Hi,
Yes a specific plugin would be required.
The "consuming" feature allow you to create serial with a special status and to trigger an event when the serial is trying to be consumed.
Your specific plugin would have to receive this trigger (like the "group association consuming" plugin, which is more an example) and do your specific action: allow the user to access to a specific section.
You could use something in the user session or you could use the "group association" plugin which would put the user to a specific group and so, allow him to access to some sections in the website.
Or your specific plugin could just send the file just after the serial consumption.
It would depend on how you want to implement the "redeem" feature.
Regards,
Jerome - Obsidev.com
HikaMarket & HikaSerial developer / HikaShop core dev team.
Also helping the HikaShop support team when having some time or couldn't sleep.
By the way, do not send me private message, use the "contact us" form instead.