How to add PayPal buttons to your website

IMPORTANT NOTICE: PayPal is a third party service which is not associated with ZyWeb in anyway. When you sign up with PayPal you will enter into a separate contract governing your relationship with them. For more information about PayPal you can visit their web site at www.paypal.com.

For best results, please ensure that you are already signed up to PayPal. You can learn more about PayPal and sign up here.

PayPal provides a very popular service that allows you to sell items from your own web site and to guarantee receiving the money for them. Best of all you don't need to be a registered business and you don't need a Merchant account. With ZyWeb, it is now possible for Business customers to insert a PayPal button into your webpages for a complete and easy e-commerce solution. This QuickGuide will look at placing a single button into a web page; if you require a guide to the shopping cart facilities, please check our other QuickGuide marked Shopping Cart.

The first stage is either to choose to create a new page, or edit an existing page that you wish to place a PayPal button on. Once you've have gotten past this process, choose an item either above or below where you would like to place the item in the editor. For example, if you wanted to place the button on a Gallery page below a particular image, click on that image.

A menu will then appear to the upper area of the screen, which is titled "Insert New..." Next to this is a drop-down menu where you can select an item which you wish to add. Select PayPal 'Buy Now' from this menu, and click on either the above or below buttons to add the item. For example, if you had clicked an image previously, then click on the below button to place the button below that image.

The next screen will allow you to customize six key items to specialize your PayPal button:

PayPal A/C: This is the email address to which payments will be sent. This email address must be one of those you have set up on your PayPal account. PayPal often refers to this as your PayPal business name.

Desc: Enter a short description of the item you are selling. The main description should appear elsewhere on your web page - this short description is used so that your customers can double-check that they are paying for the right thing when they are entering their details into the PayPal system. It will also appear on orders forwarded to you by PayPal so you know what your customers have ordered from you so ensure that it is an accurate and unique description of the item you are selling.

Amount: Enter the amount your customers must pay for this item. If you don't enter anything here then your customers will be able to choose their own amount when they are entering their details into the PayPal system.

Success: Choose a page that will be displayed after your customers have successfully ordered from you. This should typically thank your customers for their order and reassure them that delivery will take place soon. If you don't have a suitable page available you may leave this option set to and the PayPal system will display a suitable page on your behalf.

Failure: Choose a page that will be displayed when your customers' attempts to order from you fail for some reason. This should typically explain that the order has failed and delivery will not take place, and encourage them to try again. If you don't have a suitable page available you may leave this option set to and the PayPal system will display a suitable page on your behalf.

Currency: Choose the currency in which you wish to receive payment. This is the currency in which your prices should be set. Note that this does not force your customers to pay in this currency - they may choose their own currency and conversion will take place automatically.

You will also notice the Full Edit button; this allows you to specify more options for this particular button, including specified shipping and tax prices. By clicking on this, from the top the options are:

Description: Enter a short description of the item you are selling. The main description should appear elsewhere on your web page - this short description is used so that your customers can double-check that they are paying for the right thing when they are entering their details into the PayPal system. It will also appear on orders forwarded to you by PayPal so you know what your customers have ordered from you so ensure that it is an accurate and unique description of the item you are selling.

Code: An internal item code that your customers will never see but will show up on any documents you receive from PayPal. You can use this for inventory tracking or any other purpose, or leave it blank.

Currency: Pick a currency that your prices are specified in. Your customers may pay in the currency of their choice and a conversion will be made before you receive the money.

Amount: Enter the amount your customers must pay for this item. If you don't enter anything here then your customers will be able to choose their own amount when they are entering their details into the PayPal system.

Shipping: If you have set your PayPal account to allow item-based shipping costs then you can set the shipping charge for the first and subsequent items here.

Handling: Handling charge to be applied to orders for this item.

Tax: Amount of tax to be charged on this item. If you enter an amount here it will over-ride any tax calculations you have set up in your PayPal account.

No Shipping Address: Check this box if you do not wish PayPal to request a shipping address from your customers. You might do this if, for example, you will use electronic fulfillment to supply this product.

Note field: If you would like your customers to be able to enter a special note on their order (e.g. special delivery instructions) enter a title for the note field that will appear in the PayPal order page.

Option 1: You can offer your customers options when they buy from you, e.g. they might choose a size or a color. This option cannot affect the price of the item you are selling but the information will be sent to you with your customers' orders so you can fulfill correctly. If you would like to offer options to your customers, enter a short name for the option they are to choose (e.g. "Color") and then enter a list of options they may pick from, separated by commas (e.g. "Red,Green,Blue"). A menu will appear next to your PayPal Buy Now button. Note that if you enter a name but you do not enter a list of options to pick from then your customers will be shown a field where they may type anything they wish to for this option.

Option 2: You can offer your customers a second option (e.g. you may wish to offer size as well as color). This works in exactly the same way as the first option, above.

Quantity field: Tick this box if you would like PayPal to ask your customers how many of this item they would like to order

Success page: Pick a page that your customers will see when they successfully place an order. If you pick they will be sent to a special PayPal page that confirms their order and directs them to the PayPal site.

Failure page: Pick a page that your customers will see when they fail to place an order because something goes wrong or because they cancel it part way through. If you pick they will be sent to a special PayPal page that directs them to the PayPal site.

Black background: Tick this box if you would like the PayPal order page presented as white text on a black background (normally it is black text on a white background).

PayPal business: The email address to which PayPal payments will be sent. This must be an email address associated with your PayPal account or you won't receive any payments made using this button.

Once you are happy with the settings of your button, click the OK button to confirm the changes. Continue editing the page as you wish, and when you are done, click on the Finish button to bring up the Save and Publish options on your page.