When selling products on your Shopify store, you'll of course want to receive payment from your customers.

Fortunately, it's easy to accept various payment options in Shopify, including PayPal, Credit Cards and other offline methods.

To set up your payment options, log in to your Shopify Admin, and navigate to Settings > Payments.

In this area, several payment option methods will be shown.

PayPal

PayPal is a commonly accepted payment method when shopping online, perhaps the most popular method after Credit Cards.

In order to accept PayPal on your Shopify store, you first need to sign up for a free account.

Learn the types PayPal accounts and payment methods.

Once you have a PayPal Premier or Business account, you can choose between the 3 PayPal payment methods provided, namely:

1. Express Checkout
2. Payments Advanced
3. Payments Pro

The various PayPal methods will be shown to you.

In my following example, I'll be using the Express Checkout method. (which has no monthly fees, but only per transaction fees on each sale).

On clicking Activate, you'll be prompted to log in to your PayPal account.

You'll be asked to grant permission to Shopify in order for PayPal to be accepted on your Shopify store. Click Grant Permission.

That's it! It's really easy to get started to accepting PayPal Express on your Shopify store.

Note: PayPal Express also allows customers who do not have PayPal accounts to pay using Credit Cards. This option is a little hidden during the checkout process though (intentionally so by PayPal), so customers may miss this option entirely.

Note: Shopify charges an additional transaction fee if you do not also use Shopify Payments, their in-house payment system to accept Credit Cards. I.e. if you use PayPal but not Shopify Payments, an additional fee will be charged, which varies according to your Shopify Plan. If you use PayPal and also Shopify Payments, Shopify will not charge you this additional fee.

Credit Cards

Shopify has also pre-integrated various payment gateways in order to accept Credit Cards. In order to accept Credit Cards online, you need to need to have an account with one of these payment gateway providers (fee varies amongst providers).

The following payment gateways are accepted - you'll most likely be able to find a suitable solution for you. You do need to have accounts with these payment providers.

Shopify Payments

Though Shopify allows various payment methods, they levy an additional transaction charge on top of any payment gateway you use other than Shopify Payments. They do so to drive users to use Shopify Payments, which is powered by Stripe. In terms of transaction fees, it makes sense to use Shopify Payments.

Learn about some popular Credit Card payment gateways, Shopify Payments included.

Other Credit Card Payment Gateways

If you still want to use popular payment gateway options like Authorize.net, setting up is a matter of inputting in your credentials - no programming necessary.

Other 'Offline' Payment Methods

Sometimes, it may make sense for your business to accept other 'offline' payment methods. By offline, I'm referring to the following.

These are considered 'offline' as the transactions are not fully automated online.

• Cash on Delivery
• Money Order
• Bank Deposit
• and more...

Offline payment methods also circumvent the need for transaction fees (in most cases).

In these offline payment methods, you basically specify a set of instructions for the customer to pay you. Once they do and you verify the payment, it's up to you to go back into Shopify to change the status to Paid.

Testing the Payment Checkout Process

Though Shopify has made it easy for you to accept payments online, it's always a good idea to test the checkout process to make sure it works properly (and you don't lose sales!).

Simply create a fictitious product, and price it at $0.01. Test out each of the payment methods you've integrated (including PayPal, Credit Cards, offline payment methods).

Congrats!

After the above steps, you'll have a working Online Store to start accepting payments from your customers!