Question
Why does an Order show as PayPal Pending? From the widget on your Dashboard, or from Reports -> Orders you see an order with a PayPal Pending Status and you would like to know what this means.
Answer
PayPal Pending orders are not uncommon. They generally happen when a user aborts the order during checkout.
When a user aborts checkout they are given two choices, they can Cancel the order or they can simply Return and abort checkout. If they choose to Cancel, the order Status will be changed to Cancelled, if they choose Return, the order will be marked as Pending.
The best way to mange this is to simply request payment for the order. The billing contact will be emailed a link to the payment page allowing them to checkout again.
Requesting a Payment for PayPal Checkout - Pending & Declined Credit Card Orders