First of all, what is WooCommerce? WooCommerce is an e-commerce plugin for WordPress. (It adds a shopping cart to your WordPress website.) If you are already familiar with WordPress’s principles, you will go into using WooCommerce with ease. This popular e-commerce platform is managed and supported by the same company responsible for WordPress. It is a customizable platform that entrepreneurs all over the world use to sell anything you can think of. With flexible theming and an unlimited amount of products to display, you are able to create a store that is as unique as your brand.
However, it won’t matter how attractive your website is if customers experience technical issues. If your product can be found elsewhere (on your competitor’s site that is working properly), you have just lost that sale.
With that in mind, the most important pre-launch task you can do is test your WooCommerce shop. You need to consider the functionality, usability, and security of your website. Come with us as we explain what you can expect out of the testing process.
The Point of End-to-End Testing Your WooCommerce Shop
E-commerce websites require greater maintenance than other types of sites. This is because beyond just page content, you have a product catalog to manage, stock to track, and orders to monitor. Even just operating a functional e-commerce store requires additional settings and plugins. There are payment methods to maintain. Or it could be that certain features are simply broken. With end-to-end testing, you are making sure that your WooCommerce shop is performing as it should through a simulation. It helps you see whether sub-systems are behaving so that you can maintain your workflow and an optimized customer experience. Although automated end-to-end testing exists, running tests manually is more common because you are having to deal with external interfaces.
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Pages You Need to Test
If one page of your site isn’t working, it could ruin the experience for a potential customer. You need to be aware of how your WooCommerce shop is ruining so that you can continue to drive sales.
- Customer login page: Are your customers able to sign up for an account? Are they able to log in to access their shopping cart?
- Homepage: Is it loading quickly enough to where customers won’t bounce? Does all of your desired content show up without any breaks in the code? Can you access the links to customer support and other information about ordering, tracking, and returning?
- Product pages: Are all of the products ones that currently exist, or at least shown to no longer be available? Where applicable, are you able to change sizes and colors? Can you add the products to your shopping cart?
- Checkout process: Can customers checkout as both a guest and a returning buyer? Are they able to make a successful payment?
Place a Test Order through Your Dashboard
WooCommerce Payments offers a start-up guide to help you get through the testing process. Although it is not supported in some countries, the dashboard allows users to manage their payment gateway from start to finish. If you are using a different payment method like Square or PayPal, you might need to consult their documentation and test that experience differently.
- Transactions: First, you must enable Test Mode so that only test transactions are displayed. You will see it is enabled by a notice at the top of the screen. From there, you can look at transactions, deposits, and disputes.
- Card numbers: Each card brand has a test number that you can use when you are testing your WooCommerce shop, such as Visa’s 4242 4242 4242 4242. The same goes with international test numbers, such as the French Visa’s 4000 0025 0000 0003. You simply have to input any CVC value and future expiration date.
- Payment request buttons: Not everyone is going to access your site in the exact same way. For that reason, make sure that you don’t just simulate a test purchase once. On top of checking out the buttons on Chrome, Edge, and the like, consider looking at Apple Pay in Safari
- Refunds: Unfortunately, there are going to be people who return your products. See if you are able to submit a refund amount and an optional reason. Then, confirm whether the refund transaction has been listed.
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If You are the Website Owner, Use a Real Transaction
The biggest drawback of testing your WooCommerce shop through your dashboard is that it is just a simulation. Your checkout isn’t actually happening. While it definitely is helpful for locating serious issues on your site, you will benefit from using an actual transaction. Put your own credit or debit card on the line and try to purchase a lower-priced product. Try issuing yourself a refund. Understand that, if your WooCommerce site does, in fact, have a bug in the transaction process, you may not get your payment back immediately. Once it is fixed, however, you should be good to go, as should all of your customers.
Check Your Orders
Finally, you want to be certain you actually receive new orders in the Orders area of your WooCommerce site, and also receive the email notifications. When you place a successful test order, confirm it shows up in the database. Check your email inbox for any admin and customer notifications you should be expecting (remember to use a real email address with your test order so this is possible).
WooCommerce is the most popular e-commerce plugin, but it’s only as good as you make it. By continuing to test your WooCommerce shop to make sure that everything is functioning properly, you will be able to sell to your heart’s content. For help with your e-commerce web development and maintenance, reach out to us at WEBii. We are familiar with a wide range of established shopping cart software and custom-built solutions, so we can work with you to make your WooCommerce shop appealing and effective.