How you can use PayPal to accept payments and pay your Shopify bill

[Ollie]

Did you know you can set up PayPal on your online store to allow your customers to make purchases using their own PayPal account? Doing so can help boost your conversion rate by offering a popular alternative payment method at checkout that customers may be more familiar with.

Let’s jump into how you can use PayPal in your store. 

Activating PayPal 

Setting up PayPal in your online store is one of Shopify’s default payment providers. When you create an online store, Shopify creates a PayPal Express Checkout account using the email address used at the time of sign up. If you already have a PayPal account associated with that email address, then you will receive payments from PayPal orders right away. Otherwise, you’ll need to update the email in the settings of your account. 

To update the PayPal account to a different email, or to connect PayPal  with your online store, you will need to login to your Shopify admin and navigate to the Payments (Settings > Payments) section. On this page, you will see the Additional payment methods section with the option to Activate PayPal. 

Once you select on Activate PayPal, you will be prompted to login to your PayPal account to establish the connection between your online store and PayPal account. You may need to create a business account with PayPal or upgrade your existing account to a business account.

When your account is successfully connected, the PayPal gateway will be available for your customers when they are completing the checkout process. You can navigate directly to your checkout to see the PayPal gateway available to make a purchase. 

Note: You may be subject to transaction fees for every order placed with PayPal. These fees are in addition to the fees PayPal will charge you for using their payment system. If you use PayPal alongside Shopify Payments, then you will not be charged transaction fees

When the customer uses PayPal in your store, they will be led away from the Shopify checkout. (See example below)

Here they can login and place the order. Once complete, they will be redirected back to Shopify checkout.

Note: If the customer closes the window before they are redirected, then the order may not appear in your orders area. If a customer reaches out claiming they made a purchase and you verified the funds are in your PayPal account, then find the order in your abandoned checkouts area and make a draft.

Additionally, you can enable guest payments to let your customers pay with their credit card even if they do not have a PayPal account. In order to enable this feature, you will need to have your own credit card linked to your PayPal business account. Learn more about enabling guest payments with PayPal.

Capturing payments using the PayPal gateway

When your customer completes the checkout process using the PayPal gateway, you will see the order displayed in the Orders section of the Shopify dashboard. 

When you receive an order from the PayPal gateway for the first time, you will be notified by email from PayPal indicating that you have funds to claim. In order to capture the payment, you will need to login to your PayPal business account. 

Once the funds have been claimed, they will be automatically added to your PayPal balance. 

If you are unsure about which gateway was used on an order, you can view payment events from the order timeline to gather more information. To view the timeline, navigate to the order and scroll down to the timeline. You can select on the payment event to gather more information on which gateway has been used. 

Note: Funds may take longer to claim if they are an echeck, you can check the order timeline to confirm.

Paying your Shopify bill with your PayPal funds

Depending on where your store is located, you may be able to pay your Shopify bill with the funds in your PayPal account. 

If you are creating your Shopify store, you can choose PayPal as your billing method when signing up. For existing merchants, you will need to navigate to Billing (Settings > Billing) and select Add payment method. 

If PayPal is not automatically selected, open the drop down menu and select PayPal. Once your PayPal account is connected, you will pay your Shopify bill with your PayPal balance. 

Note: If you are located in the United States, then you cannot use PayPal to pay your Shopify bill. As of October 1, 2022, merchants in India cannot use PayPal as a payment method for paying Shopify bills.

If you are experiencing any issues with paying your bill using your PayPal account, you can reach out to PayPal support for more information. 

Now that you have set up the PayPal gateway on your online store, your customers can use their own accounts to make purchases and complete the checkout process. You can now capture your customers payments with PayPal and pay your Shopify bill with your PayPal business account. 

Check out our Help Article to learn more about PayPal.