--- title: "Setting Up an External Storefront with PayPal" slug: "setting-up-an-external-storefront-with-paypal" tags: ["ecommerce"] updated: 2024-05-30T19:48:23Z published: 2024-05-30T19:48:23Z canonical: "support.smarteru.com/setting-up-an-external-storefront-with-paypal" --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://support.smarteru.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Setting Up an External Storefront with PayPal In order to use this feature, be sure to enable [eCommerce](https://support.smarteru.com/docs/account-settings#ecommerce) for your account.You can also sell [learning plans](/v1/docs/learning-plans) through [SmarterU’s integrated eCommerce or an external storefront](https://support.smarteru.com/docs/ecommerce). For details, contact our [Success Desk](mailto:success@neovation.com). ## How It Works Customers browse your courses from your website and add courses they are interested in to their shopping cart. They can then go through PayPal's checkout to pay for their courses. After the customer's payment is confirmed, PayPal sends the customer's information and SKUs to SmarterU. SmarterU creates a [user account](/v1/docs/users) for the customer and [enrolls them in the course(s)](/v1/docs/enrolling-users). SmarterU then sends the customer an [email with the SmarterU login page's URL and their login information](/v1/docs/system-email-templates-account-emails#account-invitation). The customer logs into SmarterU and begins their course(s). ## Setting Up an External Storefront with PayPal To set up an external storefront with PayPal: 1. [Add a subscription](/v1/docs/adding-a-subscription) to SmarterU that [includes the courses](/v1/docs/subscription-courses) you would like to sell. If you want to charge customers for each course they purchase, you should [add one course](/v1/docs/subscription-courses) to each subscription. However, if you'd like to sell a set of courses as a package, you will want to add all courses in the set to a single subscription. For example, if you want to sell customers your Accounting 101 and Accounting 201 courses together, you would create one subscription and add both Accounting 101 and Accounting 201 to the subscription. 1. [Add a variant](/v1/docs/adding-a-variant) to the subscription; be sure to specify a [SKU](/v1/docs/variant-main#sku-required-if-ecommerce-setting-is-enabled) for variant. To sell a learning plan, enter the SKU in the [**Learning Plan ID** field](/v1/docs/learning-plan-main#learning-plan-id) and contact our [Success Desk](mailto:success@neovation.com) to let them know which learning plan you'd like to sell. 2. [Find your secure merchant account ID in PayPal](/v1/docs/setting-up-an-external-storefront-with-paypal#finding-your-secure-merchant-account-id). 3. [Add an external storefront to SmarterU](/v1/docs/setting-up-an-external-storefront-with-paypal#adding-an-external-storefront-to-smarteru). 4. [Set up the Instant Payment Notification (IPN) in PayPal](/v1/docs/setting-up-an-external-storefront-with-paypal#setting-up-the-instant-payment-notification-ipn). 5. For each product you want to sell, [create a product button](/v1/docs/setting-up-an-external-storefront-with-paypal#creating-a-product-button) and add it to your website. ## Finding Your Secure Merchant Account ID As part of the process of [adding your external storefront](/v1/docs/adding-an-external-storefront) to SmarterU, you'll need to enter your secure merchant account ID. To find your secure merchant account ID: 1. Log into PayPal. 2. Select the **My Account** tab. 3. Click **Profile**. 4. Copy your secure merchant account ID. 5. In your [SmarterU external storefront, enter the secure merchant account ID in the Merchant ID field](/v1/docs/external-storefront-configuration#paypal). ## Adding an External Storefront to SmarterU Before you add an external storefront to SmarterU, be sure you have the [secure merchant account ID from PayPal](/v1/docs/setting-up-an-external-storefront-with-paypal#finding-your-secure-merchant-account-id). Refer to [Adding an External Storefront](/v1/docs/adding-an-external-storefront)[](https://help.smarteru.com/adding-an-external-storefront$top_of_page)for details. Be sure to set the [storefront's **External Type** setting](/v1/docs/external-storefront-configuration#external-type-required) to *PayPal*. ![Interface gráfica do usuário, Aplicativo Descrição gerada automaticamente](https://cdn.document360.io/7efaadab-fef6-4186-806a-2ca14c9ce9ea/Images/Documentation/setting-up-an-external-storefront-with-paypal-image-4zruyl9c.png) ## Setting Up the Instant Payment Notification (IPN) To set up Instant Payment Notification (IPN), do the following from PayPal: 1. Click the settings icon at the top of the PayPal account page. 2. Click **Account Settings**. 3. From the menu on the left, click **Notifications**. 4. Click the **Update** link beside **Instant Payment Notifications**. ![Interface gráfica do usuário, Aplicativo Descrição gerada automaticamente](https://cdn.document360.io/7efaadab-fef6-4186-806a-2ca14c9ce9ea/Images/Documentation/setting-up-an-external-storefront-with-paypal-image-nd4psq20.png) The Instant Payment Notification (IPN) page displays. 1. Click **Edit Settings**. 2. In the **Notification URL** field, enter: ```markup https://app.smarteru.com/eCommerce/paypal/index.cfm ``` 1. Select the **Receive IPN Messages (Enabled)** option. ![Interface gráfica do usuário, Texto, Aplicativo, Email Descrição gerada automaticamente](https://cdn.document360.io/7efaadab-fef6-4186-806a-2ca14c9ce9ea/Images/Documentation/setting-up-an-external-storefront-with-paypal-image-0e512ubg.png) 1. Click **Save**. ## Creating a Product Button To create a button for your product, do the following from PayPal: 1. Click the **Pay & Get Paid** menu option at the top of the page. 2. Click **PayPal Buttons**. ![Interface gráfica do usuário Descrição gerada automaticamente com confiança média](https://cdn.document360.io/7efaadab-fef6-4186-806a-2ca14c9ce9ea/Images/Documentation/setting-up-an-external-storefront-with-paypal-image-7bcx7wkc.png) 1. Click **Buy Now** or **Add to Cart**. The Create PayPal Payment Button page displays. ![Interface gráfica do usuário, Aplicativo Descrição gerada automaticamente](https://cdn.document360.io/7efaadab-fef6-4186-806a-2ca14c9ce9ea/Images/Documentation/setting-up-an-external-storefront-with-paypal-image-ke0lf70z.png) 1. From the **Choose a Button Type** list, select either *Buy Now* or *Shopping Cart.* 2. In the **Item ID** field, enter the [SKU of the matching SmarterU subscription variant](/v1/docs/variant-main#sku-required-if-ecommerce-setting-is-enabled). 3. Edit the remaining settings as needed. 4. Click **Create Button**. 5. Copy the button's HTML code to your website. ## Related - [Adding an External Storefront](/adding-an-external-storefront.md) - [Storefront Management Dashboard](/storefront-management-dashboard.md)