How to accept card payments on your WordPress site the easy way

Your site is up and running. Great. You’ve overcome the hurdles of getting started and have your e-commerce store poised to take off.  You’re now looking to accept card payments on your WordPress website. But there’s one more hurdle.

Credit card payment options don’t come built-in with WordPress. Thankfully, there’s an abundance of plugins that can add this functionality to your site. This guide walks you through setting up your site so you can take card payments.

For security reasons, your website needs to have HTTPS/SSL enabled. An SSL certificate is necessary in order for the safe handling of credit card payments without compromising sensitive customer information. 

WP Simple Pay: An easy way to accept card payments for WordPress sites

WP Simple Pay is an easy-to-use payment plugin which offers integration with Stripe. While there’s a nominal fee charge on every Stripe transaction, signing up is free, and so is using the WP Simple Pay plugin’s core features.

The standard features include support for over 45 countries and 135 currencies, payment form templates, address collection, and fraud protection. Should you prefer more customization options, there’s a host of additional features available on the Pro version. 

Step 1: Install the WP Simple Pay plugin 

The easy way to do this is to head over to your WordPress dashboard, hover over ‘Plugins’ then select ‘Add New’. In the search box, look up the plugin, click ‘Install’ then ‘Activate’.

Step 2: Setting up to accept card payments

Once activated, the WP Simple Pay plugin will launch a setup wizard. This will take care of everything needed including connecting your Stripe account or creating one if you haven’t already signed up. If you have an existing account with Stripe once you enter your email address, all you’ll need to do is sign in with your password.

Step 3: Creating a payment button and form

Once users are ready to make a purchase, the payment button will lead them to the form where they can key in their details and initiate the transaction. To create the button, hover on ‘WP Simple Pay’ in the dashboard and select the ‘Add New’ option. Select ‘Payment Button’ template then ‘Create Payment Button’. 

Step 4: Choosing a payment mode

This step entails determining how much users will be charged when they use the payment button. You can set up a one-time amount by entering a value into this field. If you offer a subscription, you can also set up a recurring payment by creating a ‘Recurring Payment’ form, configuring it with details such as how much to charge and how frequently, and then adding it to the page(s) you’d like. 

By default, WP Simple Pay uses the dollar as its standard currency. You can change this and accept card payments in another currency using the ‘Currency’ tab under ‘General’ in the plugin’s settings.

Step 5: Configuring the payment button to accept card payments

The preset button text is ‘Pay Now’ but you can customise this from the ‘Button Text’ section under settings.

Additionally, you can choose whether to keep your payment button matching your WordPress theme, or tweak it to your liking and use the ‘Preview’ option before publishing.

To publish, use the ‘Form Shortcode’ field. Click on ‘Copy’ then paste the shortcode into any area of your site where you’d like the button to be accessible. Just to be sure that everything is working well, it’s a good idea to run a test.

WP Simple Pay is configured such that the button is in test mode upon creation. Navigating to the part of your site where you added it, the text ‘Test Mode’ should be visible underneath. To see test payments in Stripe, sign in to your account, head over to your dashboard and select ‘Developers’. You should see the ‘Test Data’ banner.

Go back to WordPress, then to the page with the button and click on it. Follow the prompts to make a test payment. Head back to your Stripe dashboard. The test payment should be visible there. 

Once you’re satisfied that the button is functioning as intended, go to the plugin settings in WordPress, select ‘Payment Forms’, hover over the button and click on ‘Edit’. Under the ‘Payment’ tab, check the ‘Live Mode’ option under ‘Payment Mode’ and click on ‘Update’ to ensure the changes get saved. 

Conclusion

As with just about any feature you could want for your site, WordPress offers an array of plugins that expand your site’s capabilities. WP Simple Pay is an easy way to accept card payments particularly if you’re already familiar with Stripe. Beyond its many handy features available for free, its paid options add even more functionality such as offering free trials and instalment options for your customers.