Introducing the Simple Payment Widget
Take payments anywhere on your site.
Since the introduction of the Simple Payment Button, we’ve been looking for more ways to streamline payments on WordPress.com and Jetpack-enabled sites. Today, we’re introducing a new variant of the Simple Payment Button, available to WordPress.com Premium and Business plan subscribers and to Jetpack sites on Premium and Professional plans.
Take payments anywhere on your site with the Simple Payment Widget
Use the Simple Payment Widget to add a quick payment option to the sidebar or footer of your WordPress.com or Jetpack site. (If you have Jetpack site, make sure its running version 6.3.3 or higher.) Then add the widget to your site via the Customizer, by going to Personalize → Customize → Widgets.
Using the Customizer
You’ll be able to select an existing Simple Payment Button or create a new one to add to your sidebar, header, or footer.
Simple Payment Widget on a Site’s Footer
The widget also gives you the ability to manage all of your products or services from the Customizer — set pricing, add images, and write product description right in the widget settings:
Edit a Product on the Customizer
Once you’ve create multiple payment buttons, you can choose between them any time you add the Simple Payment Widget. And any button you create or edit via the Customizer is instantly available to use on the rest of your site, on any post or page.
Add a product created on the Customizer to any page or post.
We hope you enjoy this new feature and make the most of it. Let us know what you think in the comments! And if you run into any issues setting up your new widget, take a look at the support documentation or reach out to support.
- August 14, 2018
- New Features, Widgets, WordPress.com
WordPress.com News 
Nicely done! 💯 You are too good to us! Thank you!
LikeLiked by 13 people
Very interesting, but: Who is paying who and how? Thanks Chris
LikeLiked by 10 people
When you add a Simple Payment button to a site this allows visitors to make payments to you! You’re able to link the button to any PayPal account you might have. In fact, you don’t need an existing PayPal account to start collecting payments on your site. You just need to specify an email address. (Though you will need one eventually to collect payments).
As for who is paying, that’s really up to your visitors and what you’re selling. We’ve seen people use this button for things like donations to selling books or digital goods. Your readers don’t need a PayPal account, but can pay via debit or credit cards.
LikeLiked by 10 people
What if you want to give them the option to choose the support they give you? Instead of a fixed amount.
Or if you use it for an ebook, can it link to a download?
LikeLiked by 10 people
Simple payments are still very simple. We don’t have these abilities but we may iterate on this in the future. To offer suggested amounts, or different product options, one thing you may try is adding multiple buttons on the page. WordPress.com will also send an email for each purchase. This will make it possible to follow up with customers, but it’ll be a manual process to do so.
LikeLiked by 6 people
Correct me if I’m wrong but I thought you could’t add PayPal to a ‘business’ account, needing instead to have to have a ‘premium’ WordPress account.
LikeLiked by 5 people
Simple Payments are available for Premium and Business plan subscribers on WordPress.com and on on Premium and Professional plans for Jetpack sites.
LikeLiked by 8 people
This is very helpful thanks
LikeLiked by 7 people
It’s really a wonderful initiative. I immediately placed a button on my sidebar. A big thank you to the engineers!
LikeLiked by 6 people
Thanks for the information. I just added one at my website.
LikeLiked by 5 people
But I need a Paypal account in order to receive. Last time I tried, I was told that it is not possible to open a Paypal account in Brazil. Can they pay to a sterling account somewhere else?
LikeLiked by 6 people
As far as I know, PayPal is available in Brazil, although with some restrictions.
Though, you can also connect the payment buttons to an email address corresponding to a British PayPal account if you want.
LikeLiked by 5 people
This is cool. Been wanting to set up a way to sell ink pens with my website’s logo and website on them. I was going to just set up a page, but may possibly try this widget since it will show up all over the site. Thanks. This is awesome.
LikeLiked by 6 people
Can this option be embedded within a page describing a ebook for sale?
LikeLiked by 6 people
You can add payment buttons on any pages and posts by selecting them from the editor toolbar.
This help page goes deep into details, and it even has a video tutorial!
LikeLiked by 6 people
So, if I’m understanding this correctly, I could allow readers to choose a craft item, for example, a doll dress, that they would like to purchase from me, and they could pay to my PayPal account, then I would just have to get their info from them to be able to mail them the product?
LikeLiked by 6 people
That’s correct!
One way to gather the customers info could be, for example, to add a contact form beside the payment button, and asking to fill out the form before submitting the payment.
LikeLiked by 8 people
With the simple payment button or widget, can we use any vendor such as Square, or is it only PayPal?
LikeLiked by 5 people
For now, the only supported payment processor is PayPal, but we may iterate on this in the future. If your business needs require a more advanced feature, you can always install the WooCommerce extension by upgrading to a Business plan, where you can also install any plugin from the WordPress Plugin Catalog.
LikeLiked by 4 people
This is completely thrilling and I am so glad I am here to take advantage of this provision! Thank you, WordPress, for all you are doing to advance our experience! This is GREAT!
LikeLiked by 4 people
Thank you very much for the information 🙂
LikeLiked by 5 people
I like the simple payment button. But sidebars don’t get shown in my theme on phones so that’s a pity. I probably have to put payment buttons in manually. I like the concept of “Buy me Coffee” payment though.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Really useful! Thank you for sharing!
LikeLiked by 3 people
This is a wonderful addition to our available options, thanks
LikeLiked by 2 people