Creating a Test Order

Before you launch your store, or after you've changed your checkout settings, it's a good idea to place a test order from your storefront. This allows you to ensure everything functions as you intend and can provide insight into your customers’ shopping experience.

These instructions assume you have already connected a payment gateway, set up shipping, and set up your taxes. Additionally, you'll need to use an existing product or create a test product. We recommend creating a $1 test product if you plan on testing a real payment gateway.

To create a test order, you will need to visit your storefront and place an order as if you were a shopper. If you're in the control panel, click View Store to go directly to your storefront.

If you've connected your store to multiple channels like WordPress, click View Storefronts to select which storefront to view.

Navigate to your test product and add it to your cart. View your cart and click Add Info next to Shipping. Enter your shipping information, then click Estimate Shipping to populate your shipping options.

Select an option and click Update shipping cost to ensure the appropriate shipping methods and taxes are being calculated correctly. If you received an error, see the Troubleshooting section below.

When you are ready, click Check out to continue the order and test your payment gateway settings.

Troubleshooting Shipping

If you are seeing any of the symptoms below, there may be a problem with how your shipping methods are set up.

• You receive "Unfortunately one or more items in your cart can't be shipped to your location. Please choose a different delivery address." when checking out.
• You do not see a shipping quote that should show up, such as no USPS quotes.
• Clicking "Get quote" when testing a shipping method in the control panel does not do anything.

These symptoms occur when the shopping cart cannot find a working shipping method for the combination of products and shipping address you've entered. Read through the Checkout Errors support article to determine what is causing the error and how to resolve it. If you are experiencing issues with real-time shipping quotes, see our Troubleshooting article for common sources of missing or inaccurate quotes.

You can complete a test order with either the BigCommerce Test Payment Gateway (which will process the order without charging a card) or with one of our payment gateway integrations (which will process a real transaction).

BigCommerce Test Payment Gateway

To create an order through the test payment gateway, navigate to your test product and add it to your cart if you have not done so already. When you reach the checkout page, complete the checkout steps as a guest and use a real address to ensure that shipping and tax are calculated correctly.

When you reach the Payment section, use 4111 1111 1111 1111 for the card number and success for the cardholder name. If you are using Optimized One-Page Checkout, the card type will automatically be detected for you. If you are using a different checkout type, select Visa as the card type.

Complete the payment section by entering any values for the expiration date and CVV. Click Place Order to complete the test order. You will land on a page thanking you for your order, which can now be viewed in the control panel.

Payment Gateway Integration

To test an active payment gateway, navigate to your test product and add it to your cart if you have not done so already. When you reach the checkout page, complete the checkout steps as a guest and use a real address to ensure that shipping and tax are calculated correctly.

When you reach the Payment section, enter your credit card details. Click Place Order to complete the test order. You will land on a page thanking you for your order. If the payment was unsuccessful, checking the System Log in your Store Logs for details on why the transaction failed.

If you did not receive an error, go to Orders › View to cancel and refund the test order.

Go to Orders › View. The order you just placed should be listed with a status of Awaiting Fulfillment (physical products) or Complete (digital products). 

Can I simulate checkout errors using the test payment gateway?

When you use success for the cardholder name in the test payment gateway, it will generate a successful order in the control panel. However, you can enter other values in the cardholder name field to generate different errors at checkout and in your Store Logs. See the list below for supported values and their corresponding errors.

• transaction_declined — the test transaction fails due to declined payment
• three_d_secure_declined — the test transaction fails due to an invalid 3D Secure password
• three_d_secure_failed — 3D Secure validation fails before the transaction is completed
• incorrect_cvc — the test transaction fails due to a missing or incorrect Card Verification Code (CVC)
• invalid_cvc — the test transaction fails due to the CVC having the incorrect number of digits for the card type