How to do a test checkout on Shopify: the steps

When the owner places a test order, the browser is usually signed in to the admin, the store already knows the owner's address, and saved payment details can fill the fields. The shipping step may skip the rate a guest would see, and a discount tied to a customer account may apply. The owner reaches the payment step, finishes the order and moves on. A shopper with no account, a new address and a different browser meets another sequence, and the owner never sees it.

• Signed out of the admin, in a private window, with no saved address
• A shipping rate for a guest in a country your shoppers actually live in
• Discount codes tried as a guest first, then as a customer, if your store has accounts
• The total on the payment step, matched to the cart and the shipping line
• Whether the test order is cancelled afterwards, so it does not sit in your records

A test order can be placed in three ways. A test payment method, where your store setup offers one, can complete an order without a real charge. A real order paid with your own card is a real charge that you refund later, and it stays in your records. A simulated walk runs the path up to the payment step as a shopper with no account would, and it does not pay. The first two show that the payment side can finish an order, and the simulated walk shows the total a guest sees at the payment step, so you can compare it with the cart.

If the store is protected by a storefront password, a shopper without the password meets a locked page before any product. Run the walk in a private window that has never signed in to your store, so the test meets the same locked page a shopper does. Check that page on a phone as well, because a shopper who cannot get past it never reaches the cart. A stop there is about the store's own setting, not about the checkout.

Shipping rates depend on the address, so a guest sees the real choice only after entering one. Some stores show a flat rate in the cart and a different rate at the shipping step. A discount code may apply in the cart and then drop away at the payment step, when the order no longer meets a rule such as a minimum amount or a region. Walk each of those as a guest, with two addresses in two different areas, and write down the total at each step. A total that moves between steps is what a guest notices first.

Stores change after launch: a theme update, a new shipping app, a holiday discount rule, a second currency. Each one can add a line to the cart or a step before payment, and a test order placed last month will not show it. Walk the guest path again after each change, using the same products and two addresses, and compare the totals with the last walk.