Setting up PayPal payments

PayPal is the world's most used digital wallet, familiar especially to international buyers. You enable it with your own PayPal Business account — payments go directly to your account, and we never handle your money at any point.

What you need before starting

1. A PayPal Business account. A personal account isn't enough. You can convert an existing account to a Business account on PayPal's site.
2. A confirmed email address on the PayPal account. If your email isn't confirmed, orders are still created normally but charging the payment fails — meaning the customer approves the payment before the error surfaces. Check this first at paypal.com → Account settings.
3. A Business ID (Y-tunnus) saved in store settings (Settings → Store settings). Without one, the button on the PayPal row is disabled and a notice is shown — see Store settings.

Step 1 — Create a REST app in PayPal

1. Sign in at developer.paypal.com with the same credentials as your PayPal Business account.
2. Select Apps & Credentials at the top.
3. Make sure you're on the Live tab — not Sandbox. Sandbox credentials can't receive real payments.
4. Click Create App. Name the app, for example after your store.
5. Copy two values: Client ID and Client Secret (the Secret is revealed only after you click Show).

Step 2 — Enter the credentials in your store

1. Open Settings → Payment methods in the dashboard.
2. Click Add PayPal Payment Method on the PayPal row.
3. Paste the Client ID and Client Secret into the fields and save.

We verify the credentials against PayPal immediately — if they're invalid, you get an error message and can't proceed. The Client Secret is encrypted and stored in AWS Secrets Manager; it can no longer be read from the dashboard once entered. If you're issued new credentials later, enter them via the Edit button on the PayPal row.

Step 3 — Activate the payment method

After saving, PayPal is in the Inactive state — it's not on the checkout yet. Click Activate and you'll see a confirmation dialog with a checklist to go through before going live:

• You have a PayPal Business account
• Your account email address is confirmed
• You have provided all the information PayPal has requested (e.g. tax information)
• Your app's Accept Payments setting is enabled (developer.paypal.com)

To see what may be missing, log in to your PayPal account: the To-Do list and notifications (bell icon) show what PayPal still requires. Missing information doesn't block activation, but customer payments may fail until it's provided.

After activation, PayPal appears at your store's checkout. You can turn it off at any time with the Deactivate button — the credentials are kept and you can re-activate whenever you like.

PayPal row statuses

How PayPal appears to the customer

• With Paytrail active: a Pay with PayPal button appears below the bank and mobile payment buttons.
• With Stripe active: the PayPal button appears in the final checkout step as an alternative to the Proceed to payment button.
• With only PayPal configured: PayPal is the checkout's only payment method.

From the button, the customer moves to PayPal's own page, signs in, approves the payment and returns to the store. The order shows up in the dashboard as Paid, just like any other payment.

Refunds

PayPal order refunds are issued from the order page's Refund dialog exactly like Stripe and Paytrail refunds — see Order details. PayPal-specific differences:

• The refund window is 180 days from the payment date. After that, refunds can no longer be made from the dashboard — you must return the money manually with your PayPal account's Send money feature. Note that this is then a new payment, unconnected to the original order.
• The receiving fee is not returned. PayPal doesn't charge separately for the refund, but the original payment's fee is not returned to you.
• PayPal refunds usually confirm instantly, so the Pending state is typically very short.

Good to know

• Pricing. PayPal charges its fee directly from you; it's not included in the platform price. An order paid with the PayPal wallet falls under the "All other commercial transactions" group, currently priced at 3.40% + €0.35 per transaction. This is clearly more expensive than a regular card payment, so it's best to think of PayPal as incremental sales — orders that would otherwise not happen at all. Non-euro payments additionally carry a roughly 3% currency conversion fee, and a possible chargeback costs €16.00. Current prices are at paypal.com/fi/webapps/mpp/merchant-fees.
• Seller protection covers digital products and tickets only under extra conditions. They're not outside the protection, but it requires proof of delivery among other things, and "item not as described" disputes are always outside the protection. In practice, disputes over downloads and tickets resolve in the buyer's favor more often than with card payments. Keep delivery evidence — for example the ticket's send time and recipient email, and when the download link was used.
• Don't delete the PayPal app on PayPal's side (developer.paypal.com) as long as you have unrefunded PayPal orders — refunds will stop working. Removing the integration from Putiikkipalvelu doesn't delete your PayPal account, only the data stored with us.

If something doesn't work

Related topics

• Payment methods — Stripe and Paytrail
• Store settings — Business ID
• Order details — issuing refunds