How to Configure PayPal Express Checkout Payment Method in Magento 2

PayPal Express Checkout Payment Method is the most convenient payment method on the internet nowadays. It is confirmed that integrating PayPal on your store can increase conversion rate twice and raise the overall customers up to 29%. PayPal is trusted and used widely for its fast checkout; utility when accepting debit card, credit card and almost currencies in the world; as well as absolute security. For all the reasons above, PayPal Express Checkout appear on every online store. To manage PayPal Express Checkout Payment Method on your Magento website, let’s follow the steps below.

Read How to Create Payment Methods in Magento 2

Express checkout workflow with Paypal

PayPal Express Checkout is different from other payment methods because it lets the customer check out from the item’s details page, the small cart, or the shopping cart at the start of the normal checkout process.

1. Customer makes an order: Customer hits or taps the PayPal button to pay.

2. Customer is transferred to the PayPal site: The customer is redirected to finish the transaction.

3. Customer signs in to their PayPal account: The customers must sign in to their PayPal account in order to finish the transaction. Their PayPal account is used to get their billing and shipping details by the payment method.

4. Customer goes back to the checkout page: The customer is taken back to your store’s checkout page to look over their order again.

5. A customer makes an order: The customer places the order, and PayPal gets the information about the sale.

6. PayPal settles the payment: PayPal gets the order and complete the transaction.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Orders with more than one address can’t be processed through PayPal Express Checkout. So you need to pay attention to get Pay Pal support for your order!

5 Steps to Configure PayPal Express Checkout Payment Method in Magento 2

Step 1: Prepare PayPal Account

You should make sure that your PayPal account takes your PayPal account ID, email address, API username, API password, and API signature before you add PayPal to your store.

Working with a bank account is the first thing you should do:

• Go to manager.paypal.com,you can sign in to your account or make a new one.
• Click Service Settings > Hosted Checkout Pages > Set Up, then, change “No” in the AVS field to “Yes” and “Yes” in the CSC field to “No.”
• Next, clicklick Save.
• It will be suggested that you add another user to your account. Then,
• Access your account again in manager.paypal.com.
• To add another user, follow PayPal’s instructions.
• Click Save.
• Choose the settings you want for Required PayPal Settings by clicking on it.
• Type the exact email address you used to sign up for your PayPal business account in the Email Address field.
• Pick either “API Signature” or “API Certificate” from the list of API authentication methods this page shows.
• The PayPal credentials part is optional; fill it out if you need to.
• Activate Sandbox Mode by clicking “Yes” if you are using your sandbox account details. After that, click Sandbox Credentials and, if necessary, follow the on-screen steps to set up your trial area.
• If your store system uses a proxy server to connect Magento to PayPal, make sure that API Uses Proxy is set to “Yes” and that the Proxy Host and Proxy Port boxes are filled out.
• Set Enable this Solution to “Yes” when you’re done with the parts above.
• Going to PayPal Credit will help you learn more about how to let your customers borrow money through PayPal. Click Save config to save the changes you want to make to the Basic and Advanced Settings. Then you can start working with the Magento site.

IMPORTANT NOTE:

PayPal no longer supports sellingvirtual products through PayPal Express Checkout. If you want to process an order that includes digital goods, you should usePayPal Payments Standard or another PayPal payment method.

Step 2: Prepare for PayPal Express Checkout Configuration

This step is used to build a basement for configuring PayPal Express Checkout.

• On the Admin sidebar, choose Stores > Settings > Configuration.
• In the panel on the left, click Sales > Payment Methods.
• If you install multiple websites, stores or views, choose Store View in the upper-left corner where the configuration applies.
• Click Merchant Location and set your country to Merchant Country field. If this field is left blank, Default Country from General Config will be used.
• Choose PayPal All-In-One Payment Solutions or PayPal Express Checkout to click Configure.

Step 3: Set options for Required Settings

With Magento 2, you can use either PayPal Express Checkout or PayPal All-In-One deal. As soon as you set up one option, the other one stops working automatically. There are three parts to setting up PayPal Express Checkout and PayPal All-In-One: required settings, basic settings, and advanced settings. This guide only covers PayPal Express Checkout because of this.

• Expand the Required PayPal Settings then Express Checkout section.

• In the Email Associated with PayPal Merchant Account field, enter the exact mail that is specified in your merchant PayPal account.
• In the API Authentication Methods field, select one of the following:
• “API Signature” and fill the API Username, API Password and API Signature fields.
• “API Certificate” and fill the API Username and API Password fields. In the API Certificate field, upload a file of API Certificate to complete.
• Click Get Credentials from PayPal or Sandbox Credentials if needed, a link to PayPal will be opened in a new window. You should log in and follow the instructions.
• If your system uses a proxy server to connect Magento with the PayPal payment system, set API Uses Proxy to “Yes” then complete the Proxy Host and Proxy Port fields.
• In the Enable This Solution field, choose “Yes” to activate PayPal Express Checkout.
• In the Enable PayPal Credit field, select “Yes” to accept PayPal Credit on your store.
• Expand the Advertise PayPal Credit section.
• Click Get Publisher ID from PayPal and take your account ID information then fill in the Publisher ID field.
• Expand the Home Page section and set the options.
• In the Display field, choose “Yes” to enable the banner to appear on the Home Page or “No” to disable it.
• In the Position field, select the location of the banner on Home Page.
• In the Size field, set the size of the banner to be suitable with your store.
• Do the same for the Catalog Category Page, Catalog Product Page, and Checkout Cart Page sections.

Step 4: Set options for Basic Settings

In this step, you will start to change how PayPal Express Checkout looks.

• Click to expand the Basic Settings section.
• In the Title field, enter a new title or leave it in default of “PayPal Express Checkout”.
• In the Sort Order field, enter a number to determine the position of PayPal Express Checkout Payment in the list of payment methods that is shown in the checkout page (starting from 0).
• In the Payment Action field, set to one of the following:
• “Authorization” to approve the purchase, but puts a hold on the funds to wait for being “captured” by the merchant.
• “Sale” to imply that the purchase is already authorized and can be withdrawn from the customer’s account at once.
• “Order” to show that the order is neither authorized nor captured. When “Order” is chosen, there are three more fields to complete. Note that, to change any default data in these fields, you need to contact PayPal.
• In the Display on Product Details Page field, select “Yes” to To display the Checkout with PayPal button on the product page.

Step 5: Set options for Advanced Settings.

The advanced settings section includes of advanced configuration when integrating PayPal.

• Click to expand the Advanced Settings section.
• In the Display on Shopping Cart field, choose “Yes” to display the Checkout with PayPal button in the shopping cart.
• In the Payment Applicable From field, choose “All Allowed Countries” to accept PayPal Express Checkout for customers from all countries specified in your store configuration or “Specific Countries” to approve this payment method for some definite countries which you select from the Payment from Countries Payment Applicable From list.
• In the Debug Modefield, set “Yes” to write communications with the payment system into the log file. The log file for PayPal Payments Advanced is payments_payflow_advanced.log.
• Set Enable SSL Verification field to “Yes” to enable host authenticity verification.
• Set Enable SSL Verification to “Yes” to enable host authenticity verification.
• Set Transfer Cart Line Items to “Yes” to display a full summary of the customer’s order by line item from the PayPal site then set Transfer Shipping Options to “Yes” to include up to ten shipping options in the summary.
• In the Shortcut Buttons Flavor field, to determine the type of image used for the PayPal acceptance button, choose “Dynamic” to display an image that can be dynamically changed from the PayPal server or choose “Static” to display a specific image that cannot be dynamically changed.
• Set Enable PayPal Guest Checkout to “Yes” to allow customers without PayPal accounts to make purchases with this method.
• In the Require Customer’s Billing Address field, choose “Yes” to require the customer’s billing address for all purchases; choose “No” to exclude the requirement or choose “For Virtual Quotes Only” to require the customer’s billing address for virtual quotes only.
• In the Billing Agreement Signup field, set “Auto” to allow your customers to sign a billing agreement during the Express Checkout flow or use another method of payment; set “Ask Customer” to allow your customers to decide whether to sign a billing agreement during the Express Checkout flow or set “Never” to disable signing a billing agreement during the Express Checkout flow.

• Set Skip Order Review Step to “Yes” to let the customer complete the transaction from the PayPal site without returning to your Magento store for Order Review.

• Now you generally complete the Advanced Settings. Click Save Config to save the process or continue with three more sections below if necessary for your store.
• Expand PayPal Billing Agreement Settings to configure Billing Agreement for customers who have already entered into a billing agreement with your company.
• Set Enabled to “Yes” to activate PayPal Billing Agreement then complete the settings as same as the instruction for PayPal Express Checkout.

• In the Settlement Report Settings section, If you have signed up for PayPal’s Secure FTP Server, enter the SFTP login credentials in Login and Password fields.
• Set Sandbox Mode to “Yes” to run test reports before “going live” with Express Checkout on your site.
• Complete the Custom Endpoint Hostname or IP Address field. By default, the value is: reports.paypal.com.
• Complete the Custom Path field to show where reports are saved. By default, the value is: /ppreports/outgoing.
• Under Scheduled Fetching, set Enable Automatic Fetching to “Yes” to generate reports according to a schedule and choose the frequency to generate the report in the Schedule field. Then in the Time of Day field, set the hour, minute, and second when you want the reports to be generated.

• The last section - Frontend Experience Settings, allows you to customize the appearance of your PayPal merchant pages and PayPal logos on your site.
• In the PayPal Product Logo field, choose the size of PayPal Logo to display on your catalog pages and homepage.
• In the Page Style field, enter the name of the page style that you want to apply to your PayPal merchant pages.
• In the Header Image URL field, enter the URL of the image you want to appear in the upper-left corner of the payment page. The maximum file size is 750 pixels wide by 90 pixels high.

• In the Header Background Color, Header Border Color and Page Background Color fields, enter the six-character hexadecimal code, without the “#” symbol to complete.

• Click the Save Config button in the upper-right corner when you are done.

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IMPORTANT NOTE:

For the best checkout experience, PayPal suggests you should add the Paypal One Touch/InContext Plugin for Magento. You can get this module for free.

Troubleshooting Common Issues when Setting Up PayPal Express Checkout in Magento 2

Sometimes, you might encounter a few issues or challenges during this process, but don’t worry, we have prepared a list of common problems and suitable solutions for each of them.

1. API Credentials Invalid

Explanation: This error happens when the API credentials (like Username, Password, and Signature) entered in the Magento 2 configuration are incorrect or don’t match those linked to your PayPal Business Account.

Solution: Check the API credentials you’ve entered. Log into your PayPal account to confirm you’re using the correct credentials for the right environment (sandbox or live). Update them in Magento 2 if necessary.

2. Payment Action Configuration Mismatch

Explanation: This error occurs when the payment action settings in Magento 2 don’t match those in your PayPal account. For example, if Magento is set to “Sale” (authorize and capture) but PayPal has a different setting.

Solution: Make sure the payment action settings are consistent between Magento 2 and PayPal. If you want to capture payments immediately, both should be set the same way.

3. IPN Notifications Not Received

Explanation: Instant Payment Notification (IPN) allows PayPal to inform your Magento 2 store about transaction updates. If your store isn’t receiving these notifications, transaction statuses might not update correctly.

Solution: Check that IPN settings are correctly set up in your PayPal account. Verify the IPN URL in your PayPal settings matches the one provided by Magento 2. Also, ensure your server or firewall isn’t blocking IPN requests.

4. Currency Mismatch

Explanation: Errors may occur at checkout if the currencies allowed by PayPal don’t match those set in your Magento 2 store.

Solution: Align the currencies supported by PayPal with those configured in Magento 2. Ensure they are compatible to prevent currency conversion issues.

5. SSL Certificate Missing

Explanation: Without a valid SSL certificate (HTTPS), your Magento 2 store may struggle to communicate securely with PayPal, causing payment processing errors.

Solution: Install an SSL certificate on your server to enable HTTPS. This ensures secure data transmission and prevents browser warnings that could discourage customers.

FAQ

What should I do if I receive an “API Credentials Invalid” error when setting up PayPal Express Checkout in Magento 2?

If you encounter an “API Credentials Invalid” error, it means the API credentials (Username, Password, Signature) entered in Magento 2’s configuration are incorrect or don’t match the ones associated with your PayPal Business Account. To resolve this, double-check the API credentials you’ve entered. Go to your PayPal account and ensure you’re using the correct API credentials for the appropriate environment (sandbox or live). Update the credentials in Magento 2’s configuration if needed.

How can I resolve a “Payment Action Configuration Mismatch” error when integrating PayPal Express Checkout with Magento 2?

A “Payment Action Configuration Mismatch” error occurs when the payment action settings in your Magento 2 configuration do not match the settings in your PayPal account. For instance, you might set Magento to “Sale” (authorize and capture) while PayPal is configured differently. To fix this, align the payment action settings between Magento 2 and PayPal. If you want to capture payments immediately, make sure both platforms are set accordingly. Consistency is key to avoiding conflicts.

What steps should I take if my Magento 2 store isn’t receiving IPN notifications from PayPal Express Checkout?

If your Magento 2 store isn’t receiving IPN notifications, it means Instant Payment Notification (IPN) settings are not properly configured in your PayPal account. First, ensure the IPN URL provided by Magento 2 is correctly set up in your PayPal settings. Also, check if your server or firewall isn’t blocking incoming IPN requests. Proper IPN configuration is crucial for transaction statuses to update correctly.

The bottom line

When it comes to payment methods, PayPal is still a popular one due to its fast speed, high security, and multiple currency approvals. If you aim at increasing conversion rates and attracting more customers, setting up the PayPal Express Checkout Payment Method can be a good tactic to follow. We have included everything you have to do in this post, so don’t hesitate to start doing it now. In case you would like to install other payment options, related posts will serve your needs. And if you want something we do not have already, feel free to chat with us.

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