Homestead Blog

Here’s product designer Rina with her third and final post on Homestead’s new SimpleStore – Rochelle.

In the last two posts, we covered an overview of the new Homestead SimpleStore product, how to get it set up on your site, and how to fill it with products. Today we’ll finish off with the financials. All you need to do is get a free PayPal account, and then connect that account to your store.

The PayPal account you’ll need is called a “PayPal Business Account with Website Payments Standard.” It’s a mouthful, but we put in a link so you don’t have to search PayPal’s website for it. Just go to your Store Manager in your online website account by logging in and selecting Selling Online, followed by Store Manager, in the left-hand menu. (Multi-site users, remember to ascertain that you’re on the right site!) Under the PayPal section of this page, you’ll see a link that says Get a PayPal Account. Click on that and follow PayPal’s instructions to get your account set up.

This PayPal account is your online payment processor and all you need to run your SimpleStore’s finances. With it, you can accept all major credit cards, bank transfers, and PayPal payments without any online merchant accounts. You customers will check out through PayPal’s secure transaction system, and payments will be received into your PayPal account. You’ll add financial information to your PayPal account during setup so that you can move funds from your PayPal account directly into your bank account. Please note that it may take a few days for your financial information to be confirmed.

When you’re done setting up your PayPal account, return to the same Store Manager page and enter the e-mail address you used to register for your PayPal account into the box. You can also update your e-mail address in SiteBuilder by clicking on the second of the three Edit button in the ‘Basics’ tab. (For SiteBuilder Lite, the Manage Store and PayPal Settings link will return you to the Store Manager page).

And you’re done! Now you have a fully-operational online store that matches the rest of your website. I think you’ll have a lot of fun with SimpleStore. Happy online selling!