WordPress eStore Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Categories: Additional Resources, Featured
- Is WP eStore compatible with the latest version of WordPress?
Yes, all of our plugins are kept upto date to work with the latest version of WordPress. We use our plugins on our own site, so it is in our best interest to keep the plugins upto date.
- Are there any ongoing fees for WP eStore plugin?
No, the WP eStore plugin is a one time purchase software.
- Why buy a premium WordPress plugin?
See the why buy a premium WordPress plugin page.
- Is there a limit to the number of products I can have with WP eStore plugin?
No, the WP eStore plugin has no restrictions on the number of products you can have.
- What payment gateways are available?
At the moment the WP eStore plugin has four payment gateways (PayPal, 2Checkout, Authorize.net and Manual). See the Payment Gateway Settings page to learn more.
- What autoresponders can be integrated with WP eStore?
WP eStore currently integrates with AWeber, MailChimp, GetResponse.
- What themes work with your plugins?
Thesis
Genesis
Headway
- I want to sell a downloadable PDF (eBook), does your software cover PDF download and is this fully automatic? I want to leave this site on autopilot and start on a new site.
Yes, the WP eStore plugin is specifically designed to sell digital products securely on Auto-Pilot
- Can I sell services and subscriptions with the eStore?
Yes you can sell services and subscriptions (recurring and non-recurring) with the eStore.
- Does the WordPress eStore plugin work on a WordPress MU (multi-user) installation?
Yes
- Can this plugin be used to accept paypal payment for a digital product?
Yes
- Can the PayPal secure merchant ID be used instead of the email to receive payment?
Yes
- Does this plugin have shopping cart functionality?
Yes
- Can the shopping cart be added to any post, page and sidebar?
Yes
- Does this plugin have multiple currency support?
Yes, it can be configured to accept all the currencies that are supported by the Payment Gateway that you are using.
- Is the ‘Add to Cart’ button customizable?
Yes, you can make it ‘Pay Now’ instead of ‘Add to Cart’ for example or use a custom image as the button.
- Does this plugin use a return URL to redirect customers to a specified page after Paypal has processed the payment?
Yes, typically you will make a ‘Thank You’ page where your customers will be redirected to after payment.
- Can this plugin be used to automatically email the digital product to the buyer after purchase?
Yes
- How does this plugin deliver the digital product to the buyer?
The plugin will send an email to the buyer which will contain an encrypted download link that is valid for a configurable amount of time. The buyer will also be able to download the digital products from the “Thank You” page instantly after payment.
- Can I put the downloadable files on a storage site and serve it from there?
Yes, the downloadable files can be stored anywhere on the web (eg. your domain, a storage site, amazon S3) as long as it’s accessible. Customers always receive a link that allows them to download the file but they never know where it’s actually coming from.
- Can I have multiple files per product?
Yes, you can break a large file into smaller files and deliver all the parts upon purchase of the product.
- Can I sell both digital and physical products with the plugin?
Yes (How to sell digital and no-digital products with WP eStore plugin)
- Can I charge sales tax (regional and international) to my customers?
Yes (How to use sales tax)
- What license or licenses are you using for the WP eStore plugin?
Read the WP eStore license details
- Is a special PayPal account needed for the WP eStore to work?
No, you don’t need any specif PayPal account to use the WP eStore plugin but I think PayPal requires you to have a premium or business account if you want your customers be able to pay you using their credit card. Upgrading to PayPal Premium or Business account is free.
- Do I need to buy the product right now?
No, there is no rush or limited sale for this product. However, over time as we add more features to the product the price is increased to match the development effort. Existing customers get free future updates. The only reason for you to buy right now would be to lock in the current price.
June 11th, 2009 at 10:30 am
Hi,
I’m using thesis and want to call the sidebar widget function within my functions file. What is the name of the widget (call to the function)?
June 11th, 2009 at 12:23 pm
@George, The following is the widget function:
show_wp_digi_cart_widget($args)
September 8th, 2009 at 7:32 pm
Is there a universal control for variations? If I want to update multiple products which share the same variations. Can I do that one time without having to change them individually?
September 8th, 2009 at 10:58 pm
Hi Sam, No there is not universal control for variation yet.
September 8th, 2009 at 11:14 pm
OK. I sure would like it on the wish list.
September 26th, 2009 at 8:16 pm
Is it possible to capture the data from PayPal on the return page so that I can process it in my own php script?
Specifically, for orders of shipped products, I want to capture the name and shipping address of the customer along with products and quantity so that I can insert them into my own order database.
I can write the php myself once I know how to capture the data.
If it’s not possible to capture the data from PayPal, then how can I collect the shipping address information since the plugin doesn’t prompt for it? (I know it’s in the confirmation email sent from PayPal to the seller, but I need to automate.)
September 26th, 2009 at 9:32 pm
I think I may have found an answer on my question on my own. I’ll post it here in case anybody else finds it useful. If there’s an easier way to do this, I’m certainly all-ears because I’d love to skip some of the coding I have ahead of me now.
I installed a PHP Execution widget and then put a simple phpinfo() command on my thank you page and ran a test order. (Then, after getting the data I needed, removed the phpinfo() command.)
At the bottom of phpinfo() output is a list of environment variables. All the information needed is passed in _POST variables from PayPal.
With those in hand, I’ll now create a php script on the thank you page (thanks to the PHP Execution widget) that processes the relevant variables and creates an order in my company’s fulfillment system.
If there’s an easier way, please lemme know!
September 27th, 2009 at 8:15 am
@Marshall, The simple answer is yes, you can capture the data from PayPal on the return page. If you don’t have the “Enable Transaction Result Display” checkbox checked then PayPal will send the payment data via HTTP GET otherwise it will post the data using HTTP POST.
Now don’t forget to consider the security side of things before you go ahead and write your little script. Depending on what you are trying to do you may need to verify that the data you received was truly sent by PayPal and not someone else trying to hack your system. There are a few ways to this. WP eStore plugin always performs this check before doing anything with the payment data (eg. sending out the email). So If possible you may want to incorporate your custom script with the IPN handling script of this plugin.
October 3rd, 2009 at 6:31 pm
Thanks for the tips. I just finished the enhancement. I hooked it into the IPN validation with only the tiniest change to the existing plugin: I added an include statement in the IPN handler script paypal.php that calls my script. It only calls it if the IPN is confirmed valid.
Then my script pulls all the data it needs, connects to the other database, and inserts the order.
Most awesome. Thanks for the suggestion of tying it into IPN validation. I hadn’t worked with IPN before and didn’t understand how it worked. I would have been trusting the thank you page and assuming it was validated, and that could have been bad. I learned a lot. PayPal is somewhat cooler than I had previously realized.
October 20th, 2009 at 3:57 pm
Are there any known security issues or vulnerabilities with the plugin? Can hackers get into the customers information within the plugin? How can I secure the site from potential hackers of sensitive information?
Thank You
October 20th, 2009 at 10:49 pm
Hi Reeni, Not that I know of. The plugin stores all the data inside your wordpress database so if anyone wants to get the customers data they will have to have access to your wordpress database first. The qeustion you really should be asking is… “Is your WordPress site secure?”. The following article is a good read for general wordpress security:
http://www.tipsandtricks-hq.com/?p=987
December 11th, 2009 at 1:29 pm
Hi
I have purchased the plugin but also want some of my digital products to be free.
If I set the price to 0.00 will it bypass Paypal and go straight to the Thank you page and send the email for delivery links?
If not, how would I do this. I wanted the shop and interface to be the same and get them added to the autoresponder so didnt want to just add download links
December 12th, 2009 at 5:34 am
David, If you want to give free downloads to your users using this system so the users don’t know where the download is coming from then you can use one of the two options
1) Use a squeeze page type form (http://www.tipsandtricks-hq.com/ecommerce/how-to-make-a-squeeze-page-using-the-wordpress-estore-plugin-126)
2) Use the following shortcode that will put a “Download” button for a particular product which the visitors can use to download the item.
[wp_eStore_download_now_button id=1]
1 is the product id of the product.
Option 2 will not put the name and email in the database nor will it subscribe to the autoresponder.
December 12th, 2009 at 9:53 am
Thanks Ivy
With Option 2 would I be right in saying that the “Sales Count” will not increment when the download link is clicked?
If so, is there an easy way to count downloads through eStore or would I have to use a separate click-counter?
December 12th, 2009 at 1:03 pm
Hi David, yes, your guess is right… it wouldn’t be too difficult to hook it to the counter so you can track the downloads with this option though.
December 24th, 2009 at 6:15 am
Hi, I have a question with regards to flat rate shipping. I’ve purchased the plugin and want to know if it’s possible to setup flat rate shipping for example with all products in a certain category. Please advise if this is possible and if so how to best do this so that the customer is only charged one shipping cost per order.
Thanks
December 24th, 2009 at 12:44 pm
The following post should answer your question (Please read the “Simple Shipping Options” section)
http://www.tipsandtricks-hq.com/ecommerce/how-the-shipping-cost-calculation-works-in-wordpress-estore-50
January 9th, 2010 at 10:23 am
Hi,
Does the eStore comes with a “Add to Wishlist” or “Add to Favorites” feature?
I would like to have this so that my members can create a wishlist for their friends to know what they would like to have, very much like a “Gift Registry”.
thank you!
January 9th, 2010 at 10:32 pm
Talya, The WP estore plugin does not have a wishlist/favorites feature.
Ivy
January 13th, 2010 at 10:14 pm
Hi!
Is there a possibility to give out the sales count in a post, which will be updated in real-time?
Or do I need a plugin to post the current sales count of a product?
Thanks in advance!
January 14th, 2010 at 7:41 am
@Michael, yes you can display the sales counter in real time on a post. Please refer to the Shortcode list to find out which shortcode to use to display the sales counter:
http://www.tipsandtricks-hq.com/ecommerce/wp-estore-shortcodes-and-functions-reference-460
January 24th, 2010 at 6:14 pm
Hi,
New to the plugin. So far…great. Since the cart list’s the items purchased and the paypal system says somthing like “4 items” on a line with total cost. Is there a way to return the customer to a thankyou page containing an itemized list of what was purchsed?
Chuck
January 24th, 2010 at 6:18 pm
Hi Again, separate Q.
If we choose to have PayPal calculate the postage based upon buyer profile, is there a way to get the cart to have a shipping message that will tell the buyer that shipping will be calculated inside the paypal system.
The issue comes up because the initial paypal page prior to paypal login only shows the base product cost totals.
TOL
Chuck
January 24th, 2010 at 6:35 pm
One more…
Is there a way to make the empty cart show up on the checkout page? It shows in the widget but I can’t find how to show it on my checkout page
THanks
Chuck
January 25th, 2010 at 1:04 am
@Chuck, The following URL should help (when you do it it will list all the products purchased on a thank you page):
http://www.tipsandtricks-hq.com/ecommerce/wp-estore-instant-digital-product-delivery-499
You can just put a Message on your checkout page telling the customer that shipping will be calculated on the PayPal site.
To display the cart on the checkout page even when it’s empty use the following shortcode:
[wp_eStore_cart]
All the shortcodes are listed here:
http://www.tipsandtricks-hq.com/ecommerce/wp-estore-shortcodes-and-functions-reference-460
February 26th, 2010 at 9:34 am
Nice article..I tell my friend to read this and bookmark..
August 3rd, 2010 at 3:23 pm
My shopping cart will not allow me to add another product. I try and it says it’s created and then I got to manage products and it isn’t there. When I go to edit a product, it won’t let me change the price either.
We recently changed servers and I am wondering if the plugin needs to be reinstalled.
Help!
August 4th, 2010 at 1:54 am
Hi Lisa, Please try deactivating and reactivating the plugin this should fix the issue you are having. If not please let me know and we will take a closer look at your site.
October 12th, 2010 at 7:20 am
Hi. Could products be given a specific expiry date? Also, is it possible to display the remaining quantity of a particular product? I’m looking to use the eStore to enable users to purchase places on courses and conferences so would need the product to expire by a certain date or once all places are purchased. Does that sound possible? Thanks.
October 13th, 2010 at 12:51 am
Hi Giles, You can not set a date for expire on a product at this time. As for the remaining quantity I believe the following shortcode is what you need
[wp_eStore_remaining_copies_counter id=1]
Display the “Available Copies” counter on a post or
page
You can find a list of all the shortcodes here:
http://www.tipsandtricks-hq.com/ecommerce/wp-estore-shortcodes-and-functions-reference-460
October 18th, 2011 at 4:35 pm
Is it possible to add a custom text field for the customer to enter a message before they check out?
if it is, can i also limit the number of characters of the message?
October 19th, 2011 at 2:05 am
@Chrystal, the eStore has the following option.
Collect Customer Input Field Label:
When checked, it will display a text box next to the Add to Cart button where the customer can enter special instruction for that product (eg. a Name if selling Engraving).
However this does have a character limit imposed by PayPal. PayPal limits the amount of information that can be submitted this way. It’s about 320 characters this includes the product name and variations if you have any.