Placing a test order

By placing a test order, you can make sure that your checkout process and settings for order processing, inventory, shipping, email notifications, and taxes are all correct.

You aren't charged for a test order. You should place at least one test order during your store setup, or whenever you make changes to your payment settings.

You can place a test order by simulating a transaction through Shopify's Bogus Gateway, or if you're using Shopify Payments, then you can test your configuration by using Shopify Payments test mode.

You can also use a real payment provider, and then immediately cancel and refund the order. You might be subject to fees from the payment processor that you use.

You can test a payment gateway only if you've chosen a paid plan.

Note

Use an email address that ends with @example.com to place test orders. This domain is detected by Shopify's systems, is safe to use for test orders, won't trigger any spam detection, and will keep your inbox from being full. If you need to send test orders to your own email address as part of your testing, then make sure to send fewer than 100 test orders at a time to avoid any delivery issues with your inbox.

Place a test order by simulating a transaction

To simulate a transaction on your online checkout, you can set up Shopify's Bogus Gateway. Bogus Gateway is a payment provider that any store can use to create test orders. When Bogus Gateway is active, every order that you create is a test order. The test purchase amount needs to be greater than the equivalent of 1 USD in any currency.

Tip

If you're using Shopify Payments, then you can create test orders by enabling Shopify Payments test mode. Learn more in Testing Shopify Payments.

To create an order, you need to enter test payment information at checkout. You can simulate different types of transactions, depending on what information you enter.

Steps:

Desktop

1. From your Shopify admin, go to Settings > Payments.

1. If you have a credit card payment provider enabled, then deactivate it before continuing. Click Manage > Deactivate (this button also shows the name of your payment provider, for example Deactivate Shopify Payments), then confirm your deactivation.
2. Do one of the following:
   1. If you have Shopify Payments enabled:
      • In the Shopify payments section, click Manage.
      • At the bottom of the page, click Switch to a third-party provider, and then click Switch to a third-party provider again to confirm.
   2. If you don't have Shopify Payments enabled, then in the Shopify payments section, click See all other providers.
   3. If Shopify Payments isn't available in your country, then in the Payment providers section, click Choose a provider.
3. Select (for testing) Bogus Gateway from the list.
4. Click Activate (for testing) Bogus Gateway.
5. Click Save.
6. Go to your online store and place an order as a customer would. At checkout, enter the following credit card details instead of genuine numbers:

Card details to enter when testing your checkout with the bogus gateway

Field name	Details to enter
Name on card	Enter Bogus Gateway
Credit card number	Enter each of these in turn to simulate different types of transaction: Enter 1 to simulate a successful transaction Enter 2 to simulate a failed transaction Enter 3 to simulate an exception (this generates a message indicating that an error has occurred with the provider)
CVV	Enter any 3-digit number (for example, 111.)
Expiry Date	Enter any date in the future.

1. After you're done testing, click Manage next to (for testing) Bogus Gateway in your Shopify admin.

2. Click Deactivate (for testing) Bogus Gateway to remove this gateway from your checkout.

Place a test order with a real transaction

You can place a test order using a real payment provider, and then immediately cancel and refund the order. You might be subject to fees from the payment processor you use. Some payment processor fees and credit card third-party transaction fees aren't returned to you when you issue a refund.

Caution

Before you test a payment gateway with a real transaction, refer to the terms of service for your payment provider. If you use Shopify Payments, then refer to the Shopify Payments Terms of Service for your region.

If you're using a development store, then you can't test using real transactions. For more information, refer to Testing orders in development stores.

Steps:

1. Make sure that you've set up the payment provider that you want to test.
2. Make a purchase from your store as a customer would, and complete checkout using genuine credit card details.
3. If you're using a third-party payment provider, then log in to your payment provider and make sure that the funds were processed.
4. Cancel and refund the order as soon as possible to refund yourself. Any third-party transaction fees that have been charged aren't refunded.

Testing your shipping settings

You can make sure that your shipping settings are correct by placing a test order. For example, if you offer free shipping for a certain order value, then you can test an order that would qualify for free shipping to make sure that the shipping discount is applied.

Learn more about shipping settings.

Testing email notifications

You can review your email notifications in the following ways:

• By placing a test order. To receive the email notifications, enter your email address at checkout.
• By going to Settings > Notifications. Click the name of the order notification that you want to test, and then click Send test > Send.

You can customize your email templates from your Shopify admin.