How to Connect PayPal to Your Online Store

Adding PayPal to your storefront is one of the highest-ROI checkout changes you can make. Customers who already have a PayPal account skip card entry, finish checkout 30–40% faster, and abandon less. PayPal sits next to your existing Stripe button — both work, customers pick. This guide walks through the PayPal side: claim your Business account, create a REST API app, copy the two values Rovela needs, and paste them in.

What PayPal does for your store

PayPal is the second most-used online payment method after credit cards — over 400 million active accounts worldwide. Adding it as a checkout option typically lifts conversion by 5–10% on its own, with bigger gains in markets where PayPal is the default consumer choice (Germany, Italy, India, Brazil, much of Southeast Asia).

The basic plan (Standard Checkout) is free — PayPal takes a transaction fee per sale (similar to Stripe, around 2.9% + fixed). No monthly fee, no minimum volume. Customers also get access to "Pay Later" (BNPL) and Venmo automatically where eligible — no extra setup on your side.

Before you start

10 minutes
An email address to sign up with PayPal Business
A live Rovela store with Stripe Connect already set up (PayPal sits alongside, not instead)
Your store currency must match your PayPal account currency. If your store is set to EUR, the PayPal account must also be EUR-denominated.

Step 1: Sign up for PayPal Business

Go to paypal.com/business and click Sign Up Free. Pick your country, enter your business email, business name, and phone number. PayPal will ask for your tax ID or business registration details — have those ready. Approval is usually instant.

If you already have a personal PayPal account, you can upgrade it to Business instead of creating a separate one. From your personal dashboard, look for "Upgrade to Business account" in settings.

Step 2: Create a REST API app

Once your Business account is active, go to developer.paypal.com/dashboard and log in with the same credentials. Click Apps & Credentials in the top navigation. You'll see two tabs: Sandbox (for testing) and Live (for real payments).

Stay on the Sandbox tab for now — testing first prevents charging real customers while you validate the setup. Click Create App. Name it something like "My Store Checkout" (the name is internal — only you see it). Pick Merchant as the app type. Click Create App.

Step 3: Find your Client ID and Secret

After creating the app, you land on the app detail page. You'll see two values:

Client ID: a long alphanumeric string starting with capital letters (about 80 characters). Click the copy icon next to it.
Client Secret: hidden by default. Click Show to reveal, then copy. About 80 characters too.

Treat the Secret like a password — Rovela writes it to your store's server-side environment, never to a public file. The Client ID is safe to expose (it's the public app identifier), but the Secret must stay server-only.

Step 4: Subscribe to webhooks (strongly recommended)

Webhooks let PayPal notify your store when a payment completes — even if the customer's browser crashes after they click "Pay". This is the safety net that prevents lost orders.

From your PayPal app page, scroll to the Webhooks section. Click Add Webhook. For the URL, enter:

https://your-store-domain.com/api/checkout/paypal/webhook

Replace your-store-domain.com with your actual store URL (e.g. https://yourstore.rovela.app or your custom domain). For event types, check at minimum:

Checkout Order Approved
Payment Capture Completed
Payment Capture Denied
Payment Capture Refunded

Click Save. PayPal generates a Webhook ID — copy it. You'll paste this into Rovela alongside the Client ID and Secret.

Step 5: Pick Sandbox or Production

PayPal has two completely separate environments with different keys:

Sandbox: test environment. Fake money, fake customers. Use this first. Test buyer accounts are auto-created in Sandbox > Accounts.
Production: real money. Switch only after you've completed a successful sandbox test.

For your first install, pick Sandbox. The Client ID and Secret you copied above are sandbox credentials. Once you confirm the flow works (Step 7 below), come back, switch to the Live tab on PayPal Developer Dashboard, copy a new Client ID + Secret + Webhook ID, and re-run the Rovela card with environment set to "production".

Step 6: Paste it into Rovela

Open your Rovela store. Click Rovela Features Store at the top of the chat panel. Open the Integrations category. Pick PayPal. Paste:

Client ID
Client Secret
Environment: Sandbox (for now — switch to Production after testing)
Webhook ID (optional but recommended)

Click Connect PayPal. Rovela handles the rest — installing the PayPal SDK, adding the PayPal button at checkout, wiring server-side order creation and capture, and signing up for webhook delivery. Your existing Stripe checkout stays exactly as it was.

Step 7: How to tell it's working

Visit your storefront, add a product to your cart, and go to checkout. You should see two payment options: your existing Stripe checkout button and a new PayPal button below.

To test the full flow with sandbox money:

In PayPal Developer Dashboard, go to Sandbox > Accounts. Pick the personal test buyer account (auto-created when you signed up).
Note its email and password.
On your storefront, click the PayPal button. The PayPal popup opens.
Sign in with the test buyer account.
Approve the payment. The popup closes and your store redirects to the order success page.
Back in PayPal Developer Dashboard, go to Sandbox > Notifications — you should see the webhook event delivered with status 200.

If the test order shows up in your Rovela admin orders list with PayPal as the payment method, you're done. Switch to Production and you're live.

Common questions

What does PayPal cost? Per-transaction fee similar to Stripe (around 2.9% + a small fixed amount, varies by country). No monthly subscription. Detailed rates at paypal.com/webapps/mpp/merchant-fees.
Will customers see "Pay Later" / Venmo? Yes, automatically — eligibility depends on the customer's country and PayPal's risk assessment. No extra setup needed on your side.
What if I don't set up webhooks? The integration still works — but if a customer's browser crashes between approving the payment and the page loading, the order may not appear in your admin. Webhooks are the safety net that catches these edge cases.
Can I refund through PayPal? Yes — refunds work the same as Stripe. Process them from your Rovela admin or directly in PayPal; both keep your order records in sync.
What about disputes? Customers can open a dispute in their PayPal account. You'll get notified by PayPal directly and respond through their resolution center. Same as any PayPal merchant.
Currency mismatch — what happens? If your store is USD but your PayPal account is EUR, transactions will fail. Make sure both match before going live. You can set additional currencies in PayPal Business settings if you sell internationally.

Connect PayPal in one click with Rovela

Rovela handles every technical detail: the PayPal SDK install, server-side order creation (which prevents the amount-tampering attack that breaks DIY PayPal installs), idempotent capture (handles PayPal's retry logic gracefully), webhook signature verification, and EU PSD2 / 3D Secure compliance. You paste two values from the PayPal Developer Dashboard. Start with Rovela or pair PayPal with Klaviyo for post-purchase email automation and Trustpilot for the trust signals that boost conversion above-the-fold.

Last verified: 2026-05-07.