When certain payment methods are missing, it discourages many online shoppers from buying from your website. So here's how you can get around that with Stripe for WooCommerce .

A survey by Merchant Service Advice found that two-thirds of consumers find it frustrating when e-commerce stores don't have enough payment methods - and that online merchants lose over £1 billion a year as a result.

So, if you want to avoid purchase abandonment and increase your store's revenue, you should choose a payment method like Stripe that increases conversion rates.

In this article you will learn why you should use Stripe for WooCommerce and how to set it up.

What is WooCommerce and why should you use it?

WooCommerce is the world's most popular plugin for setting up an online store in WordPress. Although there are many different WordPress plugins with e-commerce function, WooCommerce has over 200 million downloads.

With WooCommerce you'll enjoy the flexibility WordPress is known for, especially because it lets you do the following:

• Design your store with plugins and product blocks
• Use WordPress SEO
• Use over 80 different payment methods for your store, including PayPal, Amazon Pay and Stripe

Whether you're selling individual products, services, subscriptions or memberships, WooCommerce has you covered.

What is Stripe?

Stripe is a popular online payment processing platform that lets you accept numerous payment methods - from credit cards to BNPL (Buy Now, Pay Later) services.

The platform is easy to use and is most suitable for online payments. However, with additional hardware, it can also be used as a point-of-sale (POS) system for on-site payments.

Why use Stripe for WooCommerce ?

Stripe offers many benefits, including:

• Support for a wide variety of payment methods, including credit cards, debit cards, digital wallets and bank transfers
• It integrates easily with content management systems (CMS) such as WordPress (and WooCommerce)
• It is compatible with both desktop and mobile websites
• Easily process recurring payments, making it perfect for membership and subscription websites
• It is secure and PCI compliant

Note before using Stripe for WooCommerce

Before you choose Stripe for WooCommerce, here's what you should consider:

• Available payment methods. Stripe accepts many payment methods, but some countries have a preferred payment method. 

In the U.S., credit cards in particular may predominate, but a 2021 study by Payvision found that European customers generally prefer digital wallets to credit cards.

These preferences can vary from country to country. According to the study, German customers prefer AmazonPay, for example, while customers in the Netherlands use iDEAL. Asia also uses digital wallets, but prefers Alipay or GrabPay. Stripe supports IDEAL and Alipay, but these may need to be set up first. 

• Transaction Fees. The standard credit card processing fee is 2.9% + $0.30, but can vary by location. If your business has a high volume of sales, you can negotiate and try to get a custom discount. 

• Time before Stripe transfers the money to your bank account. The time also depends on your country. Stripe usually takes 2-7 days and there may be delays on holidays. 

Preparations for setting up Stripe for WooCommerce

The easiest way to set up Stripe for WooCommerce is to use a Stripe plugin. For the setup you need the following: 

• An active WooCommerce store
• A Stripe account. If you don't have one yet, simply sign up for a Stripe account
• An SSL certificate. It ensures the security of your online store and your transactions.
• A Stripe plugin. There are several Stripe plugins available in both the WooCommerce extension library and the WordPress plugin directory , but for this tutorial we will use the WooCommerce Stripe Payment Gateway plugin.

With more than 900,000 active installations, the WooCommerce Stripe Payment Gateway plugin is the most popular Stripe plugin for WooCommerce. It allows your WooCommerce store to accept a variety of payments directly on your website through Stripe's API. 

How to set up Stripe for WooCommerce

1. Get the API keys from Stripe
2. Install the WooCommerce plugin Stripe Payment Gateway
3. Configure the payment settings of WooCommerce
4. Test if Stripe works

After considering the requirements listed in the previous section, you can set up Stripe for WooCommerce by following these steps. Let's take a closer look at how this works. 

1 Get the API keys from Stripe

The first step is to get the Stripe API keys that you will use to integrate Stripe for WordPress plugin. 

Then first log in to your Stripe account.

After that, click Developers on the Stripe Dashboard. It's the purple button at the top right of site.

There you look for the section API keys. There you will find the Publishable Keys and Test Keys. Copy and save both keys for use in step 3.

2 Install the WooCommerce Stripe Payment Gateway plugin

If you don't have it yet, download the WooCommerce Stripe Payment Gateway plugin from the WordPress plugin directory and activate it.

Once it is enabled, go to Settings > WooCommerce Payment Settings.

When you are at site settings, go to the Payments tab. There you will see a long list of payment methods that Stripe supports. Then set the switch to the payment method you want (or need) and click the Finish set up button.

Once you have selected the appropriate payment methods, connect your Stripe account to the plugin.

3. How to configure the payment settings of WooCommerce

To connect to Stripe, click on the settings button of the plugin. You will be redirected to this site:

You can choose to connect your Stripe account or enter your account key. 

Option 1: Connect a Stripe account

Click the blue create or connect an account button to get started.

You will then be redirected to Stripe and will see the site below, where you will be asked to select the account you wish to connect to WooCommerce.

Once you have selected the account, the setup should be quite simple if you have already saved your personal information. If not, enter your details until you have finished setting up the account.

Option 2: Enter live keys

Another way to set up your Stripe account is to manually enter the live account keys. 

Remember the live publication key and the secret key you copied in step 1? Paste these keys into the corresponding fields.

Then add the Webhook end point to your Stripe account settings so you can receive notifications. You can find the Webhook end point in the instruction field where you entered your API key.

Click on the Stripe account settings link to be redirected to your Stripe account. Paste the webhook end point you copied into the End point URL field on Stripe.

Select the events you want to witness and click Add end point.

On the next site copy the Webhook signing secretin the upper right corner.

Navigate back to WooCommerce Stripe Payment Gateway > Settings.

Go to Advanced Settings > Webhook > Add Webhook.

Add the Webhook signing secret to the settings of the WooCommerce Stripe plugin.

Click save changes to activate the new payment gateway in test mode.

4 Test if Stripe is working

Stripe payment gateway plugin works in two modes - test mode and live mode:

In the test mode you can perform transactions without a credit card.

In live mode, you are ready to perform actual transactions.

In trial mode, add a product from your WooCommerce shopping cart and proceed to checkout. 

At the bottom of the checkout page, you will see that you are in test mode. The plugin will give you a fake credit card number to test the functionality.

After you have paid for the product with the fake credit card number, WooCommerce should show you a receipt to confirm that your order has been placed.

More Stripe for WooCommerce plugins you should consider

Besides WooCommerce Stripe Payment Gateway, you can also find other Stripe plugins:

• The WordPress plugin directory
• CodeCanyon
• GitHub

Here are some outstanding Stripe plugins you should consider:

Payment plugins for Stripe WooCommerce

With over 80,000 active installations Payment Plugins for Stripe WooCommerce another popular WooCommerce Stripe plugin. As an official partner of Stripe, it allows you to accept various payment methods, including credit cards, Google Pay, ApplePay, ACH, Afterpay and Klarna.

It also supports WooCommerce features and checkout on the product and cart page to increase conversion rates.

Stripe payments for WooCommerce from Checkout plugins

If you need an easy and secure way to use Stripe on your e-commerce website, you should consider using Stripe Payments For WooCommerce by Checkout Plugins into consideration.

Developed by the Brainstorm family, Stripe Payments for WooCommerce is a secure solution trusted by more than 70,000 WooCommerce websites. It also allows online businesses to accept multiple payment methods. 

Especially unlike other plugins, Stripe for WooCommerce has a One Click checkout and abandoned cart recovery feature.

Accept Stripe payments

The plugin Accept Stripe Payments lives up to its name and allows you to accept payments and donations via Stripe. The plugin is responsive so it adapts to any screen. Additionally, you can place and edit Stripe "Buy Now" buttons anywhere on your website.

Summary - How to set up Stripe for WooCommerce

Stripe is one of the best payment platforms you can use for your WooCommerce store.

The beginner- and developer-friendly Stripe solution for WooCommerce prevents purchase abandonment by offering multiple payment options. It also integrates easily with third-party software. 

However, note that a powerful solution like Stripe deserves an equally powerful hosting. The WooCommerce hosting package from Raidboxes offers your customers a fast and secure shopping experience. 

Check out our offer today.