PayPal is an important payment method for any ecommerce store. The more options you can give your customers to pay with, the better. And PayPal is easy to enable for any ecommerce store.

However, PayPal has a few settings that may not be obvious, and can cause issues for a merchant…

PayPal Express vs. PayPal Standard

I wrote a detailed blog post about switching from PayPal Standard to PayPal Express. To make a long story short, PayPal Express is the way to go. It allows you to:

• keep the customer on your receipt / thank you page

• avoids the delays and inherent problems with PayPal’s instant payment notification

• Allows tracking scripts to complete such as Google Analytics and affiliate tracking programs

Missing billing phone number on PayPal Orders

We get asked this one a lot. A merchant starts using PayPal Express and finds that their orders are now missing the billing phone number.

Fortunately, there is an easy fix. In your PayPal account, you can enable this under:

Click the silhouette icon next to the Log Out button, and click Profile & Settings

My Selling Tools -> Website Preferences (“Update” link to the far right)

“Contact Telephone Number” -> On (Required Field)

If you are using the “Classic” PayPal interface you would use these steps:

Profile -> Website Payment Preferences

“Contact Telephone Number” -> On (Required Field)

Now the billing phone number will appear on orders paid through PayPal.

The dreaded PayPal eCheck

Another question that comes up regularly is how to disable eChecks (e.g. delayed payments) as a payment method with PayPal. Although an eCheck is a flexible payment method you can offer your shoppers, some merchants don’t want to deal with the delays caused by waiting for an eCheck payment to clear.

To disable eCheck payments, go to your PayPal account:

Click the silhouette icon next to the Log Out button, and click Profile & Settings

My Selling Tools -> Block Payments (“Update” link to the far right)

Block the following payments -> Enable “Pay with eCheck or German bank transfer”

If you are using the “Classic” PayPal interface you would use these steps:

Profile -> Preferences -> Selling Preferences

However, there may be situations where eChecks cannot be refused, such as with eBay purchases. But you should be able to disable this payment method for direct purchases made from your online store.

…

PayPal is a handy payment method for many online shoppers. Tweaking it to your liking as a merchant will make it easier for you to accept and process. A win-win for all involved. 

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