PayPal eCommerce Tookit Review

If you’re trying to easily set up ecommerce functionality on your website but you don’t want a hefty monthly merchant account fee, PayPal is a great option.  It allows you to seamlessly integrate credit card and PayPal payments into your current website, without having to worry about sensitive customer information and the complexities of a merchant account.  The PayPal eCommerce Toolkit is a free extension that makes PayPal integration and customization fast and easy.

The first step in using the PayPal eCommerce Toolkit is to download the extension and install it through the Dreamweaver extension manager.  You will also obviously need a PayPal account, which is free.

Once the extension is installed, simply access the wizard through the WebAssist toolbar menu.  The wizard will take you step-by-step through the process of setting up your PayPal payment options and is similar to setting up the buttons directly in PayPal, but allows you to do it within the Dreamweaver application.

PayPal eCommerce Toolkit provides samples, how-to’s and suggested starting points for setting up your PayPal payments on your website. The wizard allows you to include additional shipping charges for specific items.  This allows you to capture higher profits versus a flat-rate shipping rate.

The PayPal eCommerce Toolkit also allows you to integrate shopping cart functionality, by using an “Add to Cart” button instead of the standard “Buy Now” style button.  If your online store has multiple items, this allows users to purchase as many items as they want.  Customers can instantly see what their shopping cart holds by including a “View Cart” button.

The ability to set up recurring payments and donations is included in the PayPal eCommerce Toolkit.  If your customers buy one item at a time, you can simply use the “Buy Now” button which will take your visitors directly to PayPal’s secure site for checkout.

PayPal eCommerce Toolkit is available for Windows and Mac and works on Dreamweaver MX 2004, Dreamweaver 8 and Dreamweaver CS3.   Again, it is a free extension from WebAssist and it allows you to easily (and freely!) implement PayPal payments into your website within Dreamweaver.