WooCommerce offers various payment methods, including PayPal, Stripe, credit/debit cards, direct bank transfers, cash on delivery, and mobile wallets.
These options are crucial because they provide customers with flexibility and convenience, increasing the chances of completing a sale.
A diverse range of payment methods also helps businesses reach a broader audience, reduce cart abandonment, and build buyer trust.
Secure and seamless transactions enhance the shopping experience, making it easier for customers to pay in their preferred way.
Let’s show you where to go. Hover your mouse over Woocommerce and then click on settings located in the sidebar. Once the page has loaded, you can then click on payments.
Woocommerce has three different payment methods which include Direct bank transfer, Check payments, and Cash on delivery. You will also notice the PayFast option because we already installed their plugin for you.
After all, PayFast is the most common payment gateway used in South Africa.
Woocommerce comes with only one useful built-in payment method which is direct bank transfer. I have never used Check payments or Cash on delivery nor will I recommend them. Most people do not use checks anymore and Cash on delivery is just not reliable anymore.
The best way to receive payments on your store is either through Direct bank transfer or a payment gateway which is PayFast in this case.
1. Direct Bank Transfer
You can enable Direct Bank Transfer by making sure the blue toggle button is enabled. Let’s click on “Manage” to set your payment details.
Here you have a second chance to disable or enable this option.
Under the title, you should add the name of this payment method. You can call it anything you like, but keep in mind that the customer will be able to see this. Usually, we just call it “Direct bank transfer” to keep the message clear and simple.
Under the description, you should give your customer to use the order ID that they will receive as a payment method. This way, you will know exactly which payment goes with which order. This text will be displayed on the checkout page. We have already added the text for you.
For instruction, we have already added some text for you. This text will be displayed on the thank you page giving your customers an instruction. Here you can tell them that they will receive an order notification once you have received the payment in your bank account.
Next, we need to add the account details. The customer will need the details such as Account name, account number, bank name, and branch code to successfully make the payment from their online banking.
We will leave IBAN and BIC / Swift open because it is only useful for international payments. Click on save changes.
The last step that you should take is to log out of your website, add any of your products to the cart, choose Direct Bank Transfer as the payment method, agree to your terms of service, and then click on place order.
You will then be redirected to a thank you page that will provide the banking details for your customer. You can then double-check to see if all the information is correct. The order will then be placed on “On Hold” until you confirm the payment from your bank account and then change the order status to “Processing”.
2. Setting up Payfast
The first step in using PayFast is to create your account with them. Once the account is created, you will need to verify it with them by uploading documents. Once your account is approved (might take a couple of days), you can then continue with the integration.
Once your account is active, you need to click on the button called “Finish Setup”. Once the page has loaded, you will then have to connect your PayFast account with your store.
We have already set the title and description for you, but you can change it if you want to. Keep in mind that your customers will see the title and description on the checkout page.
We want to leave the Payfast sandbox mode unchecked (we have a far better and more accurate way to test the payments.)
Then you need to scroll down and edit your Merchant ID, Merchant Key, and Passphrase. Below are the links to find this information:
Once you have added your Merchant ID, Merchant Key, and Passphrase and clicked on save, you will be able to make payments through payfast. Let’s see how the payment method was added to the checkout page.
To see the integration, you will need to go to the checkout page. The next step is to test the payment method to see if the payments go through to our PayFast account.
3. Testing PayFast Payment Processor.
The best way to test the payments is to create a demo product on your store. You can just add the product title and the price of the product. You can give the product a name such as “testing” and give it a price of R10.
It is also important to remember to remove the product from the store after the product is uploaded and published.
First, head over to “All products” and then go to the demo product you just created. Click on “Quick Edit” and then under the “Visibility” option you need to select “Hidden”.
This will hide the product on your store page so that only you can see it. We do not want your customers to accidentally purchase this product. Once updated, you can then click on “View” to see the product page.
Once the product page is open, you need to then click on the “Add to cart” button. Once added to the cart, you can then go to the cart page. Make sure that you do not have any other products in the cart and then when finished click on “Proceed to checkout”.
You will be redirected to the checkout page. Once on the page, you will then have to add all of your billing information in the left column. Go to the right column and select the Payfast option, agree to your terms, and then click on the “Place order” button.
You will then be redirected to the PayFast payment engine where you need to add your banking details and make the purchase. Once the purchase is made, you can log in to your Payfast account to see if the payment went through.
If the order displays on your account, then you will know the payments are working and you can start promoting your store. This was a live test where you only paid R10 to see if it was working.
This testing method can be used with all payment gateways and is also recommended.
4. How to Add Other Payment Processors
To add other payment methods, you need to make sure that they are compatible with Woocommerce. Create an account with the payment company and then you can either download their plugin or search for it on the menu sidebar under extensions.
When on the plugin page, you can click on “Add new plugin” and then either upload the plugin or search for it in the WordPress Directory.
