How to Setup and Configure PayPal for Digital Goods with WooCommerce?

PayPal is one of the most preferred payment gateways in the world that most businesses trust for eCommerce solutions. So, it doesn’t necessarily need any introduction. However, you might be curious about the ‘digital goods’ parts, thinking how it could help your business.

Of course, we will provide brief information about the same, the WooCommerce, and integration of PayPal plugin to your online. After that, we will dive into the installation and configuration part. Oh, and if you want PayPal for Digital goods Integration support, consider WPCustomify for that. For those willing to handle it on their own, we have written this guide with sufficient details.

Understanding WooCommerce and the Plugin

For those who have a little knowledge of WooCommerce, it is an eCommerce module for WordPress sites. So, assuming you are a small business, you can sell your products or services using the WooCommerce payment solutions in WordPress. However, WooCommerce is a free plugin which has limited functions. Nowadays, sellers do need a lot to convert a sale.

PayPal, on the other hand, has been providing gateway solutions for a lot of time. So, it makes sense that they work with WooCommerce. Now, there are more than one plugin that PayPal offers that you can use with WooCommerce. The one we will discuss today is the PayPal Digital Goods gateway. For those who are wondering why this specific plugin, this one exclusively used for selling Digital Products using WooCommerce platform.

How to find the PayPal API?

One of the first things that you should do is to create a PayPal account and then, make sure you update that to a Business account. Look for the option to make it a Business account. You can seek help from the PayPal support team. Once the Business account is ready, follow the steps below:

From the regular PayPal Dashboard, click on Tool, which should give you some more options. Then, click on “All Tools.”
Now, you should see all the tools and resources available. Now, there is a search bar on the left, where you need to type ‘API.’
You should see “API Credential” popping up in the middle of the screen. Click on ‘Open.’
After that, scroll down the page and find an option “Manage Credentials.” Click on that.
Now, it may ask you to verify your account once. Do that, and it will take you to a page, where you will find a button called “Agree and Submit.” Click on that.
Then you should see a page where you can find all the API key information. Click on ‘Show’ to acquire that piece of data.
We request you to keep it safe somewhere else as we need those later.

What are the prerequisites?

For the installation and configuration, we need the following prerequisites:

As we just mentioned, you need to create a Business PayPal account, and the API Credentials.
Check the PHP version whether the latest one is installed or not. If not, upgrade that.
Watch out for the theme compatibility with the WooCommerce module.

Installation and Configuration steps

Installation:

First and foremost, PayPal Digital Goods gateway is a paid WooCommerce extension, which will cost you $79 per year. So, you need to buy the plugin first.
Once you acquire the plugin, the next step is to download the .zip file and save it in your system.
Then, head back to WP Dashboard. Find the option ‘Plugins’ and hover your mouse pointer over, and you should see an option, “Add New.”
The page will route to the plugin’s library page. At the top, you should see “Upload Plugin.” Click on that.
Then you should see the option to upload a file. What you need to do is to upload the .zip file that you have purchased and downloaded before.
Then, click on “Install Now.” After a few seconds, you will get the option ‘Activate.’ Click on that to activate the plugin. You can then use it.

Configuration:

From the WP Dashboard, go to WooCommerce Settings and click on ‘Payments.’ Then, you should see PayPal listed there.
First, you need to type down PayPal’s registered email address, and if you scroll a bit further down, you can see all the API fields.
From the saved API information that you have acquired before, fill out the respective fields. You need to type down the API Username, the Password, and the Signature key in the respective fields.
Then you need to type down the Receiver email, as well.
You can try the Sandbox mode for demo transactions, or if you are ready, go live and accept payment to your PayPal Digital Goods gateway.

The Conclusion

PayPal Digital Goods gateway is a standard plugin, and most digital goods sellers prefer to use this plugin for more conversions. It will definitely work wonders for your WooCommerce store too. Give it a try.