Running test orders

Preview your store's checkout experience.

By placing a test order, you can review what checkout is like for your customers or donors. You can also confirm if your store setup is working as you expected, including shipping, taxes, custom forms, and notification emails.

The steps in this guide apply to Squarespace Commerce. To make test appointments in Acuity, visit Test your scheduler.

There are two options for test orders:

• Recommended: place a real order and immediately refund yourself - For credit/debit card and PayPal transactions
• Advanced: use test mode to simulate a charge with a fake credit card - This effectively disables your store and prevents you from accepting any real payments. For credit/debit card transactions only.

Note: You'll be charged a non-refundable payment processor fee when placing then refunding a real order. There are no Squarespace Commerce transaction fees in test mode.

Requirements

• You need to have at least one product in your store or a donation block to go through checkout.
• If you sell physical products, you need to have at least one shipping option.
• Your site should already be connected to a payment processor.
• If your site is private, a 404 error message may appear after checkout. To resolve this, enable checkout on your domain and change your site availability to public.

Fees

There’s no extra charge for test orders, but note the following before placing a real order and refunding yourself:

• Testing PayPal - You’ll receive a full refund for the order items and the Squarespace Commerce transaction fee. You’ll receive a partial refund from PayPal. PayPal withholds the fixed transaction fee.
• Testing Stripe - You’ll receive a refund for the order items and the Squarespace Commerce transaction fee. Stripe doesn't refund transaction fees.

Option 1 - Place an order and refund yourself

We recommend this approach for most scenarios. Before you start selling, you should always run a real charge to ensure your store is set up correctly. This option is available for credit card and PayPal transactions.

Note: When testing a PayPal transaction, pay with a separate personal PayPal account. It isn’t possible to pay using the PayPal Business account connected to your store.

Step 1 - Place an order

1. Add any item to your cart, or click a donation block button, and proceed to checkout as a customer or donor would. For more help, visit How customers buy your products.
2. At checkout, enter your contact and shipping information.
3. At the Payment section, select Credit Card or PayPal, depending on your setup.
4. Enter real credit card details or log into a personal PayPal account to pay.
5. Follow the prompts to complete your order.
6. You should receive an order confirmation email for your order or donation.

Step 2 - Cancel and refund the order

After you’re done reviewing the test order, follow these steps to cancel it and refund yourself:

Tip: To refund a donation, visit Managing donations.

1. Open the Selling panel and click Orders. You can also press the ? key while any panel is open and search orders.
2. Find and open your order. If you just placed the order, it should be at the top of the panel labeled as Pending.
3. In the order details, click the ... icon, then click Cancel Order. This issues a refund. For detailed steps, visit Canceling and refunding orders.

Option 2 - Use test mode (Stripe only)

Note: Your store can’t accept real payments while in test mode.

We recommend this approach for advanced situations, such as when you’re running many test orders. This option is only available for orders or donations processed through Stripe. You can use test mode for Apple Pay with real credit card details (you won't be charged in test mode). You can't use test mode for PayPal or Venmo transactions.

Step 1 - Enable test mode

1. Open the Store payments panel.
2. Scroll down and click Test Mode.
3. Switch the toggle on beside Enable test mode.
4. Click Save.

Step 2 - Place an order

1. Add any item to your cart, or click a donation block button, and proceed to checkout as a customer or donor would. For more help, visit How customers buy your products.
2. At checkout, a Test Mode banner appears.

3. Enter your contact and shipping information.
4. In the Payment section, a test credit card number will automatically populate.

Note: If you select PayPal and click Continue with PayPal, you’ll see a message saying that you can’t place PayPal orders while in test mode.

5. Follow the prompts to complete your order.
6. You should receive an order confirmation email for your order or donation.

Step 3 - Review and clear the test order

To clear a test commerce order:

1. Open the Selling panel and click Orders. You can also press the ? key while any panel is open and search orders.
2. Find your order. If you just placed the order, it should be at the top of the panel labeled as Pending and Test Order.
3. To clear it, check it and click Delete Test Order.

If your test order was for a subscription product, test renewals display in the Orders panel as pending test orders. To cancel future test renewals, cancel your subscription.

To clear a test donation:

1. Open the Donations panel.
2. Click Clear test donations.
3. Click Confirm.

Step 4 - Disable test mode

We recommend disabling test mode soon after you’re done testing so customers can check out with real credit cards and you can accept real payments. When your store stays in test mode, customers can still complete checkout, but they’ll skip entering their payment information and use the fake credit card instead. This can be a confusing experience (and might lead to lost revenue).

To disable test mode:

1. Open the Store payments panel.
2. Scroll down and click Test Mode.
3. Switch the toggle off beside Enable test mode.
4. Click Save.

Delete or hide test orders

Test orders display a Test label. To delete or hide test orders:

Gift card test orders

To test the purchase and use of a gift card, enable test mode using the steps in Option 2. Then purchase a gift card and proceed to checkout as a customer would. For more help, visit How customers use gift cards.

After purchasing the gift card, you can use the gift card code to purchase any item from your store. When you're done, disable test mode.

Note: Gift cards purchased in test mode can't be used on a live store.

If customers place orders in test mode

If you don't disable test mode before making your site public, customers may complete the checkout process while in test mode. This places a test order on your site, but won't charge the customer's credit card. If this happens, follow these steps to resolve the issue:

1. Disable test mode.
2. Delete the test order.
3. Replenish the stock levels for the item.
4. Contact the customer. They'll need to re-purchase the product.

General tips

• Test orders deplete stock for the purchased items.
• If your store isn’t live, all orders will be test orders.
• Most third-party integrations, including the PayPal button at checkout, display in english on your live site even if your site is set to a different language. However, in test mode, these integrations may appear in your site's language.
• Test orders are assigned order numbers, which can't be deleted. There's no way to reset your order number to zero after you run test orders.
• If you're on a trial, you can connect to Stripe and run orders in test mode only.
• Analytics doesn’t currently factor in refunds, so placing a real order and refunding yourself counts toward your totals in analytics.
• If you place a test order for a subscription product, ensure you cancel the subscription after refunding the order.
• If you run a test order on a password protected or private site, a lock screen appears instead of an order confirmation page after placing the order.