How do I place a test order?
Check the whole path from checkout to order and email, either in Stripe test mode or with a cheap real order you refund.
Step by step
- Open Settings, then Payments, and check the status next to your processor. Test mode means no real money moves. Live means it does.
- Open your store and add your cheapest product to the cart.
- In test mode with Stripe, pay with the card 4242 4242 4242 4242, any future expiry date and any three-digit code. In live mode, pay with a real card, like any shopper.
- Check that the order appears in Orders and that the confirmation email arrived in the inbox you used.
- If you paid with a real card, open the order and use Refund this order. The money goes back to the card.
A test order proves that the checkout charges, the order appears, and the buyer gets an email. It is worth doing once before you tell customers you are open.
How to get Stripe into test mode
Connecting with Connect with Stripe uses your Stripe account as it is, so a live account is live. To test without real money, open Advanced: use my own API keys under Stripe, paste a secret key that starts with sk_test_, and press Connection test. A test key works in test mode only. For real payments you later paste a key that starts with sk_live_.
An order paid in Stripe test mode is kept, but it never counts as a sale.
Note Turn test mode off before you go live. While it is on, no real money is collected, and the screen shows Test mode is on. PayPal and crypto also don’t show to shoppers on a live store while their test mode is on.
Tip During your free trial, paid orders you place yourself can use up some of the trial’s small allowance of real orders. One test order is plenty.
Questions
The checkout says “Leave your details” instead of taking payment. Is that a bug?
No, it is preview mode. See Why does my checkout say “Leave your details”?.
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