Signing Up with PayPal's Payment Gateway

To process transactions on your online store, you need to sign up for a merchant account with a payment gateway.  At WebAssist, all of our eCommerce products, such as eCart and PowerStore, work with PayPal. This How To shows you how to sign up for a PayPal Website Payments Pro account for processing transactions using Local Checkout on your website.

Signing Up

The PayPal website easily guides you through the process for signing up for your Website Payments Pro account.

  1. In your browser, navigate to https://www.paypal.com/.
  2. Click the Sign Up link.
  3. Choose the Get Started button under Business.
  4. From the menu list choose Website Payments Pro.
  5. Click Continue.
  6. Proceed through the sign-up process until you have finished registering.

    You've now configured eCart to store the customer ID in the database when it records each order. You will now use this information to create the Order History page

     
    NOTE:Once you have completed the registration process PayPal will perform a credit check and possibly other investigative tasks before approving your merchant account.  This can take up to a couple of weeks.
Accept Billing Agreement

After creating a Buyer account you will need to accept the PayPal Billing Agreement before you can start receiving test transactions.

  1. Scroll down to Step 3: Set up your payment solution.
  2. Click Complete Billing Agreement.
  3. Accept the Billing Agreement.

Once the Billing Agreement is accepted, you can proceed to obtain the API credentials.

Obtaining your API Credentials

Your API credentials are what you will need to use as you set up your online store, either through the eCart wizard, or within PowerStore's Installation Wizard or Settings panel.

  1. In your browser, navigate to https://www.paypal.com/.
  2. Click the Log in link.
  3. Once logged in, click Profile.
  4. Choose API Access.
  5. If not already requested, click Request API Credentials.

Your API credentials will appear on this page immediately.

  1. Take note of the following credentials.
    • API Signature
    • API Username
    • API Password
    • Signature

You will use the credentials provided here within the WebAssist product you are working with.  Reference the product’s user interface or documentation for information regarding when and where this information is required.

What to do next...

Now that you have the credentials you need, you can enter them within the appropriate interface of the product you are working with.

Last Updated: October 27, 2010
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