Payouts Express Checkout Payment Method

The Express Checkout payment method introduced in Payouts 3.0 enables you to instantly distribute PayPal payments to up to 10 vendors at the point of sale. Each vendor’s payment goes directly into their PayPal account so you never have to take possession of any vendors’ funds.

Express Checkout provides similar functionality to the WooCommerce Multiple PayPal Accounts plugin by AngellEYE, but offers a much tighter integration with WC Vendors and works alongside the other Payouts payment methods like PayPal Payouts, Bank Transfer, and Venmo.

How it Works

When Express Checkout is enabled, a new PayPal Express Checkout payment gateway appears under WooCommerce > Settings > Payments. When a customer pays using this gateway, all vendors who have selected PayPal as their preferred payout method are paid instantly to their PayPal account. At the same time, marketplace commissions are disbursed to the marketplace PayPal account.

If the customer pays using the PayPal Express Checkout gateway and a vendor has selected something other than PayPal as their preferred payment method, that vendor’s commission is sent to the marketplace PayPal account along with the marketplace commission. It can later be paid out using the vendor’s preferred payout method.

If the customer pays with a payment gateway other than PayPal Express Checkout then commission payments will be routed based on that gateway’s rules.

Enabling Express Checkout

To enable the Express Checkout payment method:

1. Go to WC Vendors > Settings > Payments > Payouts
2. Check Enable Express Checkout
   
3. Select a Refund Strategy under Express Checkout options
4. Save changes

Once the Express Checkout payment method is enabled you need to configure the Express Checkout payment gateway.

Refund Strategies

Inevitably, some customers will ask for a full or partial refund of their order. Since vendor commissions are paid instantly when the Express Checkout payment method is used, you must “claw back” any vendor commissions to avoid paying the refund out of pocket.

Express Checkout supports two strategies for this:

• Send PayPal invoices – When a refund is processed, each vendor will be sent a PayPal invoice in the amount of their commission for the refunded item(s). Once all vendors have paid their invoices and returned their commissions, the customer will be sent their funds via PayPal Payouts. The process is essentially identical to the “Cooperative Refund” process described in the main Payouts documentation, except the customer’s funds are always returned to their PayPal account and not to their original payment method.
• Process refunds manually – You will need to coordinate with your vendors to return the customer’s funds manually. For example, you can ask each vendor to log in to their PayPal account, find the relevant payment, and initiate a refund through the PayPal UI.

Note that we can’t process refunds automatically since that would require collecting sensitive PayPal API credentials from all vendors, potentially putting their funds at risk and making your site a target for hackers.

You can set your preferred refund strategy under Express Checkout options > Refund Strategy on the Payouts settings page.

Configuring the Payment Gateway

To utilize the Express Checkout payment method, you must enable and configure the PayPal Express Checkout payment gateway under WooCommerce > Settings > PayPal > PayPal Express Checkout.

Hover over the “?” icon next to any settings field for more information on what it does.

Have any other questions about the Express Checkout payment method? Please feel free to contact us.