Who PayPal is
PayPal runs a digital wallet for paying online: buyers log in and pay from their PayPal account instead of typing card details into each shop. The company was founded in 1998 and is based in San Jose, California. In the EU, its services come from PayPal (Europe) S.à r.l. et Cie, S.C.A., a credit institution authorised and supervised by Luxembourg's CSSF.
Online shops, marketplaces and subscription businesses offer it next to cards, for buyers who would rather not enter card details. That is why PayPal is one of the wallets our checkout module connects to, next to Apple Pay and Google Pay.
What it does in your platform
Checkout
Adds PayPal to every merchant's hosted checkout. The buyer approves the payment in PayPal, the module captures it, and it lands next to the merchant's card and wallet payments.
How the connection works
One connector in the checkout module talks to PayPal's Orders API from the platform. The checkout page only loads PayPal's JavaScript SDK to show the button; PayPal's secret stays in the platform's secrets.
The buyer picks PayPal
PayPal's JavaScript SDK shows the PayPal button on the merchant's hosted checkout.
An order is created
The module creates an order through the Orders API, with the amount, the currency and the intent to capture.
The buyer approves
The buyer logs in to PayPal and approves the payment with a funding source from their account.
The order is captured
Once the buyer has approved, the module captures the order, and the payment is complete.
PayPal reports back
Captures, refunds and disputes arrive as webhooks. The module verifies each message's signature before it acts on it.
One place for everything
The payment lands in the ledger and shows up in the backoffice next to the merchant's other payments.
Next to other wallets
PayPal sits next to Apple Pay and Google Pay in the checkout's wallets, and next to cards, bank payments and stablecoins. Buyers pay with the method they trust, and each method runs through the provider that offers it.
PayPal also owns Braintree, one of the checkout's card processors, but the two are separate connectors: PayPal works with whichever card processors you use. Adding PayPal, or dropping it later, does not change your apps or your merchants' integration.
When PayPal fits best
A strong fit when
- Your merchants sell to buyers who already have PayPal accounts and look for the button.
- You sell across borders and want a wallet that buyers in many countries already use.
- You run a marketplace or platform and want PayPal on every merchant's checkout through one integration.
Also worth a look
- Apple Pay and Google Pay, for buyers who pay with the cards stored on their phone.
- iDEAL, Bancontact or BLIK, where buyers prefer to pay from their bank.
How we get you live
The contract
We help you get your PayPal business account and contract in place, for the platform, for each merchant, or both.
The button
We set up with you where PayPal appears, the currencies it takes and which merchants offer it.
The keys
The client secret and the webhook ID go into your platform's secrets and nowhere else, and every webhook is verified before it is used.
A full test run
The whole flow runs in PayPal's sandbox, with test buyer and merchant accounts, before your first real payment.
