PayPal is a worldwide online payment system that facilitates payments between parties through online transfers. PayPal allows paying via an account on its platform, which is connected to a user's credit card or checking account. The company is highly popular as a payment processor for online stores all over the world due to its one-click transaction confirmation and storing passwords. For more info about this payment provider please visit: https://www.paypal.com/

To enable PayPal as a payment gateway on your store, you must have an active PayPal business account. If you have already used PayPal with Shopify, we suggest you simply connect it to Checkify (do not create a new one). If you don't have one, register it here.

Please note that PayPal Business is available only to stores in certain countries. For the list of supported countries, please visit their website.

To connect your PayPal account to Checkify, you need to generate an API key for Checkify (similar to Shopify-Checkify connection). For this, sign in to your PayPal account and go to the PayPal Developer section, then select Apps & Credentials in the menu.

Important: Make sure you are viewing your live PayPal API keys ("Live" must be selected).

To generate API keys for Checkify:

After adding PayPal as a payment method on Checkify, you will also be able to configure a couple of additional options, e.g.:

You can select specific countries or regions for which this payment method will be displayed.

PayPal's payment method initially performs a pre-authorization of the payment sum and then, upon a successful charge on the bank's side, PayPal changes the status of the payment to either Failed or Success. In such cases payment processing may take from couple of minutes to day(s).

Since it is being managed by PayPal, Checkify has no influence on it and has no ability to speed it up. You can track the status of such orders in your Shopify admin. It is not recommended to ship an order to your customer when "Payment pending" status is seen. When the payment status changes to "Paid", feel free to dispatch the order:

Once processing by PayPal is over, the status on Shopify changes to either Paid or Void (void - if PayPal returned a Failed status - not capture payment):

You can test PayPal payment flow on our demo-store. In order to do that you need to have or to create a PayPal sandbox account. Alternatively, you can use our test account (country IT):

Checkify offers, in addition to regular payments via PayPal, to connect the express checkout button. This is an express payment developed and provided by PayPal.

Buyer's behavior and flow are different when paying through the payment options shown in the screenshot above. These aspects are described further in this article.
Kindly note that the PayPal buttons will not be displayed in the Checkify's preview mode.

Translation of "Buy Now" text on the PayPal express button happens automatically based on a buyer's country / OS / browser language settings. It cannot be changed or translated using localization options and features available on and provided by our checkout service, but your buyers will be getting it in the language they understand, like and use.

If a buyer makes a payment through this button, then Checkify uses the shipping address specified in the PayPal account to form an order in Shopify.

Therefore, if you use a custom address form, we do not recommend enabling this option, at least without extra checks and tests on your side, due to the fact that some fields may not be transferred to the order on the Shopify side. When initiating a payment via PayPal, the buyer can choose the shipping method.

With alternative payment methods (APMs), customers across the globe can pay with their bank accounts, wallets, and other local payment methods. For example, a customer in the Netherlands might want to pay using iDEAL, which is used by more than half of consumers in this country for online purchases, whereas a customer in Belgium on the same website might want to pay using Bancontact, a popular payment method there.

You do not need to activate anything additionally in your PayPal account, if you have successfully completed Step 2 - "Setting up PayPal on Checkify's checkout" of this guide. So, simply activate the toggle (switch) as shown below:

Based on locale and country settings, APMs appear automatically and differ by country.

The options are given in the screenshot below. You may also refer to the actual PayPal's documentation and list of methods for more.

Therefore, PayPal's payment block for Germany will not look exactly the same as for The Netherlands.

NOTE: PayPal stopped supporting giropay payments starting July 1, and Sofort payments starting April 19, 2024.

PayPal currently supports 24 currencies (listed below). If the default currency of your Shopify store is not one of them, PayPal integration will not work.

"USD",

"EUR",

"GBP",

"JPY",

"AUD",

"CAD",

"CHF",

"CZK",

"CNY",

"ILS",

"MXN",

"MYR",

"SGD",

"HKD",

"HUF",

"NZD",

"SEK",

"NOK",

"DKK",

"PHP",

"PLN",

"THB",

"TWD",

"BRL".

In other words, the currency of the checkout should be in one of those currencies. This is not a limitation for your buyers, whose cards may be in any other currency, even those not included in this list.

No, if you want to use PayPal express buttons you need have a Business account.

In general, PayPal does not allow individuals without a legal entity to open a Business account. For up-to-date information on this question, please visit the PayPal Business Resource Center.

In this case, your best option is to find another payment processor that operates in your country or engaged into some sort of a partnership with third parties that are eligible. You can also check thematic forums for ideas on how to get a PayPal account from a country that is not on their list.

When the order is placed successfully you will see a set of data associated with it. Here, Authorization key = PayPal Transaction ID. Example:

It is a highly unlikely event, which could have been triggered by a payment decline on the payment processor's side. Your buyer could have completed the checkout and the payment from them could have been initially approved. They landed on the Thank You (order confirmation) page, and the order was formed almost instantly. However, if the funds are not settled and the transaction is rejected for some reason, such an order should be cancelled.

This mechanism provides additional customer protection, for example from fraud and potential chargebacks. Every order must be backed by a payment. If all the orders are placed (imported) and their status remains unchanged regardless the status of the payment, there could be situations when the order is fulfilled, but the payment for it will be missing (= no transaction).

Upon fulfillment of an order and adding tracking code (ID), this code is imported to PayPal.

For up-to-date information on this question, please visit the PayPal official website.

Please make sure you copied and pasted the correct Live keys to the corresponding fields. The keys from the 'sandbox' will trigger such kind of an error. If this was not helpful, write to [email protected].

There is a possibility that some extensions or cache-cookies are interfering and causing the problem. Please try performing the operation in Incognito mode of your browser, or do it in a completely different browser. A network change, like activation or deactivation of a VPN, may also change the outcome.

Contact PayPal support and try to resolve this issue with them. Unfortunately, we cannot influence their decision. Presence of Checkify on a store is not a risk factor. PayPal monitors dozens of other signals and makes decisions based on them: Excessive chargebacks or disputes, pattern recognition, security issues and geographic discrepancies, among others.