point of view) and the invoice and possibly the payment reminder are automatically sent. As soon as payment is received, your product is released for buyers*in. Your data automatically ends up in your tax software (if elopgae was previously integrated). If a buyer*in does not pay on time despite a reminder, the overdue claim is turned over to the collection agency from the reminder procedure.

• Time and location independent sales: You can access pre-fabricated EU tax templates or adjust the tax rates for worldwide sales individually. By integrating the most common payment providers, you can offer the most popular payment methods. Your buyers can pay later or test your products for a certain period of time. They can settle invoices in Euros, Dollars, Pounds, Swiss Francs and Zloty. If you pay by credit card, you will receive your money immediately. If the buyer chooses the installment payment by credit card or SEPA direct debit, the debit can take place automatically. This will prevent a delay in payment.

• Building and expanding your sales team: Control all activities and create motivating commission plans. Your sales team sends personalized deals via link in real time. All tasks (such as the calculation of commissions) are automated. Create combinations of digital products that are automatically delivered together (e.g. courses and tickets). With just a few clicks, you create convincing payment pages with the right tax rates and withdrawal conditions. Expand your funnel with integrated marketing tools and place your offers in the right place. With Order Bumps and Funnels, you can boost follow-up purchases. Keep an overview and create reports with meaningful numbers in no time.

Conclusion: Digital products are best offered with a tool like elopage!

Have you ever timed your offer and invoice writing? No? You should definitely do that. And then think about how many new great products you could develop in that time. elopage helps you with this. Don't spend more of your precious time on order processing than absolutely necessary: Here is the free trial version!