PayPal is the world’s most popular online payment system, and for a good reason. It’s fast, free, and simple. The service also supports e-commerce platforms, allowing them to expand their business globally. The best known as a payments platform, PayPal has built a global network of financial institutions, electronic payments providers, and acquirers. As of Q1 2022, its total number of active accounts exceeded 429 million users, growing by 13% y-o-y from the fourth quarter of 2020.
The company is one of the biggest payment processors in the world, and its online payment system provides a safe and easy way for people to make purchases online. It also provides the infrastructure for small and medium-sized businesses to accept online payments, even if they don’t have a bank account or credit card. Yeah, they would definitely need a bank account to transfer their money received via PayPal.
PayPal for online stores
The world of online commerce is a complicated one. Everything from shipping and returns to refunds and payment methods is handled differently depending on the retailer. That can lead to a lot of confusion, which is why it’s so important for online stores to find a payment processor that understands their needs. That’s where PayPal comes in.
PayPal is an online platform that lets eCommerce and online businesses accept payments from their customers without having to handle the funds themselves. Instead, they can accept payments from their customers using their PayPal account, which is linked to their bank account. This allows them to focus their time on what they do best: selling products and providing customer service. It also helps protect their business against fraud since it allows them to keep their credit card details safe.
Reasons why brands use Paypal
Since PayPal has been around for such a long time, it has built up a strong and reliable brand. Hence, brands leverage PayPal Integration to make it easier for people to pay for their purchases and to offer frictionless payments for their online transactions. In return, PayPal helps businesses meet some most critical success metrics. As per Nielsen study’s findings:
- At the time of purchase, PayPal increases conversion by 28% at checkout;
- Consumers tend to shop more when they see PayPal; thus, it enhances the average order value as well;
- Checking out with PayPal also elevates the likelihood of repeating customers by 13%;
If you are selling or want to sell something online, you will need to embed an online payment method to facilitate easy checkout. And clearly, there is no better solution than PayPal when it comes to growing your eCommerce business. Check out what you are sure of when you PayPal by your side.
The elevated customer shopping experience
Customers can use PayPal, debit cards, credit cards, installment payments, and more when PayPal is integrated into the checkout experience.
Streamline checkout
By auto-populating shipping and billing information, PayPal has made the checkout process more efficient by reducing the number of clicks and keystrokes required. A PayPal user enters this data once at the time of PayPal account setup and doesn’t need to enter it again. Consequently, the cart abandonment rate is reduced.
Payment Security
Because PayPal keeps all customer information on its platform, merchants who use PayPal to process payments don’t need to worry about Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard compliance.
How to create a Business account on PayPal?
Creating your business account on PayPal is not a brainer. Just follow the below step-by-step instructions.
- First, visit the official website PayPal.com and click Sign Up.
- Now, select the business account option and click Next.
- It’s time to enter your email address and click Next again.
- There you are, to create a login ID and choose a strong password. Then, enter your business contact information.
- Also, do not forget to read the user agreement, privacy policy, and electronic communications policy. You need to click Agree and Continue.
- After that, enter your employer ID number, or in case you are a sole proprietor, you need to enter your social security number.
- Next comes your website address, and click Continue.
- The platform also asks for some additional personal information to verify your identity.
- When you fill in all the details and submit, you will receive a confirmation email to verify your information.
- As soon as you verify the account, your account is ready to use.
How to link to your bank account?
After setting up your business PayPal account, you want to link your bank account to transfer your funds. Here is how to do it in 5-10 minutes.
However, to link your bank account with your PayPal account, you’ll need the below pieces of information:
- Your PayPal Business account details
- Your bank name
- Credential of your online banking
- Bank account and routing number
Now follow the below step-by-step instructions.
- Log into your PayPal Business account.
- Find and click money at the top of the page.
- Now, click Link to a new bank.
- Then, select your bank, or if you cannot see it, click Don’t see your bank?
- Look for linking your account instantly, which depends on the bank you select.
- If you cannot find the option, enter your details manually and click Agree and Link.
So, when you enter your bank account details manually, PayPal may make 2 deposits with a small amount into your account within 3 days.
How to integrate PayPal if you are a PHP-based online store
As PayPal is a leading payment system, PHP is a widely-used programming language on the world wide web by a majority of business sites. So, let us now get into the technical side of standard payment gateway integration into PHP.
1. Create a Sandbox Account
After creating a business account on PayPal with this link https://www.sandbox.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr. Get Sandbox credentials from your PayPal developer account.
PayPal Sandbox is a testing environment to test, accept and send payment processes. You can use testing email to test transactions without affecting live PayPal accounts.
2. Create Index.php file
Step 2 is to create a file that will fetch the products record from the shopping cart/database and display them on the page.
3. Create a success.php file
The success file is to identify the payment transaction.
When the transaction is successful, the patent gateway will return the following details.
Item_number Transaction_ID CURRENCY_CODE AMOUNT PAYMENT_STATUS
4. Create a Cancel.php file
Create a file to redirect the transaction in case it is canceled.
5. Test for submission
You can use fake accounts and test the PayPal integration to see if it works correctly. If everything works well, you can go live with your PHP code. You can change the sandbox mode to live.
Does your site have PayPal?
A robust and secured Payment method is a must factor for online businesses as it establishes trust and ensures customers a safe checkout. And when customers trust your site, they will be more likely to be loyal to your brands.
Therefore, when you start an eCommerce business, do not forget to ask your PHP developer to integrate PayPal for a reliable payment process.
