WooCommerce test order before launch

A store can show products, accept an add to cart and display a total, then refuse the order at the last step. The cause is usually in the payment setup: a gateway whose keys do not match its mode, a payment method switched off for the shopper's country, or a notification that never confirms the payment back to the store. None of these show on the product page. The shopper then sees a spinner or an error after pressing place order, and the orders list stays empty. A test order is the only check that goes through that last step, so it has to be placed with test details.

• Confirm the payment provider is in test mode, and that the keys in the settings match that mode.
• Place the order with the provider's published test card, and write down the order number.
• Open the orders list and check the new order's items, quantity, shipping and tax.
• Look for the order confirmation at the address you typed, and check its spam folder.
• Open the order and confirm the payment shows as paid under the test setup.

A test order runs the whole chain: the cart total, the shipping and tax lines, the payment request, the order record and the confirmation email. A product page check touches only the first of those. The order record also shows whether stock went down by the right amount, which a page can display without actually changing. Each of these is a place a store can look fine on the shop page and still refuse the order.

Read the order afterward as the store saw it, not as the screen showed it. Confirm the address, the shipping method and the tax lines match what the checkout displayed. A total that changes between the cart and the order record is a setup problem rather than a display problem, and it is worth fixing before launch, while the store has no real orders in it.

Test mode uses keys that the payment provider issues for practice, along with its published test card numbers. Live mode uses real keys and real cards, so a real card in live mode is a real charge. Check which mode is active before you press place order, because the order screen looks the same in both. Use the card numbers the provider documents, and keep real card details out of the store's test flow.

A simulated shopper walks the cart and checkout with a delivery address, reads the shipping and tax lines, and records whether the payment box appears. It stops at the payment step and does not pay. A missing payment box is a setup problem you can fix before the test order, and a simulated run shows you that without spending anything. The test order itself is still yours to place.

Payment keys, shipping rules and tax settings change after launch, and an order that passed last month can fail after one edit. After each change, run the same simulated shoppers up to the payment step, then place one test order yourself. Protected previews need the site password in the run, which is part of paid credits. Compare the step each shopper reached, so you can see which change moved it.