Onboarding sellers overview

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Last updated: Aug 21st, 10:10am

Sellers must complete onboarding to accept PayPal payments on your platform. This API-assisted signup process fills fields with data that the system collected from the seller previously, helping to onboard them more efficiently.

PayPal screens your sellers and conducts local and global risk and compliance checks.

The multiparty payment solution supports 2 types of sellers for this integration:

  • Casual sellers sell part-time and don't have an official, registered business. They can have a personal or business PayPal account and may use a personal account to hide information such as their address and phone number. For example, casual sellers might use PayPal to receive money at a yard sale.
  • Business sellers sell full-time and have an official, registered business. For example, business sellers use their PayPal account to receive money for their online clothing store.

After you identify which type of sellers you want on your platform, choose how you to onboard your sellers. There are 3 ways to onboard:

  • Onboard sellers before payment.
  • Onboard sellers after payment.
  • Build onboarding into the software.

How it works

Sellers receive a link from you to activate their account setup. They need to log into an existing PayPal account if they already have one or create one if they don't.

Onboarding flow with an existing account:

  1. Seller selects the account setup link that you provide.
  2. The link directs them to log in.
  3. The seller is prompted to grant you permission.
  4. Setup is complete. The process directs the seller back to your site.
How it works

If your sellers don't have a PayPal account, they need to sign up for one after they select the account setup link that you provide.

Onboarding flow without an existing account:

  1. The link directs the seller to create an account.
  2. The seller fills in the mandatory fields and grants you permission.
  3. The seller builds their business profile.
  4. Setup is complete. The process directs the seller back to your site.

Onboarding sellers before payment

Onboarding sellers before payment is the recommended and most common way to onboard. It supports both PayPal Checkout and Expanded Checkout. You can connect your sellers with PayPal before they accept PayPal payments from buyers on your platform.

To onboard, your seller selects a signup link on your website. The link redirects them to log in or to sign up for a PayPal account. The seller can then grant you permission to process payments on their behalf. You localize the form fields using the Partner Referrals API to fill the onboarding form with previously collected data about your sellers.

Eligibility

If you use PayPal Checkout, sellers do not need a business account. They can use their personal account to onboard. You decide if sellers need a business account. For example, if you want the sellers on your platform to be registered businesses, you can set this as a requirement.

If you use Expanded Checkout, sellers need to get a PayPal business account by:

  • Creating a new business account if they don't have an existing business account.
  • Upgrading their personal account to a business account during onboarding.

Limitations

You need to wait for your sellers to complete the onboarding flow and confirm their email to start processing payments.

See the Onboarding sellers before payment guide for more information.

Onboarding sellers after payment

Connect your sellers to PayPal after they accept PayPal payments from buyers on your platform. Before your sellers onboard, this only supports PayPal Checkout. Sellers can accept funds immediately before creating a PayPal account and connecting it to your platform. After a seller receives payment, they are notified by email to sign up or log into their PayPal account.

Eligibility

Sellers need a business PayPal account to onboard PayPal Checkout. If the seller does not have a business PayPal account, they need to sign up for one when accepting funds or upgrade their personal account to a business account.

Limitations

This way of onboarding doesn’t support the following features and functionality:

See the Onboarding sellers after payment guide for more information.

Building onboarding into software

Building onboarding into your software is for plugins and extensions. It is a downloadable solution that you host on your server. This option supports both PayPal Checkout and Expanded Checkout.

Eligibility

Sellers need a business account for this way of accepting payments. They can upgrade their existing personal PayPal account to a business account or create a new business account.

Limitations

This way of onboarding doesn’t support:

See the Build onboarding into software guide for more information.

Country Eligibility