Connecting PayPal to the Voucher Store

To process payments in the Voucher Store, Aiir needs to be connected to PayPal's API.

Website users can still purchase vouchers from your site using a credit or debit card rather than requiring a PayPal account. It is just Aiir's current payment processing partner.

Before your store functions correctly, you have to go to Voucher Store > Settings and configure PayPal under 'Trade Settings'.

💳 Standard or Pro?

A PayPal business account is required to use the Voucher Store, but the company offers two types - standard business accounts or a premium service called PayPal Payments Pro.

The Voucher Store does not require the extra features Pro accounts offer, but if you already have one set up to take payments by phone, fax or mail you can use your existing account.

🏖️ Sandbox accounts

PayPal allows business account holders to create 'sandbox' accounts to generate mock transactions to test their site is functioning correctly without incurring processing fees.

Before enabling the sandbox in Aiir, you need to have created the special account first.

You can find out more about this process in PayPal's Developer docs.

👤 Account details

The email address/merchant ID you enter into Aiir must match the details on your PayPal account or transactions will fail.

🔑 Identity token

Your identity token is the key that proves to PayPal the transactions through Aiir are associated with your account.

As of March 2024, here are the steps to retrieve your identity token:

1. Log in to your PayPal account dashboard
2. Go to Account Settings > Website payments

3. Under Website preferences, click 'Update'

   
   

   

4. Enable 'Auto return for website payments' so you can proceed.

   
   

   We recommend setting the Return URL to your Voucher Store's transactions page, although this shouldn't be used and users should see a transaction-specific confirmation page instead, but this will be used as a fallback. The transactions page will be '/transactions' after your Voucher Store page address, for example:

   
   

   https://www.[your-site.com]/[voucher-store-page]/transactions

5. Once you save the Return URL, the 'Payment data transfer' options are enabled. This is where you will get your identity token to copy and paste into Aiir. Switch on payment data transfer, and the token will appear above the buttons.

   
   

   

6. Copy the token to your clipboard.

7. Paste the token into the corresponding field on Aiir's Voucher Store settings page:

   
   

   

8. Click 'Save' at the bottom of the page.