How to setup PayPal Express Checkout in WooCommerce?
In this guide, learn how to setup PayPal Checkout for your WooCommerce store.
Before we begin you need to make sure that you have downloaded the official PayPal Checkout plugin from the WooCommerce marketplace. To clarify, this is not for PayPal Standard. This is for PayPal Checkout. Ensure this plugin is installed, active, and setup correctly!
To use PayPal Checkout, you must have a PayPal business account.
If you are more of a visual learner, follow along to my tutorial video where I outline everything in the steps below.
Let’s jump into it!
Table of Contents
How to setup PayPal Checkout on WooCommerce?
Step 1: Enable PayPal Checkout in WooCommerce
The first step is to go to your WordPress dashboard, hover over WooCommerce, and go to the Settings.
Next, click the Payments tab.
Then, enable the PayPal Checkout payment method and click Setup.
If you have not created a PayPal account yet, create a business account before proceeding. You will need a business account to get your API keys from PayPal.
Next, click the checkbox to enable Enable the PayPal Checkout Payment Gateway, label the title as “PayPal”, label the description as “Pay via PayPal; you can pay with your credit card if you don’t have a PayPal account.”, and select ‘Live’ from the Environment dropdown. Note, Select Live to accept payments and Sandbox to test payments.
Step 2: Get NVP/SOAP Integration (Classic) credentials
Next, open up a new tab and go to PayPal.com. Sign in to PayPal.
On your PayPal dashboard, click the “Settings” icon in the top right hand corner and then “Website Payments” under the Products & Services sidebar menu. Then, click “Update” on API Access.
Next, scroll down to “NVP/SOAP Integration (Classic)” heading and click “Manage API credentials”.
Then, you will have to view your API Username, API Password, and Signature. Copy these values in PayPal and paste these values in the API credentials section in WooCommerce.
Finally, don’t forget to click ‘Save Changes’ in WooCommerce.
Step 3: Add your brand’s logo
Upload your brand’s logo to the Media Library in WordPress/WooCommerce. PayPal Checkout recommends dimensions of 190 pixels x 60 pixels. You could also do 50 pixels x 50 pixels (this is what I do!).
Next, in your PayPal Checkout settings in WooCommerce, upload the logo. Save changes.
Finally, do a live transaction on your site using PayPal Checkout. Is your brand’s logo showing up?
To see the image url, a customer has to sign in with their existing PayPal account.
Step 4: Advanced Settings
Next, under Advanced Settings, make sure to select ‘Sale’ from the Payment Action dropdown. The reason why you want to select ‘Sale’, is that ‘Sale’ captures funds immediately, while ‘Authorize’ only verifies the availability of funds that the customer has.
Further, enable ‘Require Instant Payment’. This means that the customer must use a payment method that allows immediate capture (i.e. no checks allowed).
Step 5: Checkout Button Settings
Next, navigate to the Checkout Button Settings.
First, select your preferred appearances for Button Color, Button Shape, Button Label, Button Layout, and Button Size. For example, below I have provided an example of the difference between a ‘Horizontal’ vs. ‘Vertical’ Button Layout.
Second, under ‘Hide Funding Method(s), select ‘Credit or debit cards’. Note, I would recommend hiding credit and debit cards if you have other payment gateways such as Authorize.net and Stripe for collecting credit card information.
Third, under ‘Checkout on cart page’, Enable PayPal Checkout on the cart page if you would like the PayPal Checkout button to be located on both the cart and checkout page. Note, if you don’t have a cart page, just disregard.
Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click ‘Save changes’.
Step 6: Single Product Button Settings
Next, navigate to the Single Product Button Settings.
First, under ‘Checkout on Single Product’, select ‘Checkout on Single Product’.
Second, under ‘Configure Settings’, select ‘Configure settings specific to Single Product view’.
Third, select your preferred appearances for Button Layout, Button Size, and Button Label.
Fourth, under ‘Enable PayPal Credit to eligible customers’, Enable PayPal Credit to eligible customers Checkout on the product page if you would like the PayPal Checkout button to be located on the product page. I would recommend not enabling this button. For example, below I have provided an example of the difference between having the PayPal Credit button enabled, and not enabled.
Lastly, scroll down to the bottom of the page and click ‘Save changes’.
Video: How to setup PayPal Checkout?
How to setup PayPal sandbox account on WooCommerce?
On your WordPress dashboard, hover over WooCommerce and click Settings.
Next, click the Payments tab and click Manage next to PayPal.
Under Advanced Options, find “PayPal sandbox” and click “Enable PayPal sandbox”.
If you scroll to the bottom of your PayPal settings page, you will notice we need to insert our Sandbox API username, Sandbox API password, and Sandbox API signature.
To get these we need to go to your PayPal Developer account and Sign In.
On your PayPal Developer Dashboard, under the Sandbox menu click Accounts.
Then, on the Sandbox Test Accounts page, click Create Account and create a Business Account.
After creating your Business Account, hover over the Manage tab and click “Profile” to see your Account Details. Toggle the tab to “API Credentials”.
Then, copy and paste the Username, Password, and Signature into your WooCommerce PayPal sandbox settings.
Click Save changes.
Your sandbox account is all set up. The next step is to create a sandbox personal account to test transactions.
If you are having trouble, follow along to this video tutorial below.
Additional Resources
FAQ
Payment
PayPal Checkout
Do I need a PayPal Business account to use PayPal Checkout?
Yes, to use PayPal Checkout on your WooCommerce store, you must have a PayPal Business account.
Does PayPal Checkout accept Recurring Payments or WooCommerce Subscriptions?
Yes, PayPal Checkout supports recurring payments when used with WooCommerce Subscriptions, but this would be a separate purchase.
Can I use more than one website with my PayPal Express account?
Yes you can use the same PayPal API login and transaction key information for multiple sites. However, I just would recommend setting the invoice prefix to be different on each store.
PayPal
What do I need to create a PayPal Business account?
To create a PayPal Business account you need the following:
- Valid email address
- Customer service information
- Business address
- Phone number
- Bank name
- Business or personal bank account number.
- Bank routing number
Go to PayPal.com and click “Sign up” for business account.
I have gone through the setup and after payment checkout, my WC order shows as Processing. Does this mean seller has received the payment automatically?
Yes that is correct. Whether you are in “sandbox” or “live” environment, if customers payment was successful the order status will be “processing”. If the payment was not successful the order status is “pending”, “failed”, “on hold”, etc.
Why do I need to create multiple PayPal Sandbox accounts for my WooCommerce store?
Because you need to create 1 Sandbox account for your store to process payments, and 1 Sandbox account for the customer to process their payment. For example, I started a Ecommerce Store called “Sam’s Shoes” and it is based in Orlando, Florida. I need to create 1 Sandbox account for my store “Sam’s Shoes” so I know I will receive payment when a customer makes an order. I need to create 1 other Sandbox account to simulate a customer (let’s say Katie from Phoenix is making a purchase for some Yeezy’s), so I can test that the customers PayPal account will work properly.
Do you need to create two separate PayPal sandbox accounts for Test Transactions?
Yes, you need to create two separate PayPal sandbox accounts. The first PayPal Sandbox account as a “BUSINESS ACCOUNT” where you add the API credentials in the PayPal Standard payment settings in the WooCommerce backend under “sandbox mode”. The second PayPal Sandbox account as a “PERSONAL ACCOUNT” that you use when going through the Checkout.
Yes, to use PayPal Checkout on your WooCommerce store, you must have a PayPal Business account.
Yes, PayPal Checkout supports recurring payments when used with WooCommerce Subscriptions, but this would be a separate purchase.
Yes you can use the same PayPal API login and transaction key information for multiple sites. However, I just would recommend setting the invoice prefix to be different on each store.
To create a PayPal Business account you need the following:
- Valid email address
- Customer service information
- Business address
- Phone number
- Bank name
- Business or personal bank account number.
- Bank routing number
Go to PayPal.com and click “Sign up” for business account.
Yes that is correct. Whether you are in “sandbox” or “live” environment, if customers payment was successful the order status will be “processing”. If the payment was not successful the order status is “pending”, “failed”, “on hold”, etc.
Because you need to create 1 Sandbox account for your store to process payments, and 1 Sandbox account for the customer to process their payment. For example, I started a Ecommerce Store called “Sam’s Shoes” and it is based in Orlando, Florida. I need to create 1 Sandbox account for my store “Sam’s Shoes” so I know I will receive payment when a customer makes an order. I need to create 1 other Sandbox account to simulate a customer (let’s say Katie from Phoenix is making a purchase for some Yeezy’s), so I can test that the customers PayPal account will work properly.
Yes, you need to create two separate PayPal sandbox accounts. The first PayPal Sandbox account as a “BUSINESS ACCOUNT” where you add the API credentials in the PayPal Standard payment settings in the WooCommerce backend under “sandbox mode”. The second PayPal Sandbox account as a “PERSONAL ACCOUNT” that you use when going through the Checkout.