Step-by-Step Guide to Setup PayPal in Your WooCommerce Store

by Trevor

PayPal is a fast, safe and convenient service that allows you to pay, send money, and accept payments. The popular service is used by 173 million people in 202 countries for online payments.

If you are a Woocommerce user, the WooCommerce PayPal Payments is a full-stack payment solution for you to enjoy safer payments with PayPal.

It sets up quickly, enables faster payment acceptance, and lets you offer a seamless checkout experience to your customers.

Below are the details of Setting Up PayPal on WooCommerce. We have added requirements, installation, and setup details so you quickly get started.

Requirements to Install PayPal

To install and setup PayPal on your WooCommerce based store, you need to fulfill the below-mentioned requirements:

WordPress version 5.3 or newer installed
PayPal personal account or business account
WooCommerce version 3.9 or newer installed & activated
PHP Version 7.2 or a newer version

PayPal Installation for WooCommerce

Once your requirements are completely fulfilled, you can now proceed towards the installation of PayPal into your WooCommerce store. Listed below are the steps you should follow to install PayPal in WooCommerce successfully:

Log in to your WordPress Admin
Go to Plugins, then the “Add New” option
Search for the PayPal Payments plugin
Click on “Install Now”
Wait till the plugin is installed
Click “Activate now” to immediately activate
You can also activate it later, by going to the “Plugins” and then the “Installed Plugins” option

Setup a PayPal Account

Follow these steps to set up PayPal on WooCommerce.

Visit the website https://developer.paypal.com
Using your PayPal account info, log in to the site
Go to “Sandbox” then “Accounts” option
Create a personal or new business account or use the existing, pre-generated business account.
For the Sandbox account, you would like to use, click the 3 dots, under the “Manage Accounts” option
Select View/Edit Account
Keep a record of the email address and password for the account

Note: Sandbox is for testing only and you cannot receive funds using it.

Connect With a PayPal Account (Automatically and Manually)

After the WooCommerce PayPal Payments plugin is installed and activated, you need to connect it to your PayPal account.

Connect PayPal accounts with login credentials (email and password) using the integrated onboarding process, eliminating the need for API credentials.

The onboarding auto-creates a new REST application on the PayPal developer site. It will also register the webhooks, along with enabling relevant features such as “Vaulting”. Manually connect the account.

Method 1

Go to WooCommerce, then the settings option
Click the Payments tab
The enlisted payment methods will include 2 PayPal options
Click the Set Up option (or Manage if the extension is already active) next to PayPal
Don’t click the “PayPal Standard” option
The Account Setup section will show different options
Enable PayPal Payments
Accept all major debit & credit cards
Once selected, two credit card processing options will appear:
Standard Card Processing & Advanced Card Processing
Select either of the two
Click the “Activate PayPal” option and follow the prompts
After the onboarding is complete and the site is refreshed, make sure the checkbox next to the Enable/Disable option in the Standard Payments tab is checked
Click “Save Changes”

Method 2 – Manual Credential Input

Manually connect the PayPal account with API credentials if preferred.

Click Toggle to manual credential input
Create a REST application on the PayPal developer site to retrieve the API credentials
Obtain the Merchant ID, Client ID & Secret Key (for more details visit the documentation)