How To Place A WooCommerce Test Order?

If you have an eCommerce store where you sell products and services, placing a WooCommerce test order is crucial to ensure that transactions and payments work as expected. The problem is that your website needs to be up and running before you can test orders correctly.

In this guide, we will show you different methods to place trial orders in WooCommerce. But before we get into how to do that, let’s better understand why you should test your orders and trades.

What is a test order?

A test order is a practice transaction. It consists of placing an order on an online store in the same way that a customer would in order to ensure that your order processing system, email alerts, and any other backend technology is operational.

Why should you place a test WooCommerce order in your store?

When you create an online store or a website to sell products, one of the biggest advantages is the ease of paying through online transactions. These transactions are guaranteed to be safe and convenient for both the seller and the buyer.

But to ensure that the process goes smoothly, shoppers need to place an order in advance to purchase a product. That’s why you also need to make sure that all orders placed on your WooCommerce store are fulfilled without issue. If that fails, you not only risk losing your customers’ trust, but you could also face legal action.

The good news is that you can prevent all of that by placing test orders on your WooCommerce orders using various payment methods and gateways. This way, you will find errors and errors related to ordering before your site is live. You will be able to fix any problems, not have to worry about losing customer trust and avoid many headaches in the future.

Now that we have a better understanding of the importance of putting WooCommerce test order, let’s see how to do it.

How to place a WooCommerce test order?

In this article, I will share with you 3 main ways to place a WooCommerce test order on WordPress:

• Using Plugins
• From the WooCommerce Dashboard (allow checking)
• Real Deals + Cashback

Let’s look at each method.

Method #1. Using Plugins

One of the easiest ways to check WooCommerce orders is to use a plugin. All you need to do is install one of the following tools, depending on the payment gateways you use. We have 3 best WooCommerce test order plugins. 

WooCommerce Stripe Payment Gateway

You may integrate Stripe with WooCommerce using the WordPress plugin WooCommerce Stripe Payment Gateway. This tool can be quite useful for online companies that have consumers from all over the world because Stripe is one of the most well-known payment gateways. It also has tools for WooCommerce test orders in your online shop.

Since this is a WordPress plugin, you must install and activate it first. Go to Plugins > Add New and search for “WooCommerce Stripe Payment Gateway”. Then, click Install Now and activate the plugin.

Step 1. Integrate WooCommerce with Stripe for Test Mode

After you have successfully installed and activated the Plugin, you need to set up the plugin in test mode and get your API keys. To do that, you need to go to your Stripe account and open the Developer keys > API. You’ll see your Stripe account’s Publisher keys and Secrets here. Copy both keys.

Then, go to WooCommerce > Settings and open the Payments tab from your WordPress dashboard. You will see every payment option offered by your website. Click Set Up after turning on the Stripe—Credit Card payment method toggle.

If you already have Stripe set up, all you need to do is hit the Manage button.

You will be forwarded to WooCommerce’s Stripe choices. The publishable and secret keys that you just copied from the Stripe dashboard should be pasted into the Test Publishable Key and Test Secret Key fields, respectively, after checking the Enable Test Mode box.

Finally, click Save Changes

Step 2: Test the WooCommerce Orders with Stripe

It’s time to test your WooCommerce orders now that Stripe has been configured for test mode. Visit the front end of your website and make any product purchase to do that. Go to the checkout page after adding any item to your shopping cart. Include the relevant billing information before adding the Stripe payment card information.

Since this is only a test, you are free to enter any accurate data. For the credit card, for instance, you may put “42424242424242.” You can also input any legitimate date and CVC code.

Once all the information has been entered, click Place Order to proceed.

Go to the Payments tab on your Stripe dashboard now. You ought to see the order that you just put in. If such is the case, it signifies that Stripe-paid orders have no problems, and you can start accepting Stripe as payment for your goods.

From your WordPress dashboard, select WooCommerce > Settings and click the Payments tab to publish your website. After that, manage the Stripe—Credit Card gateway, uncheck “Enable Test Mode,” and enter the required information. Remember to save the modifications after you’re done.

WC Order Test

The WC Order Test is a great option if you want a plugin to test your WooCommerce store’s checkout procedure. It is a straightforward and uncomplicated solution that doesn’t need any setup for payment gateways or API credentials. All you have to do to test the WooCommerce orders is install and activate the plugin and enable the test option.

After that, enter the Payments tab by going to WooCommerce > Settings. You can notice that a new payment gateway option called Order Test—Order Test Gateway is available here. Click Set up after turning it on.

There is only one choice with this test gateway: enable order test gateway. Check the box next to this choice, then click Save changes.

You are now prepared to test out product orders. Go to the front of your store, add any one of your products to the cart, and then finish the checkout process. You may find the Order Test Gateway option at the bottom of the page after entering all the necessary billing information.

Keep in mind that you may only access this option if you are logged in as an administrator. To proceed, select it and click Place Order.

The receipt of your order and all pertinent order information will then be shown. Verify the data to make sure it’s accurate; if it is, your WooCommerce orders should function properly.

You may also verify it by navigating to WooCommerce > Orders. Just be sure to correctly record the order number, so it is easy to discover.

PayPal (PayPal Sandbox)

One of the most widely used payment gateways that are simple to integrate with a WordPress website and use to test WooCommerce orders is PayPal.

Although PayPal is already integrated into WooCommerce by default with PayPal Standard, you’ll need a PayPal Sandbox account from the PayPal Developer website to place test orders.

What is a PayPal Sandbox Account?

A sandbox is a testing environment that is offered free of charge by a system, ideally software. Before implementing different system capabilities live on your website, it enables you to build or test them. This enables you to identify problems and address them so that everything functions properly.

Additionally, PayPal offers a sandbox for you to test on your website, but in order to utilize it, you must first create an account on their developer page. So let’s look at how to create the PayPal Sandbox account before you test WooCommerce orders on your store.

Step 1: Create a PayPal Sandbox Account

Log in with your PayPal account through the official PayPal developer page. You’ll then be sent to the PayPal Developer dashboard.

Click Create account under Sandbox > Accounts to get started.

You will be presented with a popup asking for your country and region, along with whether you want a business (merchant) or personal (buyer) account. If you first choose the business account, choose your country or region, and then press Create, we will need both the merchant’s and the buyer’s emails for testing purposes. Repeat the procedure a second time to make a private sandbox account.

Then select View/edit account from the Options menu under the Manage Accounts section for the freshly created sandbox account.

It will display all of the sandbox account’s account information to you. You can find the email address and password for both the Buyer and Merchant accounts under the Profile tab. You should make a copy of your email ID and password and save it somewhere accessible because you will need it to test WooCommerce orders later on.

Step 2: Enable PayPal Sandbox

Now access the Payments section by going to WooCommerce > Settings. If you haven’t already set up PayPal for your website, enable the PayPal Standard gateway, after which you should select Set up. Press Manage if PayPal is already set up.

You need to enable PayPal Standard first, so select the Enable PayPal Standard option and add the PayPal business email (merchant) to the PayPal email and the Recipient email. In order to save the modifications, select the Enable PayPal Sandbox option. 

Step 3: Test the WooCommerce Orders with PayPal

You may now use PayPal Sandbox to test the order from your website. Either move forward by opening your public online store in a different browser or on a tab incognito.

After that, add any item to your cart and finish the checkout process. Select PayPal as the payment option after entering all the required billing information, and then click Proceed to PayPal to finish the transaction.

You will be taken to the PayPal sandbox website to confirm the order because you are using sandbox mode. Log into PayPal using the personal (buyer) sandbox account email address.

To pay using the sandbox buyer account, choose Pay with a PayPal balance and click Pay Now.

A screen confirming your payment and the placement of your order will appear.

Check the Recent Activity area on your dashboard after logging into the PayPal sandbox with the sandbox merchant account to ensure everything is functioning properly. If the new transaction is visible there, everything is in working order, and you can start using live PayPal transactions for your website.

Go to WooCommerce > Settings > Payments in your WordPress dashboard and click Manage for PayPal Standard to accomplish this. Input the relevant information for your personal PayPal account, uncheck the Enable PayPal Sandbox box, and then save the modifications.

You can test your WooCommerce orders using PayPal in this manner!

Method #2. Test WooCommerce Orders from WooCommerce Dashboard

The simplest way to create test orders without installing any plugins or setting testing modes is to enable cheques from the WooCommerce dashboard.

There won’t be any online transactions in this process because checks are typically utilized in physical transactions as a convenient cash substitute.

Go to WooCommerce > Settings in your WordPress dashboard and select the Payments tab to activate checks. There,  enable the toggle for check payments if your store has previously accepted checks, and click Set up or Manage.

To enable check payments, tick the box and, if necessary, fill in the title, description, and instructions fields. Press Save changes after that.

Go to the front end of your store, add a product to the cart, and then click through to the payment page. To complete your purchase, enter the required billing information, choose Check payment as the payment option, and then click Place order.

You’ll be taken to the order you just placed. Since this process doesn’t include any online transactions, as was already said, if you can verify that your order was successfully received with the necessary details, your website’s orders and transactions will function normally.

Method #3. Test WooCommerce Orders with Real Transactions and Refunds

You can test WooCommerce orders using actual transactions if you don’t want to waste time testing plugins, modes, or extra payment options. This means that once the order is confirmed, you will really make a transaction from your own account and subsequently issue a refund.

It’s important to note that this strategy carries additional risk, thus we don’t advise it. Even if you decide to use this approach, we only advise you to do so if you are the website owner and want your online store to launch right away. Remember that you might not receive your payment returned as a refund until any bugs or issues with your online orders have been resolved. So it is preferable to include a product that is either very inexpensive or free for testing.

If you have a PayPal account, you can typically utilize either a direct bank transfer or PayPal. You can use Stripe if you’ve already set it up.

Step 1: Make a Real Transaction

Open the Payments tab under WooCommerce > Settings to complete a genuine transaction. Press the Set up or Manage button for the chosen payment method after choosing the payment gateway you wish to use, enabling it, and making your selection.

While Stripe is one of the simplest payment gateways to test orders with for this tutorial, the procedure is the same no matter which payment gateway you select.

We select Stripe as our payment gateway and check the Enable Stripe box to make it operational. Then, as described in the Stripe gateway plugin approach, enter the API keys from your Stripe account along with other account information. Make sure to deselect the Enable Test Mode box because we’ll be testing live transactions.

Go to the front end of your store now and add a product to the shopping basket. Once more, we advise you to include a totally free or extremely inexpensive item. Afterward, continue to the checkout page and enter your billing information.

Lastly, choose the payment gateway you want to use. In this instance, Stripe will be used. Place the order after adding all the necessary details.

You can start selling products in your store if you are forwarded to the order page with all the necessary information, which signifies that your website’s orders and transactions operate flawlessly.

Step 2: Test Refunds for the Real Transaction

You just completed a genuine transaction to test WooCommerce orders. You must issue yourself a refund in order to receive your payment back. Make sure to note your Order ID/number to make the procedure simpler.

Go to WooCommerce > Orders and click on the order you just made, making sure the Order ID corresponds to the order you just placed, to receive your refund.

Click the Refund button under the Item section.

To finalize the refund, enter the entire return amount and choose Refund via Stripe.

Your chosen payment gateway will determine the ultimate refund button. Refund via PayPal, for instance, will be an option if you used PayPal.

You can be sure that your WooCommerce store’s live transactions and refunds will both function flawlessly if the payment is reimbursed into your account.

You might need to wait to receive your money back because some payment gateways may take several hours or days to process the refund.

Conclusion

We’ve demonstrated a variety of techniques for testing WooCommerce orders in this tutorial. Decide the one that best satisfies your needs and the payment gateway you use. They are all efficient and effective.

Checks must be enabled on the WooCommerce dashboard in order to test orders. Alternatively, based on the payment gateway you use, for example Stripe, PayPal, or WooCommerce Apple Pay, you can utilize specialized plugins and enable test modes. Finally, you can take advantage of actual transactions and quickly repay the money. We don’t advise using this strategy because it is the riskiest.

We hope that this advice was helpful to you and that you were able to test WooCommerce orders without any problems.