Tips and Tricks WP eCommerce

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Enabling PayPal Smart Button Checkout – Setup and Configuration

Note: PayPal has deprecated the Smart Checkout feature. Switch to using the PayPal Commerce Platform (new API) which replaces the Smart Checkout option.

The PayPal Smart Checkout is an option you can enable in your WP Simple Cart Plugin. The Smart Checkout Button provides your customers with an alternative checkout method. The PayPal Smart Button Checkout contains a number of buttons that allow your customers to checkout using their PayPal Account, their credit card (Visa, Mastercard), Buy Now Pay Later or PayPal credit.

The checkout form is displayed to the customer in a popup window.

smart-paypal-checkout

Checkout Demo Video

The following video shows how a checkout works with PayPal smart button (from a customers point of view):

Configuring PayPal Smart Checkout Button

Step 1) Ensure you have the latest version of the WP Simple PayPal Shopping Cart Plugin installed and activated on your WordPress site.

Step 2) Click on the Settings menu under Simple Cart.

Step 3) Choose the Advanced Settings tab.

Step 4) You will now see a section titled PayPal Smart Checkout Settings.

Step 5) Mark the checkbox next to Enable PayPal Smart Checkout.

paypal-smart-button-configuration

Step 6) To set up this feature you will now need to Log in to your PayPal Developer Account to locate your API details. You will need a PayPal Business Account.

Step 7) Click on the My Apps & Credentials menu within your PayPal Developer Account.

Step 8) Scroll down to the Rest API Apps section.

Step 9) Click the Create App button.

Step 10) Give your app a name that relates to it’s intended use.

Step 11) Click the Create App button.

Step 12) You will now see your Sandbox Client ID and your Sandbox Secret Key (once you click the ‘show’ button).

Step 13) Click the Live button in the left hand corner to show your Live API Keys.

configuring-paypal-smart-button-wordpress

Step 14) Copy and paste both your Live and Test Client ID’s and your Live and Test Secret Keys from your PayPal account into the settings menu of your WP PayPal Shopping Cart. Ensure you paste them in the correct fields.

Step 15) If you would only like to offer Smart PayPal Checkout, mark the checkbox next to Disable Standard PayPal Checkout. Alternatively, you can choose to offer both at once by leaving this box unmarked.

Step 15) Click the Update Options button. You have now completed the setting configuration for PayPal Smart Checkout.

Step 16) Your Simple PayPal Shopping Cart Products will now be able to be purchased through this PayPal checkout method.

Purchasing a Product via PayPal Smart Checkout

A customer can add an item to your Simple PayPal Shopping Cart. Once the item appears in the cart, the customer can go ahead and checkout using PayPal Smart Checkout. They can click the button that applies to them.

For example, in the following example, the customer clicks the PayPal button because they wish to pay directly from their PayPal account.

Once a customer clicks on one of the PayPal Smart Checkout buttons, a popup appears where they can complete the checkout process by entering in the appropriate details.

paypal-smart-checkout-product
paypal-smart-checkout-popup

Customizing the Smart Checkout Buttons

Read our documentation on smart checkout buttons customization.

PayPal’s Pay In 4 (Buy Now Pay Later Option)

Read our PayPal’s buy now pay later documentation to learn more about it.

WP Simple Shopping Cart Installation and Usage Instructions

This page provides basic installation and setup instructions for the WP Simple Shopping Cart plugin. Please read this page thoroughly to gain a basic understanding of how to use the plugin.

Table of Contents

Video Summary

WP Shopping Cart Plugin Installation

Install the WP Simple Shopping Cart plugin by searching for it in the ‘Add New Plugins‘ interface within your WordPress admin dashboard. You can search using the keyword “Simple Shopping Cart” to find it.

Click ‘Install Now‘, followed by ‘Activate‘ to enable the plugin on your site.

If you can’t use the above method, download the plugin’s zip file, unzip it, and upload the folder to your site’s “/wp-content/plugins/” directory. Next, activate the plugin via the “Plugins” menu in WordPress.

Basic Settings Configuration

Once the plugin is activated, visit the Settings menu to configure basic options, like your PayPal account details, currency code etc. The default settings are typically sufficient to begin with. You can always customize these settings later. Save the settings and proceed to the next step.

Afterwards, you’re ready to use the shortcode(s) to add products to a post, page, or sidebar as desired.

Simple Shopping Cart Basic Usage

Step 1) Inserting an Add to Cart Button

To insert an ‘Add to Cart’ button, simply place the following shortcode into a post or page alongside the product description. This will enable customers to click and add the item(s) to their shopping cart.

[wp_cart_button name="PRODUCT-NAME" price="PRODUCT-PRICE"]

Replace PRODUCT-NAME and PRODUCT-PRICE with the actual name and price.

Here is an example usage of the shortcode:

[wp_cart_button name="Test Product" price="19.95"]

Step 2) Inserting a Shopping Cart

To insert the shopping cart into a post/page/sidebar, simply add the following shortcode into a shortcode block.

[show_wp_shopping_cart]

Using Blocks to Insert Add to Cart Buttons and Shopping Cart

You can also use blocks instead of shortcodes to insert the add to cart buttons and the shopping cart. Follow these guidelines if you wish to utilize the blocks provided by the simple shopping cart plugin.

Display a Product Box

Read the How to display a product box documentation that explains how you can use a shortcode to display a nice product box for your product(s).

Using the Buttons and Cart From a Theme’s Template File

If you want to add a purchase button in your theme’s template file then do the following:

1. To add the Add to Cart button from template (.php) files use the following function:

<?php echo print_wp_cart_button_for_product('PRODUCT-NAME', PRODUCT-PRICE); ?>

Replace PRODUCT-NAME and PRODUCT-PRICE with the actual name and price. Example:

<?php echo print_wp_cart_button_for_product('wordpress', 7.50); ?>

2. To add the shopping cart to the sidebar, simply use the widget from the widgets menu or add the following line to your sidebar template file where you want the shopping cart to appear.

<?php echo print_wp_shopping_cart() ?>

Example Post/Page Editor Content with Shortcode

The following is a screenshot of the WordPress post/page editor showing how the add to cart button and the shopping cart is inserted into a post or page.

Block/Gutenberg Editor Example

Classic Editor Example

simple cart wp editor content example

Using an User Interface to Insert the Products

The plugin has a block inserter that you can use to add the blocks (instead of shortcodes) to your WordPress posts/pages. Read the Simple Cart Blocks documentation for details.

Using a Compact Shopping Cart

Use the following shortcode where you want to show the compact shopping cart:

[wp_compact_cart]

You can add this shortcode in a standard text widget to add the compact cart to the sidebar.

Always Show the Shopping Cart

The standard “show_wp_shopping_cart” shortcode only shows the cart when there are items in the cart. So it shows the cart when the visitor has clicked on an add to cart button and added item(s) to the cart. When the cart is empty, it simply hides the cart (nothing is shown).

If you want to show the cart all the time then use the following shortcode instead. It will show an empty cart message when there is nothing in the cart.

[always_show_wp_shopping_cart]

Using Shipping Option

1. To use shipping cost use the “shipping” argument in the shortcode. Here is an example usage:

[wp_cart_button name="Test Product" price="19.95" shipping="4.99"]

or use the following php function from your wordpress template files

<?php echo print_wp_cart_button_for_product('product name',price,shipping cost); ?>

Please see the How shipping Calculation Works post for more info.

Using Variation Control Option

Variation Control can be used to create products similar to the following screenshot. Read the product variation setup documentation to learn more.

simple-cart-product-with-variation-control-screenshot

Flagging an Item as Digital Only

To mark an item as digital-only, add the digital="1" parameter to the shortcode. Digital-only items do not require a shipping address during checkout. Here’s an example of how to use the digital parameter in the shortcode:

[wp_cart_button name="Test Product" price="19.95" digital="1"]

Selling Digital Media Files

Read the media file selling usage documentation.

Specifying an Item Number or SKU

You can use the “item_number” parameter in the “add to cart” button shortcode to specify an “Item Number” or “SKU” for a product. This “item number” value will get sent to PayPal (when a customer does the checkout).

Below is an example shortcode:

[wp_cart_button name="Test Product" price="19.95" item_number="SKU12345"]

Visit the WordPress Simple Shopping Cart Documentation Index Page.

WordPress eStore Plugin Change Log

WordPress eStore v8 Change Log

  • Some minor inventory control updates
  • Added an option to turn off sale notification email for admin
  • Added a new email tag {product_details_tax_inclusive}
  • Ability to enable ajax option on the add to cart button action
  • Ability to show fancy template with Donate now buttons
  • Fixed the {total_tax} email tag for manual checkout
  • Some minor enhancements for the area specific tax checkbox feature
  • Added a new feature for store pickup option (allow you customers to pickup at your store)
  • Added another condition in the recurring payment check function
  • The “store action” page will now be hidden from the navigation menu by default
  • The “Store pickup” option (if selected by the customer) will be shown in the manual checkout email.
  • Added a new subscription button shortcode.
  • Updated the standard manual checkout interface
  • Added a “Add New Product” link at the top of the page in the add/edit products interface
  • Added a new option in the PayPal gateway settings to collect special instructions on the PayPal checkout page
  • Added the product name data in the manage customers summary list menu
  • Added a new option to enable ajax in the advanced settings menu
  • Added Mad Mimi integration
  • Added a copy option in the “Manage Customers” menu of the plugin
  • Added an option to reset the counter tag value
  • Added a new filter for doing affiliate tracking via discount coupons/codes
  • Changed the MailChimp integration’s listsubscribe call to use “updatable” parameter to have a value of true
  • The AWeber signup will now work for both List name and List ID value
  • The popular products list shortcode can now take category ID and exclude product IDs value
  • The plugin will show a warning in the admin side when you have the “Sandbox” mode enabled
  • Added more action hooks and filters in the plugin
  • Added a new option to turn off the PayPal IPN validation step after a PayPal checkout
  • Significantly improved the manual checkout form’s look and feel
  • Added a new option to disable the automatic encrypted link expiry feature. useful if you don’t want the links to expire
  • Added a new option to enable admin notification via email when a squeeze form is submitted
  • Upgraded the shopping cart basket icon in the cart
  • Fixed an issue with download now button type and digital product variation
  • Added a new product display template (fancy 17) that can be used to show products in a grid display
  • Added a new product display template (fancy 18)
  • Enhanced the serial key retrieval function.
  • Added a new option in the manage customers interface to export a list of serial keys that has been issued to the customers
  • Improved the fixed amount discount implementation.
  • Download link shortening feature now uses Bitly API
  • Removed the extra “new line” character from the {product_link} email tag.
  • Added an empty new line character after each download link listing in the email.
  • Added an option to view the corresponding member profile from a customer entry record.
  • Added an option to capture the subsequent recurring payment sales data in the customers menu.
  • Updated the nav menu appearance in the settings interface to a better looking one.
  • The sales count and available inventory columns can be sorted from the Manage Products interface.
  • when “Show Quantity Update Button” option is enabled, it will show the quantity field with the up/down arrow options in the cart.
  • Added a checkbox in the “Addon Settings” so PDF files can be stamped at the time of download.
  • The selected shipping variation option from a checkout is saved in the admin notes field of the manager customers menu
  • Added a new settings in the advanced settings tab so the plugin can use the same timezone specified in WordPress General Settings
  • Ability to apply discount code via the URL
  • New feature to allow download now functionality using a text link (instead of shortcode).
  • New option in the Receipt Creator addon to export the receipt entries to a CSV file.
  • The subscriber ID value is now shown in the edit customers menu (applicable for subscription payments only).
  • New option to create gateway specific subscription payment via a URL.
  • Added a new filter to allow customization of the “no_shipping” field value of PayPal checkout parameter.
  • Created a new addon to collect customer input in the cart. https://www.tipsandtricks-hq.com/ecommerce/?p=4004
  • Added a new email merge tag for IP Address {ip_address} that can be used in the notification email body.
  • Manage Customer menu interface has been revamped. The functionality has been redesigned using menu tabs to make it more user-friendly and easy to use.
  • The conditional coupon now supports the “category id” is “greater than” condition.
  • Ability to enforce the customer to select an option from the variation dropdown (when you don’t want to use a default option).
  • Added a new email merge tag {total_minus_tax_and_shipping}
  • Added a new email merge tag {discount_amount}
  • Added new Amazon S3 integration option.
  • Added a new option to specify the checkout selector label in the cart (when using multiple payment gateways option)
  • Added a new settings option to set the alignment of the checkout button in the shopping cart.
  • Upgraded the shortcode inserter (TinyMCE button) to include more shortcodes.
  • Replaced the paypal’s deprecated page style parameter with image url.
  • Added filter for the seller notification email body.
  • Reworked the file uploader interface and made it more user-friendly.
  • The “Send Emails to Buyer After Purchase” feature now works for manual checkout emails also.
  • The {purchase_date} email merge tag now outputs a formatted date value according to your WordPress settings.
  • Added an option to specify Cancel URL on a per product basis.
  • Added an option (in the customer export data interface) to reset the export files.

WordPress eStore v7 Change Log

  • Updated the Add/Edit products menu user interface
  • Added a new product display template (Fancy 9 Display)
  • Added a new email tag for phone number – {customer_phone} (it will work when a customer enters the phone number during checkout
  • Optionally add the buyer email and some payment parameters in the admin notification email
  • Ability to reset the cart when the user browse to a different WordPress install in the same domain
  • Option to enable “No affiliate commission for self purchase”
  • WishList Members integration for Manual/offline Checkout
  • Added a new product display template (Fancy10 product display)
  • New shortcode to dynamically show a particular details of a product. Demo Product One shortcode will show the name of product 1.
  • Ability to show the original price (before the coupon discount application) side by side of the discounted price.
  • Added the save and retrieve cart feature
  • Image set will work by default on a per product basis.
  • Added an option to stamp the {transaction_id} in the PDF file when used with PDF Stamper plugin
  • Added an option to show an “Update” button next to the quantity field in the shopping cart
  • Changed the Authorize.net checkout description field’s value to include the Product IDs
  • Increased the z-index value of eStore’s lightbox CSS
  • Added a new email tag for counter. Use {counter} to add a counter in the emails
  • Added a new email tag for coupon code. Use {coupon_code} to add the coupon code used for the transaction in the emails
  • Added a new elegant looking compact cart shortcode
  • Text link option for PayPal subscription product
  • New “Download Now” button image for the squeeze form
  • Added an option to enable tax calculation on shipping amount
  • Added the quantity purchased information for a product in the “Manage Customers” area.
  • Updated the encrypted link shortener feature to use the new Google API with the API Key
  • New dynamic eStore and eMember protected buttons using the “restricted” parameter
  • New AWeber API integration
  • Ability to return to a product specific “Thank You” page for “Add to Cart” type button for one item checkout
  • Serial number/license key selling feature
  • Ability to reset the cart action messages on page load
  • Google base feed addon for your products
  • New shopping cart template (Fancy Shopping Cart 2)
  • Order summary shortcode (to list a summary of current shopping cart items)
  • Ability to customize the anchor text of the download links on the “Thank You” page to say “Click here to download”
  • Better WP Super Cache integration
  • Added a new product display template (Fancy 11 Product display template)
  • Ability to turn off the email that gets sent after the eStore squeeze form submission
  • Added an “Admin Notes” section in the manage customer area
  • Added links to the product in the purchase history shortcode
  • New checkout redirection option to minimize session conflict on some servers
  • An option to allow coupon stacking (if you want to allow your customers to apply multiple coupons and stack them in one checkout)
  • When a refund is issued via PayPal, it will update the order management addon’s transaction too
  • Ability to display the Unique Registration Completion URL on the “Thank You” page
  • Ability to enforce shipping variation selection before shipping price is shown
  • Option to show the currency symbol after the amount
  • Ability to POST the refund IPN to an external URL for 3rd party integration
  • Added a site diagnostic section in the “Admin Functions” menu of the plugin
  • Added an option to stamp the PDF file at the time of download.
  • Added an option in the eStore settings menu to show tax inclusive price
  • The total price amount dynamically gets updated when a user changes the variation drop down options
  • Added an option that will allow you to create a squeeze form that can redirect the user to a particular page after the squeeze form is submitted
  • Fixed some minor fancy2 product display template CSS glitch
  • All payment gateway compatible “Buy Now” type button shortcode (previously this was only available to PayPal)
  • Upgraded the settings menu tab look and feel
  • Added the ability to specify a language by force for the PayPal checkout page
  • Updated the CSS classes of the squeeze form so it can be customized easily from the CSS file.
  • Upgraded the checkout with paypal image to make it look better.
  • Added a check to make sure a customer has to select and update a shipping variation before he/she can checkout (if you are using the shipping variation feature)
  • Added an option to show the eMember’s memberhsip level IDs next to the “Reference Text” field (only if eMember is used together with eStore)
  • Updated some of the delete entry confirmation to be more user friendly
  • Added an option to turn off the welcome email sending for mailchimp autoresponder signup when double opt-in is disabled.
  • Ability to generate a list of unique customer email addresses (comma separated)
  • Added a new shortcode to create PayPal donations buttons to accept Donation via PayPal for a cause
  • Added a new shiny default “Sold Out” button image
  • Ability to specify a custom button image in the add to cart button shortcode to override the button image
  • Added more filters in the shopping cart output
  • Added the ability to apply interest grouping/list segmentation for MailChimp signups
  • Added the ability to bulk delete products in the products management interface
  • Added an option to open the download links on the thank you page in a new window.
  • New shortcode to display the purchase history of a customer.
  • Updated the eStore order management addon to do manual checkout “unpaid” and “paid” status handling
  • Added an option to specify a “Text” instead of an image for the sold out button message
  • Added a coupon start date field so you can create a coupon that for a future event
  • Added a “Go to Page” option in the eStore product display pagination area for easy navigation
  • When uploading product thumbnail image, you can choose the thumbnail size in the uploader and it will use that version
  • Added a settings option to customize the price display format.
  • The donation type buttons can also use the product specific return URL
  • Moved the email settings fields to a new tab called “Email Settings”
  • Added an option so you can now send the “Purchase confirmation email” as a HTML type email.
  • You can now customize the squeeze form email via the eStore email settings menu
  • You can now specify a download expiry time and download count limit on a per product basis
  • There is now a settings option in the “Advanced Settings” menu to enable the alternative redirection method
  • Ability to add email tags in the product specific instruction section of a product
  • Added an option to create buy now text link for any gateway available in the plugin
  • Ability to use a simple anchor text for the download links on the thank you page
  • Added a next product and previous product link in the edit product menu of the plugin
  • The {product_details} email tag will show a modified details for a subscription product

WordPress eStore v6 Change Log

  • Added an option to specify a number of products to show for each category when using the category fancy shortcode
  • Added IP address capture option for every customer in the customers database
  • Added a shortcode to display purchase history with product download option (Useful for eStore and eMember use)
  • Ability to use a text link for a Buy Now button. Example: http://www.your-domain.com/?wp_eStore_buy_now=2 (this can be used to post a link on your facebook or twitter page)
  • Added an option to disable the double opt-in email confirmation feature for MailChimp Autoresponder.
  • Made the package product download option more robust so you are allowed to nest package product inside another package product or a multi-part product.
  • Added an option to allow the admin to sort the products or categories by their name in the admin dashboard.
  • Ability to make a product tax exempt even when using the PayPal profile based tax option.
  • Added an email tag to include the shipping variation selected by the user in the email. {shipping_option_selected}
  • Enhanced the download now shortcode to work with digital variation
  • Enhanced the authorize.net post payment processing check to include the failure reason (if any) in the transaction result display.
  • Added an option whereby the admin can choose to automatically shorten the encrypted download URL to make it look cleaner.
  • Added the ability to specify a commission override on a per product basis when using the revenue sharing option
  • Added the ability to POST the PayPal IPN to a 3rd party script which can be used for additional 3rd party integration purpose.
  • Satellite Affiliate plugin integration option
  • Added the “Do Not Award Commission if Coupon Used” feature
  • Ability to left or right align the checkout button section in the shopping cart via CSS.
  • Ability to specify the variation addition symbol to your liking (by default it is the “+” sign but you can make it whatever you like)
  • Ability to POST the payment notification (IPN) to an external URL/script for all payment gateway (previously this was only available to PayPal gateway)
  • When shipping variation is used it will always prompt the customer to hit the “Update” button at least once to adjust the selected shipping choice.
  • Ability to specify multiple notification email address (the plugin can notify multiple email addresses after each sale)
  • Added a new email tag {product_link_digital_items_only} This will only list the products links for digital items in the shopping cart.
  • Made the pagination section for products more user friendly and customizable via CSS
  • Ability to hide the quantity in the shopping cart. Helpful if you are selling digital items only.
  • Download now button also tracks the sales/inventory counter
  • Added Mod X-Sendfile method for file download
  • Changing quantity or removing items after a coupon is applied won’t reset the cart anymore.
  • Added more email tags {total_tax}, {total_shipping}, {total_minus_total_tax}
  • Quantity limit per customer for individual product (this need to go to the features page).
  • Quantity limit per shopping cart checkout for an individual customer.
  • Changed how the revenue sharing calculation is calculated when affiliate campaign is used together.
  • Ability to use the email tags in the email subject area too.
  • New shortcode for recent products list
  • New shortcode for random products list
  • New shortcode for popular products list
  • Added Some Charts in the stats menu
  • Additional security check for free product download option (check the “Enforce Zero Price Checking on Free Product Download” option in the eStore settings)
  • Digital variation robustness when used in conjunction with normal variation
  • Upgraded the look and feel of the checkout redirection to the payment gateway
  • Ability to specify a minimum and maximum cart amount checkout limitation value
  • Ability to place the manual checkout form on a WordPress post or page
  • Fixed commission per transaction option
  • Ability to display the links on the thank you page for Authorize.net and Manual transactions (the same way PayPal transactions work).
  • Ability to add reCAPTCHA on the squeeze form.
  • Fixed analytic bug with Yoast’s Google Analytics Plugin

WordPress eStore v5 Change Log

  • Added the ability to specify product specific commission for tier2
  • Ability for the customer to enter a price they wish to pay for the product
  • Added a new shortcode to display a list of latest products (recently added products)
  • Added an option to copy the details of an existing customer when manually entering details of a new customer
  • Added the option to display products from a category using any of the fancy display options
  • Added an option whereby you can sort the product displays from a category
  • Added a few different download methods for sites having download issues
  • Ability to clean the encrypted download links table by performing bulk delete
  • Added the option to use PayPal’s PDT feature to display the links on the thank you page
  • Added CSS class for the variation select boxes so it can be customized with CSS
  • Added an option for shipping variation
  • Added support for Multiple categories per product (you can now assign more than one category for a product)
  • Added option to display Terms and conditions checkbox for buy now and subscription type buttons
  • Added option to display multiple product image in lightbox
  • Added Fancy6 display option in the extra shortcodes plugin
  • Added Fancy7 display option in the extra shortcodes plugin
  • Added Fancy8 display option in the extra shortcodes plugin
  • Added more download method option in the “AddOn Settings” tab
  • Added a check to verify if a specified Image URL is valid when creating or updating products
  • Manual payment gateway displays a summary of the items a customer is checking out
  • If using with WP eMember (WordPress membership plugin) then the manual checkout will auto fill in the form with the logged in member’s details
  • Added an option to reset the settings options to default
  • Added an option to reset the sales data so you can reset all the test transactions before going live
  • Amazon S3 Integration so that the downloadable files can be stored on Amazon S3
  • NextGen gallery auto integration for “Add to Cart” type buttons
  • Ability to capture lead on squeeze form submission (check under the addon settings menu)
  • Ability to automatically create affiliate accounts for buyers after purchase
  • Ability to specify an old price for a product (the old price is displayed as a slashed out price in some fancy displays)
  • Added an option to specify an expiry date for a coupon

WordPress eStore v4 Change Log

  • Google Analytics e-Commerce tracking
  • Ability to display purchase history of members when used with the WordPress Membership plugin
  • NextGen gallery alternate integration
  • Added smart thumbnail options. If your product thumbnail images look a little bit squashed then this feature will fix that issue.
  • Ability to POST PayPal IPN data to a external script (Can be used to integrate with the Memberwing plugin)
  • Better checkout flow with an option of using fancy redirection to the payment gateway.
  • Ability to track coupon per transaction
  • W3 Total Cache Integration
  • Fancy 3 display
  • Fancy 4 display
  • MemberWing Plugin Integration
  • Limit download by number of download count
  • Option to add customers to the database for manual checkout
  • Changed the look and feel of the checkout redirection page.
  • The product name, customer’s address and phone number also gets stored in the customer’s database
  • PDF Stamper integration
  • Added variation control options for “Buy Now” and “Subscription” type buttons
  • Added GetResponse autoresponder inegration
  • Option to only allow logged in members to checkout when used with WordPress Membership plugin to create an Amazon site type checkout system.
  • Added a fancy display option for the shopping cart.
  • Added order summary display option on the Manual checkout page.
  • Added an option to add product download links to the email that gets sent after the manual checkout.
  • Added built-in tax option
  • Ability to setup a revenue sharing site
  • TinyMCE butons to insert shortcodes
  • Added the option to display a quantity text box with the add to cart button.
  • Ability to display the product prices in a secondary currency side by side your primary currency (this is for display purpose only… the actual transaction will use the primary currency)

WordPress eStore v3 Change Log

  • Added the option to add product specific instructions for buyers on a per product basis (the instruction gets appended to the main email body).
  • Added a new shortcode that allows you to display a category with name, thumbnail and description (Refer to the eStore Shortcodes page).
  • Added an option to display the Compact cart in the sidebar widget (useful for sites with narrow sidebar)
  • Added the thumbnail display option in the “Manage Products” page for easy product identification.
  • Added the “One Time Commission for Subscription Payment” option (Check under the Addon Settings tab).
  • Option to upload product details from a CSV file using the WP CSV to DB plugin.
  • Added Itemized sale stats in the “Stats” menu.
  • Fixed some other minor bugs.

WordPress eStore v2.9 Change Log

  • Product names can now be linked to another page when using the fancy display options.
  • Product details copy option to copy an existing product.
  • WishList Members plugin can be integrated through the settings menu of the plugin (3rd party integration tab).
  • Added an option whereby a customer can enter an “Affiliate ID” in the shopping cart to give reward to an affiliate
  • Added the capability to link the “Affiliate ID” field with the coupons table so customers entering an “Affiliate ID” in the shopping cart will also be able to receive a discount
  • Added an option in the “manual checkout settings” section to turn on or off automatic commission awarding for manual checkout.
  • Now a custom page style name can be specified in the paypal gateway settings section to allow custom template checkout page
  • Upselling feature (a textarea in the discounts feature where the admin can put in some coupon codes which the customers only get after a checkout).
  • Fixed an issue whereby subscription payment wasn’t sending quantity value so available qty didn’t change

WordPress eStore v2.5 – v2.8 Change Log

  • Added a feature so downloadable goods can be delivered on the “Thank You” page after payment. See the instructions page to learn more.
  • Ability to display the shopping cart in your own language.
  • Added a trigger text that allows the shopping cart to be placed on a checkout page and it displays empty cart (add it to the shortcodes post)
  • Added the capability to use the WordPress’s mailing system
  • Ajax/JQuery powered squeeze page type form
  • Be able to automatically redirect to Checkout page after add to cart button is clicked
  • Fix quantity to not update when it is more than the available copies
  • Ability to take customer input for special instructions
  • Ability to offer multiple file downloads per product
  • Fixed it so the Admin function link generation works for package products and muli part files
  • The buy now and subscription buttons display normal buttons when the button image is not specified
  • Shopping cart multi-language support
  • Paginate and Search capability for Customer display list (also added transaction id, date etc display)
  • Better product search capability – Partial search for products and customers
  • Price round to two digit so PayPal doesn’t have issue after coupon code is applied
  • Wishlist plugin integration for “Add to Cart” and “Buy Now” buttons.
  • Added a 4th variation option
  • The instruction/customer input field is customizable
  • Added a second fancy product display option
  • AWeber Integration
  • Added PayPal profile based shipping capability (You can now use weights for products and specify weight based shipping in your paypal profile)
  • Sell different products in different currencies from one site when using the “Buy Now” type buttons.
  • Added Redeemable coupon option (also displays a message when you apply a coupon)
  • Did some sopping cart beautification
  • Ability to link the thumbnail image to any URL
  • Ability to make the add to cart button redirect to a URL rather than adding the product to the cart (useful when you don’t sell your own products)
  • Ability to customize the ruturn button text after payment on paypal
  • Added manual checkout option
  • Added 2checkout option. Read the payment gateway instructions page to learn more.
  • Option to place a “Continue shopping” link in the cart
  • Auto customer record reversal upon refund
  • WP eStore can now be integrated with iDev Affiliate Software
  • WP eStore can now be integrated with JROX JAM Affiliate Software
  • Added shortcodes to display sales and available copy counter
  • The plugin now sends email to the admin when payment verification fails
  • Added a few options for automatic Free Shipping Discount
  • Added conditional coupon option
  • Added option to display category list like the fancy product display

WordPress eStore v2.4 Change Log

  • Product categorization (ability to categorize products and display all products from that category)
  • Ability to configure a “Subscription” button for any type of subscription payment.
  • Variation control for digital product (digital delivery of different files depending on the selection)
  • LightBox effect on product display images (Just click on a thumbnail image to see how it works).
  • Ability to setup “Buy Now” type buttons with different PayPal email address (per button basis). Useful on a multi-author blog where different authors can setup “Buy Now” buttons with their products and get the money directly into their PayPal account.
  • Add/edit products page face lift
  • WPMU options page fix
  • Added more security checks in the post-payment processing handling script.
  • Ability to insert HTML (eg. URL of a page) in the product description field (Useful when you want to link to a detailed description page for that product).

WordPress eStore v2.3 Change Log

  • Added Coupon Code/Discounts Feature (How to Use Coupons / Discounts in WP eStore)
  • Added variation control feature (How to use variation control in a product)
  • Ability to offer product specific affiliate commission when using with the WP Affiliate Platform plugin.
  • Added a stats page to display some basic stats (I will add more stats and graphs in a future release)
  • Option to display a link to the products/shop page in the shopping cart widget when the cart is empty.
  • Added Subscription option.
  • Added an empty Cart button in the shopping cart.
  • Display the product name of each product next to the encrypted link in the email.
  • When using the stylish display it shows the Available Quantities of that product if specified.
  • Ability to use an image to display the empty shopping cart instead of just plain text (Shopping cart empty).
  • Fixed a bug whereby refund was issuing another email.
  • Tidied up the Pagination on the display all products page a little bit.
  • Tidied up some labels
  • Fixed some minor bugs and tightened some validation checking for more security.

WordPress eStore V2.2 Change Log

  • Added the capability to configure packaged/bundled products from the existing products (How to Configure bundled product).
  • Products can now be configured with a thumbnail image and a description and can be displayed in a stylish way with a trigger text (Display product in a stylish way).
  • A list of all products can be displayed on a page in a stylish way through the use of a trigger text (Display a list of all the products).
  • Added an option so the download URL can be customized (How to Customize the download URL).
  • Added an option so the plugin can be run in Sandbox mode (for PayPal sandbox testing) with one tick (Running the plugin in sandbox mode).
  • Added pagination in the manage products screen. This will help anyone who has configured a lot of products by splitting the page into smaller pages (eg. displays 20 products per page).
  • Added product search option from the Manage products screen.
  • Added a minor tweak so the return page from PayPal doesn’t show the POST data in the URL.
  • Removed the Currency field from the Add/Edit products menu (This value is now derived from the settings menu globally).
  • Fixed the hardcoded $ (currency) sign in display all products.
  • Fixed a bug whereby the squeeze page was not working in Internet Explorer.

WordPress eStore V2.1 Change Log

WordPress eStore V2 Change Log

  • Added a Customer Database (When a Customer purchases an Item the Name and Email address goes to the database)
  • Individual return URL for ‘Buy Now’ type buttons (Each ‘Buy Now’ buttons can have a different return URL to the one specified in the settings menu)
  • Ability to offer a ‘Squeeze Page’ type free product download option (This can be used to let the visitors download a free digital product after they fill in their name and email address. Very effective for email list building)
  • Capability to limit the maximum number of copies to be sold for a specific product (Useful when you only want to sell 50 copies of a product for example)
  • Added shipping calculation capability (Useful for non-digital products)
  • Added a counter for ‘sales count’ for each product (Useful to find out how many copies of a product has been sold)
  • Some other minor additions

WordPress eStore Installation and Update Guide

Installing and Upgrading WordPress eStore plugin is very easy. The installation of this plugin is similar to all the other WordPress plugins.

Fresh Installation of WP eStore

First deactivate the WP Simple Paypal Shopping cart plugin if you are using it. WP eStore plugin has all the functionality of the WP Simple Paypal Shopping cart.

  • Click on the “Add New” link from the “Plugins” menu inside your WordPress admin dashboard.
  • Click the “Upload Plugin” button from the top of this page.
  • Browse for the plugin’s zip file (wp-cart-for-digital-products.zip) and hit the “Install Now” button.
  • Activate the plugin through the Plugins menu in WordPress.

Installation Video

Upgrade WP eStore Plugin

Before you ask

Yes, the plugin will retain all the previous information that you saved. No data (your product details, settings values etc.) will get lost during the upgrade.

Important Note 1: If you have a live site with high traffic where customers are constantly making purchases then you should consider installing the new version of the plugin on a test WordPress site first to minimize any chance of upgrade related issue taking you out by surprise. Most people prefer to have a copy of WordPress installed in one of the sub-directories for testing purpose (you can install it in a sub-domain too). This way if you face an issue due to upgrading, you can report it to us and while we work on it, your main site won’t be affected.

Important Note 2: Some users have this bad habit of keeping multiple copies of the same plugin in the plugins directory. This is the source of many problems. Please note that you should only have one version of any WordPress plugin in the plugins directory at any given time. If you want to keep backups then you can keep it in your uploads directory or on your computer’s hard drive.

With that said, please follow the instructions below when upgrading the WordPress eStore plugin from an older version to a newer version:

Upgrade Steps

Do the following steps to upgrade the plugin:

  • Deactivate the current version of the WP eStore plugin from the Plugins menu.
  • Delete the current version of the WP eStore plugin from the Plugins menu.
  • Now, follow the fresh installation steps outlined above to install the plugin.

Don’t be scared to delete the plugin. It will retain all the previously entered settings and product information (no data will get lost during the upgrade).

Basic Usage Guide

Step 1. First add the product(s) to the database through the Add/Edit Products interface. Products can be modified through the Manage Products interface.

Step 2. To add the Add to Cart button simply add the following trigger text to a post or page next to the product.

[wp_eStore_add_to_cart id=PRODUCT-ID]

Replace PRODUCT-ID with the actual product id of the product (example, 1). Product IDs are unique numbers that are automatically created for you when you add a product to the database. All of your products IDs can be found in the Manage Products section.

Step 3. To add the shopping cart to a post, checkout page and/or sidebar simply add the following trigger text to a post or page in HTML view or use the sidebar widget. The shopping cart will only be visible when a customer adds a product in the post or page.

[wp_eStore_cart]

Additional Usage Guidance

Please leave a comment below if you have any questions.