A lot of people will use WordPress to power their eCommerce platforms. What if you want to add a simple PayPal shopping cart to accept payments? WordPress has you covered. In fact, setting up the shopping cart is not as difficult as you might think.
With WordPress hosting, you have a lot of different ways to make money online. Selling products or services is probably one of the most common. And you definitely want to get paid for your goods.
In this tutorial, I’m going to show you how to set up the Simple PayPal Shopping Cart plugin in WordPress.
Installing Simple PayPal Shopping Cart #
I am assuming you have a PayPal account ready to go. If not, I would suggest you create your account before you start selling. It can take a few days for bank accounts and personal information to be verified through PayPal.
Today, I am working with the Simple PayPal Shopping Cart plugin. It’s a free tool that has a lot of flexibility when it comes to selling your goods through the website.
Go to the Plugins area and click, “Add New.”
Search for WordPress Simple PayPal Shopping Cart and click, “Install.”
Once the button changes, click to “Activate” the plugin.
Setting Up Your Shopping Cart #
Once Simple PayPal Shopping Cart is activated, it’s time to customize the platform. Go to Settings and click, “WP Shopping Cart.”
In this screen, you will need to fill in your PayPal information. You’ll also need to customize how your site works such as adding free shipping, return URLs, product pages if you have any, custom checkout logo and more.
After adjusting your settings, click the “Update Options” button on the bottom of the page.
Adding a Product Page #
Now you need to add something for people to buy. This is when you’ll need to know a bit about how shortcodes work. Don’t worry, it’s not difficult.
If you need to know what shortcodes to use, these are always displayed in the WP Shopping Cart settings under “Quick Usage Guide.”
Let’s create a quick product so you can see how this is done. Go to Pages and click, “Add New.”
Input your item descriptions as well as the price. This can be done however you like. It’s probably not a bad idea to add a few images using a gallery in this section.
There are two important things you need to take note: the product name and the price. Give the product a name and price that you will use in the shortcode. For instance, I have a “Sample Product” that I am selling for “$49.99.”
Place this shortcode under your product information: