How Does PayPal Work in WooCommerce?

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builtmighty

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PayPal in WooCommerce

Paypal is a great way to accept and make payments all over the web. Your online store is no exception. WooCommerce allows you to accept payments using the PayPal Standard gateway. Here’s how to set up Paypal on WooCommerce.

PayPal Standard is a core payment gateway within WooCommerce. With PayPal Standard, customers can make payments with their PayPal account or with a valid credit/debit card. Order status can be updated automatically when payment is collected.

Let’s take a look at how this would work.

Setting up PayPal Standard Options

First, you’ll need to set up PayPal Standard as an active payment gateway. To do this, use the WordPress navigation menu to select WooCommerce > Settings.

Once on the Settings page, click on the Checkout tab.

Next to Checkout options, choose PayPal.

There are several fields you’ll need to configure on the PayPal screen.

First, you’ll need to check the Enable/Disable box to allow customers to select the PayPal option.

Next, you can update the Title and Description fields. These are visible to your customer and can be used to provide additional information about how payment is collected through PayPal. There is already default information in these fields, so no action is needed if you don’t need to change it.

You will need to enter your PayPal email address so that payments are sent to the correct account.

PayPal sandbox and Debug log are two optional features you can use.

If you have a PayPal developer account, you can submit test payments through your WooCommerce store. This is enabled via PayPal sandbox.

And if you turn on debugging mode, you can log PayPal events to a file on your server.

Make sure that you have a PayPal business account before you start trying to accept payments through this new gateway.

Advanced PayPal Options

Next up, there are advanced options if you need an extra degree of flexibility in how you use PayPal on WooCommerce to collect payments:

Receiver email – this can differ from the main PayPal email.
PayPal identity token
Invoice prefix – use this if you want to add a prefix to your PayPal invoices. This is helpful if you have more than one online store connected to your PayPal account.
Shipping details – check this box if you are using PayPal to generate shipping labels.
Address override – this is not recommended by WooCommerce as PayPal verifies addresses and this can cause errors.
Payment action – you can opt to only authorize payment, or you can use the more traditional method of capturing charges.
Page style – if you are using a custom page style within PayPal settings, you can enter that information here as well. This is optional.
Image URL – enter the URL of a 150×150 pixel image that will be used as your logo on the PayPal screen. This is optional.

Finally, you can enter your PayPal API credentials if you would like to issue automatic refunds through PayPal. See our lesson on issuing automatic refunds for more information about this option.

Customer Experience in Checkout

When on the checkout screen in your store, your customers will find the option of using PayPal to make a payment among others. Customers can also find out more information about PayPal in a modal pop-up if they click “What is PayPal?” next to the payment option.

When the customer clicks through to use PayPal, they will be sent temporarily to a new page to complete the payment with PayPal.

And that’s it! You’ve set up your newest payment gateway and can accept payments through PayPal Standard. If you need help getting your WooCommerce store off the ground, contact us and we can talk about your next steps.