In order for our marketplace to accept payment, we will configure PayPal as our payment methods. This is for our testing purpose. We can always add other payment method if we want but I like to keep it simple as our focus is to do the customization of the theme. We will use PayPal sandbox environment so can ‘freely’ do transactions on our website.

Lets get started. If you do not have a PayPal account, I suggest you sign up with them. It is an easy process. Login to your PayPal developer account at https://developer.paypal.com/

Once login, you will get a developer dashboard as below. Click “Apps & Credentials“.

Click “Create App“.

Select settings as shown and click “Create App” button.

Once created, we need to edit it. Click “Edit“.

Click “View details“.

When we created an Apps, PayPal will created an account associated with the Apps. This account is the admin account which will receive the payment from the website. Click “Change email“.

Change the email to “admin@exertio.wpressdev.com“. Then click “Save Changes“.

You will see a message that the email is updated successfully.

Next, we will update the username for this account. Click the pencil icon next to “John Doe“.

Use the setting as below and click “Save Changes“.

Once updated, the display shows the updated username for the admin account.

Now let also change the apps name. Go back to “App & Credentials” page. Select the correct platform apps. Click “Edit“.

Let edit the App name. Click the pencil icon next to “Default Application” text.

Change the App name to “Exertio Theme Customization” or any name you like. Click “Save“.

Once completed, the App name change successfully.

Next, lets create 1 accounts for Employer (user01) and 2 accounts Freelancer (user02, user03). Click “Sandbox Accounts“.

Then click “Create Account“.

Use below settings and click “Create Account“.

Once created, it will be added the account list.

Next we need to edit the account to change its email address and username. Click “View/Edit account“.

Click “Change email“.

Lets create account Employer. Enter “user01@exertio.wpressdev.com” and click “Save Changes“.

Once updated, it will show the new email address. Next, we will edit the username.

Click on the pencil icon next to the default username “John Doe“.

Use below settings and click “Save Changes“.

Once updated, the name shows a new value.

So far we have setup the “admin” (Admin) and “user01” (Employer) account. Lets create account for “user02”  (Freelancer #1) and “user03” (Freelancer #2). Repeat the same process for “user02” and “user03“.

Once completed, we should have the following accounts setup.

Congratulations! We have setup the PayPal sandbox accounts to be used on our website. Next will configure the payment system on our website. We will be using PayPal as a payment method. WooCommerce is a plugin which will allow us to use PayPal as our payment gateway.

Lets setup the WooCommerce plugin. Click “WooCommerce -> Settings“.

Select “Shipping” tab and click “Add Zone“.

Enter “All Zone” and click “Add Shipping Method” button.

Select “Free shipping” and click “Continue“.

Enter “Free shipping” and click “Create and save“.

Free shipping method now added for “All Zone“.

Select “Payment” tab. As you notice, PayPal payment method is not available. This is because we have not install the PayPal for WooCommerce plugin.

We need to download and install “PayPal Payments for WooCommerce“. It is a free plugin we can download from here. Visit the website and click “Add to cart” button.

To checkout, click the icon cart as shown.

Then click “Proceed to Checkout“. No worries. This plugin is free.

Enter your details and click “Place free order” button.

In my case, it has detected that I already have an account. So I click “login” link. You can skip this part if you don’t have an account.

Click “Continue” button.

Then click the “Place free order” button.

Once order is completed, you can download the plugin. Click “Download” link as shown.

Save this download to your “plugins” directory.

Once the plugin is installed, you will have a new PayPal options under the WooCommerce payment methods. Click to enable the option and then “Finish set up“.

Click “Test payments with PayPal sandbox” button.

Enter the email as “admin@exertio.wpressdev.com” and click “Next“. This is the PayPal sandbox account created when we configure the PayPal sandbox environment in our previous step.

Enter the “admin@exertio.wpressdev.com” password. If you forget the password, you can get it from the PayPal developer account as we did in the previous steps.

Once completed, click the “Return to test facilitator’s Test Store” button.

Scroll to the bottom and click “Save Changes“.

You will see the message “Your settings have been saved“. Congratulations! We have successfully added the PayPal payment method using their sandbox environment. We can test the transaction as many times as we like because we are in the sandbox environment. No body is going to get charge for the transactions. We can check that the money is flowing from one account to another as we perform the transactions. That is neat!

Next we will add packages for Employer and Freelancer. This is the similar package that we have added earlier when user register as Employer or Freelancer. That package will be assigned to the user based on their chosen role during registration process.

Lets setup packages for Freelancer. These packages contains credits for Freelancer to submit project proposal, sell services and many more. Freelancer can purchase these packages if they need to. For example, the default sign up package which is free allows Freelancer to sell 5 services on the website. If they need to sell more, they have to purchase one of these packages to add more credits.You can download the packages in Excel format for your reference. We have created this “Freelancer Sign Up Package” on our previous tutorials. The process is setting up new package is similar excepts the pricing and settings.

We will use the following settings for “Freelancer Package 01“.

Click “Products -> Add New“.

Enter the information as per above table. Once done, click “Publish“.

Repeat the same process for “Freelancer Package 02“, “Freelancer Package 03” and “Freelancer Package 04“. Use the following settings for each package.

Next we will do the same for Employer packages. We have done this for the “Employer Sign Up Package” on our previous tutorials. Follow the same steps as creating Freelancer packages. Make sure you select “Employer Package” on the “Product Categories” option. Use the following settings for each packages.

Next we will create one Service Package. This Service Package is used internally by the website when Employer purchases service offer by Freelancer. Use the following settings for this package.

Once completed, you should have the following packages on your product listing.