PayPal

Information on the PayPal payment method for online payments.

Introduction

PayPal is offered by Viva as a payment method to all its eligible merchants. This allows your customers pay you online using their PayPal account if they wish to do so.

Some of the main benefits of offering PayPal as a payment method are:

This integration also includes PayPal Pay Later functionality, which is activated by default when PayPal is activated successfully for your account

User Experience

Screenshots

At the checkout, the customer selects PayPal (or PayPal Pay Later) as their preferred payment method:

PayPal - User Journey - 1

The customer is directed to a PayPal-hosted page where they log in to PayPal using their account credentials:

PayPal - User Journey - 2

The customer then selects their preferred payment method from the list:

PayPal - User Journey - 3

PayPal’s Pay Later options are also included here, in addition to PayPal balance, card payment and bank transfer:

PayPal - User Journey - 4

After the customer clicks ‘Pay Now’, PayPal notifies the merchant of the successful transaction and the customer is directed back to the merchant:

PayPal - User Journey - 5

Videos

Please also see our videos below, outlining the desktop and mobile use of PayPal:

Desktop:

Mobile:

Details

Merchant Categories

There are some merchant categories that are not eligible to have PayPal activated. If your business is in one of these categories, you will not be able to accept payments through PayPal:

Merchant Category (MCC) Description
5499 Misc. Food Stores – Convenience Stores and Specialty Markets
5967 Direct Marketing – Inbound Teleservices Merchant
7841 Video Tape Rental Stores

How to activate PayPal

Environment Activation details
Production Activation of this payment method is instant. Once activated, merchants will immediately be able to accept payments via PayPal.
Demo PayPal is not currently available in our Demo environment.

Pre-requisites

Before integrating your PayPal and Viva accounts, please note the following:

Live/production mode

If you want to integrate with PayPal with your live (production) Viva account, follow the procedure below:

  1. Sign in to your production Viva account

  2. Click on Settings > API Access and scroll down to the PayPal (Payment Method) section

  3. Click on the Enable PayPal as a payment method button:

    Enable PayPal as a payment method
    A PayPal popup window is displayed

  4. Do one of the following:

    • If you already have a PayPal Business Account:

      1. Enter your registered email address, select your country and click on the Next button.
        Another popup is displayed

      2. Enter your password and click on the Log In button.
        A message is displayed about confirming your email address. Setup is now complete

    • If you do not already have a PayPal Business Account:

      1. Enter the email address you wish to register, select your country and click on the Next button.
        The Set up your PayPal Business Account window is displayed

      2. Create and confirm your password and click on the Next button.
        The Please tell us about your business window is displayed

      3. Complete the required details and click on the Agree and Create Account button.
        Two more windows are displayed requesting details about your business and you

      4. Complete the first of these then click on the Next button

      5. After completion of the second window, click on the Submit button.
        A confirmation window is displayed stating that you need to confirm your email address to activate your account

      6. Go to your email and confirm activation of your PayPal account

  5. Close the window and refresh the Settings > API Access page. You should see a temporary message in the PayPal (Payment Method) section indicating that setup is in progress:

    Enabling PayPal in progress
    Nothing else is required from your side, PayPal will appear as a payment method once PayPal approves the integration

  6. Please note:: If you refresh the page again in around 2 minutes or so, the message will update to the below which indicates that the PayPal payment method is successfully set up:

    Disable PayPal as payment method

How to deactivate PayPal

Please follow the steps below to deactivate PayPal for your Viva account.

We would recommend deactivating PayPal from within your Viva self-care account by following the steps below. This way, PayPal can easily be re-activated in the future, if desired

  1. Sign in to your production Viva account

  2. Click on Settings > API Access and go to the bottom of the page

  3. You may find the PayPal Payment method section:

    PayPal Payment Method Selfcare Section

  4. Click on Disable PayPal as a payment method button:

    Disable PayPal Payment Method

  5. A notification pop-up will be displayed to confirm your PayPal deactivation request as payment method:

    Notification Pop Up for Payapal Deactivation

  6. Please note:: If you refresh the page again in around 2 minutes or so, the PayPal section will be hidden:

    PayPal Section in SelfCare hidden

How to re-activate PayPal

After deactivating PayPal as a payment method, if you wish to re-activate it at a later date, please follow the steps below.

These steps will vary depending on whether you:

From within your Viva self-care account

If you deactivated PayPal from within your Viva self-care account, please contact our support team via the Live Chat which can be found in your Production Viva self-care account.

You will need to provide us with your Viva Merchant ID as well as your PayPal Merchant ID or Vendor ID.

To find your PayPal Merchant ID or Vendor ID:

  1. Sign in to your PayPal account

  2. On the right-hand side user menu, mouse over and select the Account Settings option:

    Mouse over on Account Settings

  3. You may find the PayPal Merchant ID or Vendor ID under the Business Information tab:

    Merchant ID

From within your PayPal account

If you deactivated PayPal from within your PayPal account, please first follow the steps below to re-grant permissions to Viva:

  1. Within the Account Settings page, navigate to the Account access tab and click on the Update button next to API access:

    Check PayPal Consents

  2. Click on Manage API permission:

    Check PayPal Consents

  3. Here, click on the Add a new third party link:

    Check PayPal Consents

  4. Within the following page, please search for and link a new third party using your Viva Merchant ID

Once you have completed the above steps, please contact our support team via the Live Chat which can be found in your Production Viva self-care account.

You will need to provide us with your Viva Merchant ID as well as your PayPal Merchant ID or Vendor ID.

To find your PayPal Merchant ID or Vendor ID:

  1. Sign in to your PayPal account

  2. On the right-hand side user menu, mouse over and select the Account Settings option:

    Mouse over on Account Settings

  3. You may find the PayPal Merchant ID or Vendor ID under the Business Information tab:

    Merchant ID

Issuing customer refunds

A full or partial refund can be made to a customer at any time for an order already placed with funds received into PayPal. Refunds can be made either through PayPal or through Viva.

Please note the following regarding PayPal refunds:

Through PayPal

To issue refunds through your PayPal Business Account, please see How do I issue a full or partial refund? in the PayPal Help Center.

Through Viva

To issue a refund through Viva:

  1. Sign in to your production Viva account

  2. Go to Sales > Sales Transactions and click on the Search button with the required date range selected to display a list of transactions:

    PayPal sales transaction

  3. Find the required transaction labelled PayPal Charge

  4. Click on the Refund button. The Refund Transaction dialog box will be displayed:

    Refund transaction

  5. You can then do one of the following:

    • To issue a full refund:

      1. Ensure the entered ‘Amount to be refunded’ is the same as the original payment amount

      2. Click on the OK button

    • To issue a partial refund:

      1. Ensure the entered ‘Amount to be refunded’ is smaller than the original payment amount

      2. Click on the OK button

    In both cases, a PayPal-related confirmation message will be displayed confirming the amount to be refunded:

    PayPal refund confirmation message

Payment method messaging

It is important that the customer is aware of the payment methods you offer via Smart Checkout, as this will increase conversion and average order values. Please see our payment method messaging guide for more details on why and where we would recommend adding this information to your site.

If desired, you can download and use this icon on your site or online store, in order to show customers you offer PayPal as a payment method:

Payment Method Icon - PayPal

Get Support

If you would like to integrate with Viva, or if you have any queries about our products and solutions, please see our Contact & Support page to see how we can help!