PayPal Express Payment Setup
PayPal Express is probably the easiest, most cost effective option to begin automatically processing and accepting online payments. Here's how to setup PayPal Express to use a payment option.
- First, you must create a business account with PayPal Merchant Services by visiting https://www.paypal.com/webapps/mpp/merchant
- A 'Standard' Account is the most reasonable starting point since there is no monthly charge, only a per-transaction fee. This fee is subtracted from the amount paid by the customer before it is deposited into your PayPal account. The fee is generally a cost per transaction, plus a percentage of the transaction cost. This fee can only be passed onto the customer by marking up your online price.
- E.g., You are selling a widget which must be sold for $10. The online cost must be increased to $11.50 to cover your costs for using PayPal as a checkout option and still receive $10 from the customer into your PayPal account.
- FWIW, all non-cash purchase options (credit/debit cards) require a fee paid by the merchant for use.
- As a note, a PayPal account also provides a credit card acceptance option with a Free card reader for smart phones, etc...
- A 'Standard' Account is the most reasonable starting point since there is no monthly charge, only a per-transaction fee. This fee is subtracted from the amount paid by the customer before it is deposited into your PayPal account. The fee is generally a cost per transaction, plus a percentage of the transaction cost. This fee can only be passed onto the customer by marking up your online price.
- Once you've created the PayPal Merchant account, you'll receive details about your account in the form of a:
- API Username
- API Password
- Signature
- These items can be retrieved in the future by visiting My PayPal; then 'My Account', 'Profile', 'My Business Info'; then click on the 'My selling tools' section of the sidebar; then click on the 'Update' link of 'API access'; then click on the 'View API Signature' link
- Back in Exponent, select 'Manage Payment Options' under 'Store Setup' of the e-Commerce menu.
- Click the 'Configure' button for PayPal Express.
- Enter the three PayPal API details into the form.
- The 'Processing Mode' should almost always be left at the default of 'Sale' to complete the financial transaction when the customer submits their online purchase.
- If you would like to test your setup, you may create a PayPal Developer account and enter the details into the 'Sandbox' area. You may switch between test and real mode by enabling/disabling Sandbox mode.
- In most cases you'll want to send the customer an email confirmation of payment...select that option in the second tab
- And in most cases you'll want someone such as yourself to receive an email notification that a purchase has taken place. Those details are found in the third tab.
- Click 'Save Config' to proceed.
- Click the button to Enable 'PayPal Express Checkout' as a payment option (green light)
- PayPal Express Checkout is now setup and available as a customer checkout option.
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Parent Help Topic
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e-Commerce Payment Options
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As an overview of 'Payment' options in e-Commerce...for e-Commerce to work, at least one of the payment options must be active. However multiple types may be active to allow customer checkout options. The 'payment' is how the goods or services offered, are paid for. Exponent provides several options; some of which perform the actual transaction (transfer of funds) online, while others simply record the type of transaction to be processed outside of or apart from Exponent.
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