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Paypal Checkout
Aleks avatar
Written by Aleks
Updated over a week ago

PayPal is a payment system that allows payments through credit cards, PayPal balances, or buyer credit (payments over time). When you open an online store, your store sets the email address you opened a store with as your Paypal account email. If you do not have any PayPal account yet, you can start accepting online payments right away and create a PayPal account for this email later to get access to incoming transactions. If you already have a PayPal account for this email address, then you receive payments from orders made with PayPal right away. You can also specify another PayPal email to receive payments to if you already have a different PayPal account.

To use PayPal in your store, you need a Business PayPal account. Most functions and tools provided by PayPal for business owners are only available to business accounts.

Setting up PayPal

PayPal is one of the default payment systems in your online store. When you set up your online store, your store login email is preset as your PayPal account email in your store admin → Payment → PayPal section:

To enable the PayPal payment method in your online store:

  1. From your store admin, go to the Payment page.

  2. Scroll down to PayPal block. Depending on whether you have a PayPal account or not, follow the steps below:

  • (Your business PayPal account is registered to the same email that you used to sign up for your store.) Click Enable PayPal to start accepting payments.

  • (You don’t have a business PayPal account yet.) Click Enable PayPal to start accepting payments. Then create a business PayPal account with the same email as set up in your online store to withdraw the money.

  • (You already have a business PayPal account with a different email address.) Click Change PayPal account to switch your PayPal account in your online store. Then click Enable PayPal to save changes:

That’s it. PayPal is now enabled as a payment method at your store checkout:

Testing PayPal

By placing a test order you can make sure that the PayPal payment method is properly set up in your store and check the customer experience.

Note: You cannot test PayPal using the same account as a buyer and a seller because PayPal does not allow buying from yourself.

To place test orders through PayPal in your store:

  1. Create another PayPal account for an email address that is different from the email of your PayPal account linked to your online store. Alternatively, you can ask your friend or a family member to place a test order in your store and pay with their PayPal account.

  2. Add a cheap test product ($1 or less) in your store.

  3. Make sure that you've set up a PayPal payment method in your store.

  4. Make a purchase from your store. Make sure that the funds were processed.

  5. If needed, you may refund the order in your PayPal account.

  6. Remember to specify in your store settings the PayPal email you are going to receive the real payments to.

Adding PayPal Credit

In addition to PayPal, you can offer PayPal Credit as a financing option to your customers to encourage them to buy more or purchase more expensive products and services. With PayPal Credit, you get paid upfront while your customers can buy now and pay over time.

To enable or disable the PayPal Credit button in your store:

  1. From your store admin, go to the Payment page.

  2. Select PayPal, then click Settings.

  3. Open Advanced Settings.

  4. Enable or disable the Show PayPal Credit button toggle.

Here is how customers see the PayPal Credit button at checkout:

If you add the PayPal Checkout button to the cart page, the PayPal Credit button will appear on the cart page, too.

Adding PayPal Credit promotional banners

In addition to the PayPal Credit button, you can show PayPal Credit promotional banners on multiple pages in your storefront by activating PayPal Insights (PayPal Marketing Solutions) in your store admin. As a result, you will inform your customers that PayPal’s financing option is going to be available to them during the checkout process and will gain access to business insights about your PayPal shoppers.

To show PayPal Credit promo banners in your store:

  1. From your store admin, go to Payment.

  2. Select PayPal, then click Settings.

  3. Under PayPal Insights, click Activate.

Offering local payment options (Venmo and more)

When you enable the PayPal payment method, additional payment options become automatically enabled in your store (so-called smart buttons). They are local wallets and country-specific funding source, including:

  • Venmo (for the USA, only on mobile)

  • iDEAL (for the Netherlands)

  • Bancontact (for Belgium)

  • MyBank (for Italy)

  • Giropay and SEPA Direct Debit (for Germany)

  • EPS (for Australia)

PayPal dynamically picks out the most relevant payment methods for each buyer at checkout based on customer location and what is set up on their device.

Here is an example of the cart page with additional payment buttons (the actual set of these smart buttons may vary for each customer):

This gives your potential clients more choice and flexibility in how they pay, and they are more likely to convert. If you sell internationally, it also means that you don’t need to sign up with a variety of local payment providers.

Regardless of the payment method a customer chooses at checkout, PayPal will send the funds to your PayPal account, so you can manage your transactions as usual. Purchases made through these additional smart buttons will show as PayPal payments in your orders in your store admin.

Offering express checkout with PayPal

You can offer your customers a fast checkout with PayPal in the cart page of your store. Your customers can skip entering their address at checkout and use shipping and payment details right from their PayPal accounts to quickly place their orders.

To add the al Checkout button to the cart page:

  1. From your store admin, go to the Payment page.

  2. Select PayPal, then click Settings.

  3. Expand the Advanced settings.

  4. Click the Enable PayPal Checkout on the cart page toggle:

Now your customers will see PayPal Checkout button on the cart page and can choose if they want to go through the express checkout with PayPal or proceed with your regular checkout:

If PayPal is the only payment method you selected, your customers will see only PayPal checkout options on the cart page:

Letting customers pay without PayPal account

Your customers can pay you with a credit or debit card without a PayPal account login. The guest checkout option is available to the merchants with a verified Business account with PayPal.

To offer guest checkout through PayPal:

  1. Log into your business PayPal account.

  2. Proceed to Profile → Selling Preferences → Website Payment Preferences.

  3. Select Yes for the PayPal Account Optional setting.

Now, after clicking the PayPal Checkout button, customers can choose to pay by debit or credit card and PayPal will process their payments.

Here is how the guest checkout option can look like for customers:

Depending on your customer location and on their browser cookies the guest checkout may look differently. E.g. it can be offered earlier as a “Pay with Credit or Debit Card”, “Check Out as a Guest”, or "Don't have a PayPal account?” option, or it can be don’t offered at all.

If you and your customer are both located in the USA, the guest checkout option will be offered below the PayPal Checkout button in the form of credit card icons. Your customers can click on such a card icon to pay for their order with their credit or debit card.

TIP: You can also connect your store with a payment gateway like Stripe or Square to add a separate Credit or debit card payment method to your store checkout, in addition to PayPal Checkout.

Using one PayPal account in several stores

If you have several online stores, you can link them all to one PayPal account. Your online store takes care of proper values for each storefront and directs all sales to the PayPal account you select. All you need to do is enable the Auto return option:

  1. Log in to your PayPal account.

  2. Go to Profile → My selling tools → Website Payment Preferences.

  3. Set the Auto return option to Enabled.

  4. Enter https://app.shopsettings.com to the Return URL field.

Your online store will provide a URL with each payment request that overrides the Return URL field so your customers return to the site where they began the checkout process.

FAQ

Why does a paid order have an "Awaiting Payment" status in my online store?

A Paid status in your store admin shows the funds have transferred to your account, while an Awaiting Payment status shows the funds in limbo.

Generally, PayPal orders may have Awaiting Payment status in your online store for several reasons:

  1. An eCheck that has not cleared is the most frequent cause of a pending payment. This often resolves itself when the eCheck clears (usually 3-5 days).

  2. The customer did not provide a confirmed shipping address and your Payment Receiving Preferences requires you to manually accept or deny these payments. To change this preference, go to the Preferences section of your Profile in PayPal.

  3. The payment is pending because you hold a non-U.S. account and do not have a withdrawal mechanism. You must manually accept or deny this payment from Account Overview in your PayPal account.

  4. You do not have a balance in the currency sent, and you do not have your Payment Receiving Preferences set to automatically convert and accept such payments. You must manually accept or deny this payment.

  5. The payment is pending while PayPal reviews it for risk.

  6. The payment is pending because you must upgrade your account with PayPal. The Business or Premier plans allow you to accept credit cards and increase the monthly limit for transactions on your account.

  7. The payment is pending because you have not been verified yet. After verifying your account with PayPal, you will be able to accept this payment.

You can check the specific reason from PayPal in the order details in your store admin, My Sales → Orders.

One of the often reasons for pending payments that you can see in order details is as follows:

The payment is pending because it was made to an email address that is not yet registered or confirmed.

If you see this message in an order’s details in your store admin, first, make sure you have the right email address entered in your store admin → Payment, PayPal-Settings:

  • If the email address is correct, your PayPal account probably needs to be confirmed or verified. If this is the case, the money is in limbo until your account gets verified.

  • If the email doesn’t match, and you’re working with a test order, update your PayPal settings in your store admin and submit another test order to ensure the orders arrive as Paid.
    In case you’re dealing with a live order from your customer, the money will remain pending on the PayPal site for the next 45 days. If nobody (you) claims the funds, PayPal will return the funds to the buyer. Now you have two options:

  1. If PayPal returns the funds, we suggest contacting the buyer and explaining the situation. Creating an invoice in your PayPal account for the same amount and asking your customer to pay it may be the easiest option.

  2. Register a PayPal account for the wrong email, and verify it. After that, PayPal will transfer the money to the account with the "wrong email" and you can forward the funds to your main business account.
    When you receive the money, you can manually update the status of the orders to Paid in your store admin → My Sales page → Orders.

TIP: If you’re unsure why a PayPal order has an Awaiting Payment status, contact our support team for help and include your Store ID and the order number in your request.

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