Payment Gateways Archives - Business Bloomer

WooCommerce: Automating Hourly Support Package Renewals Using Saved Cards

In a Business Bloomer Club Slack thread, members explored an innovative solution to automate support hour top-ups for clients who pre-purchase hourly support packages.

Rather than relying on a traditional subscription, they needed an approach that allows for on-demand billing as soon as additional hours are required. With stored credit card information available in WooCommerce via Stripe or PayPal, there are ways to create a seamless “auto-purchase” experience, allowing customers to receive a pending order and complete payments without manual checkout.

Here’s how to leverage saved card data in WooCommerce for streamlined renewals and hassle-free billing.

How to Add Custom Payment Methods in WooCommerce Using ERP-Linked API Data

In a recent discussion in a Business Bloomer Club Slack thread, one member sought advice on customizing WooCommerce payment methods for an ERP-integrated store. Their ERP software provides a range of payment options via an API, and they wanted to extend WooCommerce’s available payment methods by adding user-related payment features specific to this ERP integration.

While WooCommerce offers standard payment options like BACS (Bank Transfer), COD (Cash on Delivery), and Cheque, the challenge was how to add a new method or customize an existing one to reflect the ERP’s payment configurations. Here’s a breakdown of the approaches discussed, from repurposing existing payment gateways to creating a fully custom gateway.

WooCommerce: No Default Payment @ Checkout Page

When you land on the WooCommerce Checkout page, one payment option (radio button) will be selected by default. this is defined based on the last payment method (logged in customer), or the payment gateway sorting (logged out customer).

Often it happens, however, that customers forget to change their payment selection, and therefore end up checking out with the wrong payment option. Which means, more admin work.

With this simple snippet, we will inject some JS in the Woo Checkout page, so that on load, all payment method radio inputs will be unchecked. Super easy!

WooCommerce: Disable Payment Gateway By Product Type

Ever wondered if you could toggle payment gateways based on whether a given “product type” is in the WooCommerce Cart? For example, disable PayPal if there are simple subscription products, or enable Stripe only when there are variable products?

Well, with this simple code (and the 2 examples) you find below, you can manage to achieve just that. The second example regards the WooCommerce Subscriptions plugin, as this requires some plugin-specific functions to check for the product type. Enjoy!

WooCommerce: Donation / Fundraising Plugins

Are you looking for ways to raise funds for a charity event or a non-profit organization? There are a multitude number of ways to go about it.

You can host an exclusive or virtual fundraising event, run email campaigns to collect funds, or even encourage friends and families to contribute their parts to the fund. However, these ways require a lot of legwork, including finding a place to host fundraising events, inviting guests, or hiring an email strategist to run marketing campaigns – which is time-consuming and expensive.

The solution? Collecting online donations via WordPress or WooCommerce plugins to effectively raise funds for special causes, such as charities, non-profits, or relief funds.

This article shares the best, easy-to-use, affordable WooCommerce fundraising and donations plugins you can use. Let’s get started!

WooCommerce: Change Payment Gateway Default Order Status

Ok, we all know that Stripe, PayPal and all successful online payment orders go to “processing” order status, BACS and cheque go to “on-hold“, and so on. Each payment gateway has its own default paid status.

Now, what if you use custom order statuses, or what if you wish to change Stripe orders to “completed“, BACS orders to “pending” and PayPal orders to “on-hold“?

Thankfully, this is super easy with a handy PHP snippet. Enjoy!

WooCommerce: Rename “Place Order” Based on Chosen Payment Gateway

We’ve already seen how to rename the “Place Order” button on the WooCommerce Checkout page, but today I want to find a way to rename it dynamically and conditionally i.e. based on the payment gateway that is selected while checking out.

The snippet requires the payment gateway “ID” – here’s a quick tut in case you don’t know how to retrieve that: How to Find WooCommerce Payment Gateway ID

Other than that, it’s pretty simple logic. Enjoy!

WooCommerce: How To Enable Stripe Payments

Providing payment options on your WooCommerce store that your customers trust and meet their needs is the key to ensuring a satisfied customer journey and eliminating cart abandonments.

According to the Baymard Institute’s research, the average cart abandonment rate amongst buyers is 69.8%, and 6 out of 10 times, it’s because of issues related to payments.

While some shoppers abandon carts because of long checkout processes and the lack of simple payment options, others don’t find the payment site legitimate enough to provide their credit card information. Thus, the payment method plays a huge role in customers’ buying decisions.

Stripe is a great option. It’s simple-to-use, flexible, and one of the most popular payment solutions for WooCommerce. It makes accepting and processing credit card payments a breeze and leaves your customers with a fast checkout process.

This article takes you through some of the best free and premium WooCommerce Stripe plugins for your store. But first, let’s learn more about the advantages of using Stripe as a payment option for WooCommerce.

WooCommerce: 10 Crucial Issues That Should Be Fixed Right Now

I just spent the last 3 days in Porto with another 2,300 WordPressers at the first in-person WordCamp Europe since Berlin 2019. I had a blast, held a nice (yet long) workshop, spoke to many, but got tired too soon.

Later on, I realized that that tiredness was something more serious – in fact I tested positive against COVID for the first time in my life, and I’m now in self-isolation hoping it won’t last long… Another 7 days without my kid – send help!

Anyhow, what really struck me at WCEU 2022, and based on various chats and some data that I’ll share below, is that the WooCommerce ecosystem is in trouble.

A nicer way to put that? WooCommerce is not moving forward as fast as it should, and unless some key issues are addressed right now, in a few years time we all may pay the consequences.

Please note, this is not a rant. It’s a proper analysis, full of actionable information.

@ WooCommerce team - if you're reading this - my plan is to give you constructive feedback and tell you what the community (really) thinks, needs and wants, so that you can get a better picture of the current situation. I know you've already started working on this, so this is just a recap/reminder and a way to get the whole community realigned.

In this post, I will share my worries, my fears, the current WooCommerce issues, some data I collected at WCEU 2022 and then a list of actionable solutions that may be implemented in order to clear the backlog and get back on track – asap. Enjoy!

WooCommerce: How to Enable WooCommerce Payments

Payments on your eCommerce store are the most important touchpoint between your customers and business sales. Hence, an optimum payment solution that’s seamless, quick, and secure plays a critical role in ensuring a quality customer experience.

Over 17% of customers abandon their carts because of concerns with payment security, and 13% abandon them because the price is in a foreign currency. Thus, it’s vital to choose a payment method that accepts global currencies and ensures a secure checkout – while making the checkout process easy for your customers.

However, from including digital wallets to third-party payment solutions and managing transactions – choosing a suitable payment solution that facilitates this process for your WooCommerce store can get challenging. This is where WooCommerce Payments comes into the picture.

In early May 2020, WooCommerce released its new version WooCommerce 4.1, with two new features – including WooCommerce Payments, which provides a simplified way to accept and manage payments in your store.

This article shares more about WooCommerce Payments, their pros and cons, and an easy way to enable them on your WooCommerce store.

WooCommerce: How to Enable Apple Pay and Google Pay

Not offering different payment options for your customers on your WooCommerce store is a call for a high cart abandonment rate and lost sales and customers.

Your store’s payment gateway has a direct impact on the customers’ buying decisions. Don’t take our word for it – statistics suggest missing payment methods is the reason for 7% of cart abandonments in eCommerce stores.

As a result, the more payment options you offer to your customers – the more sales you can win for your store.

Besides PayPal and credit cards – digital and UPI mobile payment options like Apple Pay and Google Pay are amongst the most popular and widely adopted payment methods by customers. Statistics anticipate that from 2021 to 2025 – the number of mobile proximity payment users in the United States to grow from 100 million to a whopping 125 million.

Thus, as customers become increasingly reliant on mobile payment solutions like Apple Pay and Google Pay – it’s important to integrate these payment options in your WooCommerce store to ensure high customer satisfaction.

So, in this article, we share the top ways to configure Google Pay and Apple Pay in WooCommerce. But first, let’s learn more about the benefits of this configuration for your store.

WooCommerce: How To Enable “Buy Now Pay Later”

Several eCommerce businesses are increasingly adopting flexible payment solutions – understanding customer needs and demands. Because in today’s digital world of Apple Pay and UPI solutions – a rigid approach toward payment solutions costs businesses a huge deal of sales, customers, and lost revenue.

48% of customers prefer online stores that accept multiple payment methods. In addition, Sezzle’s report suggests that the product’s over-cost is the primary reason behind 55% of abandoned carts. Hence, a flexible payment solution can help reduce cart abandonment and improve your store’s sales in these situations.

And one such highly flexible and customer-friendly payment solution that allows your customers on a tight budget to buy the products they want is – Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL).

BNPL is a perfect payment solution that seamlessly integrates with WooCommerce and doesn’t require customers to pass a credit check or pay interest.

So, in this article, we share the top BNPL solutions to integrate with your WooCommerce store. A growing number of BNPL options, including some of those appearing in this list, can easily be configured through PeachPay, a one-stop-shop checkout & payment solution for WooCommerce stores.

But before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s learn more about this type of payment option and its benefits for your store’s sales and overall growth.

WooCommerce: Which PayPal Gateway Plugin is Better?

As a WooCommerce store owner, providing multiple payment gateway options to your customers is more than necessary to ensure high customer satisfaction. And one of the most widely accepted payment systems is PayPal.

You don’t have to take our word for it – research suggests customers are 54% more likely to purchase your products and services if you accept PayPal payments in your store. So, the potential loss of customers and sales is significant if you don’t accept PayPal payments in your online store.

PayPal lets you accept debit cards, credit cards, and even money through the wallet. Many businesses rely on it as customers have a lot of trust in the PayPal brand.

However, despite being an excellent payment gateway, enabling PayPal on your WooCommerce store and making it work as intended isn’t always easy, considering frequent PayPal checkout errors and the fact that the most popular WooCommerce PayPal plugin is no longer supported.

To tackle these issues, we share the top WooCommerce PayPal plugins you can use in this article. These plugins will eliminate checkout errors and ensure high customer satisfaction. But first, let’s understand why using the official WooCommerce PayPal plugin is no longer the right choice.

WooCommerce vs. Shopify: Which Ecommerce Platform is Better?

Shopify and WooCommerce are top of mind for any business owner considering ecommerce for the first time. These ecommerce platforms are convenient and easy to use; however, each comes with its own pros and cons.

While Shopify offers ecommerce infrastructure as a service, powering 1% of all websites, WooCommerce is open-source and grants users more flexibility, powering 4.9% of all websites.

So, while each platform comes with its own strengths and limitations, choosing the one that suits your needs and provides the features you require is important. Here are some of the key factors you need to consider when determining the right platform for your business:

Ease of use
Budget
Payment methods & checkout experience
Scalability
Integration options

In this article, we’ll cover the essential factors mentioned above to help you determine which ecommerce solution is best suited for your business requirements. But first, let’s begin with a quick overview of both ecommerce platforms.

WooCommerce: How to Sell CBD Products

Since the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) removed cannabidiol, also known as CBD, from schedule 1 of the Controlled Substances Act in 2018, there has been a significant increase in CBD eCommerce in the United States.

Studies suggest that the CBD industry will see a sustained compound growth rate of 55% over the next few years, with the market set to reach a whopping $2.1 billion by 2030.

However, since CBD products are highly-regulated, it’s not easy to sell them online, and you need to adhere to a special set of rules and regulations.

WooCommerce is an ideal eCommerce platform for CBD sellers. However, even though you can sell CBD products with WooCommerce, Automattic — the parent company of WooCommerce, Jetpack, etc. — only supports the sale of CBD-related products under specific conditions.

You cannot use payment gateways like Stripe or PayPal to accept payments. This means that “WooCommerce Payments” prohibits CBD too.

Therefore, the real challenge lies in finding the right payment provider. Fortunately, there are several third-party payment merchants and even plugins that you can use to sell CBD products with WooCommerce.

In this article, we’ll talk about seven different payment solutions that permit the sale of CBD-related products with WooCommerce.