Payment Gateway Plugin for PayPal WooCommerce (Free) – Setup Guide

The Payment Gateway Plugin for PayPal WooCommerce empowers online store owners using WooCommerce to integrate secure payment processing into their websites effortlessly. This guide will walk you through the entire setup and configuration of the plugin in your WooCommerce site.

You can install the plugin from the WordPress plugin directory or as a zip downloaded from the WordPress.org website. To know more about installing a free plugin, refer to the following article: Installing a Free Plugin from WordPress.

• Checkout through PayPal Smart Buttons or Express Buttons.
• Wide range of customization for PayPal Smart Payment Buttons.
• Auto-detects customer’s country and displays available payment.
• You can swiftly checkout with the PayPal Express Button, utilizing stored shipping and funding information from the user’s PayPal account.

Once the plugin is installed and activated:

1. From the WordPress dashboard, navigate to WooCommerce > Settings > Payments > PayPal Express.
2. Click on the Manage button.

1. Alternatively, from the WordPress dashboard, navigate to Plugins > Installed Plugins > Payment Gateway Plugin for PayPal WooCommerce ( Free ) > Settings.

With the plugin, you can accept PayPal payments in two ways:

Payment types	Steps to set up
PayPal Smart Buttons	Enable the PayPal Payment Gateway and Smart Button Input the PayPal Client ID and Secret credentials Customize the Smart Buttons Save Settings
PayPal Express Buttons	Enable the PayPal Payment Gateway and Express Button Input the PayPal API credentials Save Settings

The whole plugin configuration will change based on the payment button selected.

PayPal Smart Payment Buttons are rendered using the PayPal API. It allows customizing the smart buttons in different ways. The alternative payment methods accept payments by using local funding sources based on the country.

PayPal’s Smart Button accepts payment from customers using multiple Alternative Payment Methods (APM). With alternative payment methods, customers can pay with their bank accounts, wallets, and other local payment methods based on country or device, such as:

• Bancontact
• BLIK
• eps
• iDEAL
• MyBank
• Pay upon Invoice
• Przelewy24

To use the WooCommerce PayPal Smart Payment Button, you must have a PayPal business account. You can open a Live or Sandbox account free of charge. 

Obtain the client ID and secret from your PayPal account and enter them in the plugin fields as shown below:

For more details on getting the client ID and secret, refer to the article “Get Client ID and Secret from a PayPal Business Account.”

• Title – Title for the payment gateway displayed at the checkout.
• Description – Description of the payment gateway displayed at the checkout.

The following are the available customization options:

• Show Smart button on – Lists available pages where you can display the smart button. The available options are:
  • Cart page
  • Checkout page
• Description – Text displayed above the Smart button.

• Size – Lists the available button size for the Smart button. Available options are:

• Button labels – Lists predefined labels from PayPal that appear as Button labels. The available options are PayPal, Buy Now, Pay, and Checkout.

• Tagline – You can choose to show or hide the tagline. Note that It will be hidden for the Vertical layout.

• Button color – Lists available color options for the Smart button. Available options are Gold, Blue, Silver, White, and Black.

• Shape – Lists available shape options for the Smart button. Available options are Pill or Rect.

• Layout – Lists available layout options for the Smart button.

• Disable a funding source – List available payment options in your PayPal account. The selected payment option will be disabled. Note: The checkout shows the funding sources based on country or device type.

For the Alternative Payment Method to render, the cart currency must be in the supported currency. PayPal supports currency codes for the buyer countries unless otherwise stated.

Payment workflow:

1. The buyer clicks on an alternative payment option from the cart, product, or checkout page as per the settings. In the above example, for the United States – PayPal Pay Later, Debit and Credit Card; for Germany –  SEPA, Debit and Credit Card; and for the Netherlands – Online betalen, Debit and Credit Card appear as alternative payment methods.
2. This will prompt the buyer to provide their personal information.
3. PayPal transfers the buyer to an alternative payment provider (bank, wallet) to confirm the purchase.
4. Authorizes and confirms payment by the buyer.
5. Upon returning to the merchant’s site, the buyer completes the transaction.
6. The merchant initiates payment completion. Following the payment, PayPal will send funds to the merchant.

When you integrate the PayPal Express Checkout Button, your buyers can quickly checkout using the shipping information and funding source already stored in their PayPal accounts. They don’t have to re-type any information— saving them time and reducing shopping cart abandonment.

To use the WooCommerce PayPal Express Checkout Button, you must have a PayPal business account. You can open a Live or Sandbox account free of charge. 

For more details on adding the API credentials, check out the following article: Collect API Username, Password, and Signature from PayPal Business Account.

The following are the available customization options:

• Show Express button on – List of pages where you can display the PayPal Express button.
• Show Express Credit button on: Displays a PayPal Express Credit button on selected pages. By using PayPal Credit, store owners will receive the payment upfront, but customers can opt for financing and pay over time.

• Description – Description displayed above the PayPal Express button.
• Button Size – Button sizes available for the PayPal Express/Credit Card  Button. The available options are:
  • Small
  • Medium
  • Large

The PayPal express button on the cart page will appear as shown below:

1. The buyer can checkout directly from the product or cart pages.
2. Then, the buyer can choose to pay using either Checkout with PayPal or the PayPal Credit button.
3. This will redirect the buyer to the PayPal Login page.
4. The buyer must enter the PayPal login credentials and pay the order amount. If the customer checks out with PayPal Credit Card, the customer needs to enter the credit card and billing details. Finally, the customer is taken to the Review page(if not skipped in settings).
5. The buyer can Place / Cancel the order by clicking the respective buttons.

Set your brand identity at the PayPal end by providing a brand name, logo, banner, etc. Customers who choose to pay via PayPal will see this on the PayPal site.

• Brand name – Store name which will be displayed at the PayPal end.
• Landing page – The user will be redirected to the select page on clicking the payment button. By default, redirected to the billing page.
• Logo(190×90) – Option to upload a company logo that will appear on the PayPal end. The image requires an SSL host.
• Header(750×90) – Option to upload a header image that will appear on the PayPal end. The image requires an SSL host.
• PayPal locale:
  • Use Store Locale: Choose to set the PayPal locale the same as the store locale.
  • Use Specific Locale: Choose to set a different locale other than store locale for the PayPal locale. (Drop down lists down the languages supported by PayPal)

The logo will appear at the PayPal end as shown below:

• Invoice prefix – Invoice prefix to identify transactions from your site. Suppose, you have added EH_ in this field, then the Invoice Number will be EH_12098.

• Disable address override – Enabling this will prevent the checkout address from being changed at PayPal’s end. It will affect express checkout, and PayPal will strictly verify the address.

• Send shipping address instead of billing – Enable to send shipping details to PayPal instead of billing. PayPal allows us to send only one among shipping/billing addresses. We advise you to validate PayPal Seller protection to send shipping details to PayPal.

• Hide order review page – Enable to skip the review page and move to the site directly. The plugin provides you an option to review the order before completion of the order. On the review page, the customer gets the option to place or cancel the order.

1. On placing an order, the buyer is directed to Review Page of Order ( if not skipped in Admin settings) as shown below.
2. The buyer can Place / Cancel the order by clicking the respective buttons.

• Save abandoned orders – Enable to save pending orders when payment is canceled by PayPal.
• Manage subtotal mismatch – Enabling this option will adjust the order by adding or removing a line item to fix any differences between the order total and subtotal before sending it to PayPal.

• Seller policy – This field appears if you disable the Hide order review page option. Enter Seller Policy or any customized text you want to display on the Review page for the customer.

Records PayPal payment transactions into the WooCommerce status log.

• Log: Enable to record PayPal payment transactions in a log file.

Once you’ve configured all the necessary options, click Save Changes to apply the settings.

This way, you can securely accept payments via PayPal. Check out the premium version: PayPal Express Checkout Payment Gateway for WooCommerce.