WP Express Checkout

Express Checkout Plugin for WordPress

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Creating and Displaying a Product

Creating a product is simple and easy with the WP Express Checkout Plugin.

Once you have the WP Express Checkout Plugin installed and activated on your WordPress website and you have configured the required settings (see this documentation for the basic setup details), you are ready to create your first product.

Table of Contents

1) Creating a Product or Service

Follow the steps below to create a product which you can sell to your customers:

  1. Click on the WP Express Checkout menu and then click on Products. Once you create a product you will be able to find them listed here.
  2. To create a new product click on the ‘Add New Product‘ button. This will bring you to the ‘Add New Product‘ interface where you will see a number of fields that you can configure to create your product.
  3. For your product you will need to configure the following fields:
    – Title (Name of Your Product or Service)
    – Description (An Explanation of the Product or Service)
    – Price (The Price the Customer will Pay for ‘One’ of the Product or Service). If you need to alter the way the currency is display, please see the following documentation.
    – Quantity (The Set Amount of the Product or Service that the Customer will Purchase, Alternatively Allow Customers to Specify their Own Quantity)
    – Download URL (Choose the File the Customer will Receive if you are Offering a ‘Digital Product’)
    – Product Thumbnail (Add a Photo of the Product/Service You are Selling)
  4. Once you have entered values into the fields to create your product, you can simply click the ‘Publish‘ button. This will publish out your product and it will appear under the ‘WP Express Checkout‘ ‘Products‘ menu.

2) Adding a Product to a WP Post/Page

Once you create your product, you will need to add it to a WordPress post or page so that your customers can click the ‘Buy Now’ button and complete the easy PayPal checkout process. This will involve them either using their PayPal account or credit card details to make a payment for the goods or services you are offering. Adding your product’s ‘Buy Now‘ button to your WordPress website is as simple as copying and pasting a shortcode. Follow the instructions below to easily add a product’s ‘Buy Now’ button to your website:

  1. Click on the WP Express Checkout menu in your WordPress dashboard and then on ‘Products‘. All of the products you have created will be located here.
  2. Copy the shortcode for the product that you wish to display a ‘Buy Now’ button for on your website. The shortcode for each product can be found within the appropriate row for that product under the ‘Shortcode‘ column.
  3. Create a new WordPress ‘Post‘ or ‘Page‘. Ensure you title your page.
  4. Add a WordPress ‘Shortcode‘ block and paste in the shortcode that you have copied.
  5. Either ‘Publish‘ out your page or save it as a ‘Draft‘.
  6. If you publish out your WP page or post and you have chosen to run live transactions, a customer will be able to purchase the product or service you have for sale by using the buy now button.

3) Viewing My Product’s ‘Buy Now’ Button

Once you have added your product’s shortcode to a WordPress page and you have published out that page, you should now see a ‘Buy Now’ button on the front end of your website.

  1. Locate the ‘Post‘ or ‘Page‘ where you have pasted the product shortcode.
  2. Choose to ‘View‘ the page.
  3. You should see the product’s ‘Buy Now‘ button.
  4. Complete a sandbox or real-life transaction to better understand the process that your customers will complete to purchase an item on your website.

Using the basic shortcode will only add the product’s ‘Buy Now’ button to your WordPress Post or Page. If you wish to display your product details along with a purchase button, you will need to use one of the WP Express Checkout product ‘Templates’ mentioned in the section below.

4) Using the ‘Template’ Shortcode Parameter to Display a Product

Using the ‘template’ parameter within the product shortcode will enable you to display further details about the product along with a purchase button.

If you wish to use a template to display your product on a WordPress post or page, please see the following documentation for current template options.

Use the following shortcode to display a product with some of the product details

[wp_express_checkout product_id="1234" template="1"]

The following screenshot is an example of how the product display looks like when embedded on a page using the above mentioned shortcode.

The Shop/Products Page

When you create a product, it also gets showcased on the Shop/Products page of your site so a visitor can browser your products.

Typical Product Checkout Process Demonstration

In the following video, you can see how the usual process of purchasing and checking out a product works from the perspective of your customers.