If you would like to sell merchandise such as CDs, T-shirts, musical instruments, or anything else that you will be shipping from your location directly to customers then you can set up an item in your ezFolk store. In order to do this you will need your own PayPal account since all of the transactions go through PayPal. There is no charge from ezFolk for this service. The only charges you will incur are your PayPal charges.

The first step in creating a store item is to go into your PayPal account. In your PayPal account you need to create the item so PayPal will know the details of the sale. This could vary with different users but here are the steps I used to create a store item:

1. In your PayPal account, click on “Merchant Services” then “Website Payments Standard.”
2. Under “Key Features” click “Buy Now Buttons.”
3. The Buy Now button form should open. You will need to enter the Item Name, Item ID, and Price. The Item ID is the most important thing because this is what you will enter at ezFolk to communicate with PayPal.
4. After you enter all of the information to create a button go ahead and click to create the button, but you won’t need the HTML for the button -- you just need the Item ID.

Return to your ezFolk control panel and click on “Create Item” under the “Store” menu on the left side of the control panel.

Item Name: Enter the item name. This doesn’t have to be the exact name you set up in PayPal but be sure it’s close enough that your customer knows it’s the same item when it shows up on his invoice.

Item Description: Give as complete a description as possible since the customer would like to know what they’re getting. If you’re selling a CD be sure to include the names of all of the songs as well as any other information. Do not include pictures in this section.

Item E-mail:  Be sure to enter your PayPal E-mail address so the payment goes to the correct account.

Item Number:  This is where you enter the Item ID that you created at PayPal. It’s very important that you use the exact same name here as on PayPal.

Item Price:  Enter the price, and be sure it’s the same price you entered at PayPal.

Handling Cost: If you charge extra for shipping and/or handling, enter that amount here.

Item Currency:  The default is US Dollars, but if your currency is different change it with the drop-down menu.

Upload Item Image:  Upload a photo of the item here. If it’s a CD, a picture of the front cover will be sufficient.

Select Gallery Image: If you already have a picture of this item uploaded in your ezFolk photo gallery, you can choose your item image by clicking on “Launch Image Browser.”

Hide Item?  Check this box if you would like to temporarily make the item unavailable.

Be sure to click “Create Item” at the bottom of the page to save your item and make it available on your site.