Run test orders

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Run test orders

Last updated March 13, 2026 01:44

Test the checkout experience for products and services, donations, and memberships.

Before you launch your site, test your checkout experience to ensure shipping, taxes, checkout forms, and automated emails are working as you expected.

Prepare your site for testing

To test checkout, follow these steps to prepare your site:

  1. Connect a payment processor.
  2. Add at least one service, product, pricing plan, or donation block.
  3. If you sell physical products, add a shipping or local pickup option.
  4. If you sell download products, set your site to public. You can’t download a file from a private site.

Choose a test checkout method

Use test mode

Test mode takes your checkout page offline so you can complete checkout using fake credit card details. Real customers can access your checkout page in test mode if your site is public, but they can’t place real orders. You can check out with Squarespace Payments and Stripe in test mode. To test PayPal, place a real order and refund yourself.

  1. Open the Settings panel, scroll down, and switch the Test mode toggle on.
  2. Go to your store page, or the page where you have a digital product or donation block.
  3. Proceed to checkout. For help, visit How customers buy your products.
  4. Confirm that the test mode banner appears.
  5. Complete the checkout fields. Enter a fake payment details:
  6. Card number: 4242 4242 4242 4242
  7. Expiration date: any future date
  8. CVC: any 3 numbers
  9. Follow the prompts to complete checkout.
  10. You’ll get a confirmation email for your order or donation.
  11. Delete the test order.
  12. Disable test mode.

The payments and discounts screen appears with test payment information entered.

Place a real order and refund yourself

Disable test mode to open your store for real orders. When you test this way, you’ll complete the shopping and checkout experience like a real customer or donor, then immediately refund yourself. Keep in mind that payment processing fees for real orders aren’t refundable, and you can't delete real orders or donations from the orders panel.

  1. Open the settings panel, scroll down, and switch the Test mode toggle off.
  2. Go to your store page, or the page where you have a donation block.
  3. Proceed to checkout. For help, visit How customers buy your products.
  4. Confirm that the test mode banner doesn’t appear.
  5. Complete the checkout fields using your real billing information.
  6. Follow the prompts to complete checkout.
  7. You’ll get a confirmation email for your order or donation.
  8. Immediately cancel and refund the order or donation.
  9. If the order was for a recurring payment, cancel the future renewals for the subscription product, membership, or recurring donation.

Turn test mode on and off

To turn test mode on and off, open the payment settings panel, scroll down, and switch the Test mode toggle on or off. When test mode is enabled, a test mode banner appears at checkout that says “Test mode: Test all the features of your store without charging a real credit card.“

Fees for test orders

Orders made in test mode

There are no processing or transaction fees for orders made in test mode.

Orders made outside test mode

Real orders have processing and transaction fees. When you refund an order, we refund the Squarespace transaction fee, but payment processor fees are not refundable.

Delete test orders and donations

You can delete an order or donation you made in test mode. You can't delete a real order or donation from the orders panel.

  1. Open the Finance panel and click Orders.
  2. Find your order or donation. If you just placed the order, it should be at the top of the panel labeled as Test.
  3. To clear it, check it and click Delete test order or Delete test donation.
  4. 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.

How testing checkout affects your store’s data and inventory

Inventory

Test orders deplete stock for the items you buy. You can replenish your stock when you’re done testing.

Sales data

Sales analytics doesn’t currently factor in refunds, so placing a real order and refunding yourself counts toward your totals in analytics.

Order numbers

Test orders are assigned order and donation numbers, which can't be deleted. You can't reset your order or donation number to zero after you run test orders.

Test checkout using a gift card

To test the purchase and use of a gift card, you’ll go through checkout twice. First to buy the gift card, then again to make a purchase using the gift card. Use test mode for both purchases, because you can’t use gift cards you buy in test mode for real purchases:

  1. Enable test mode.
  2. Buy a gift card.
  3. After purchasing the gift card, you can use the gift card code to buy any item from your store in test mode.
  4. When you're done, disable test mode.

Test checkout for recurring payments

When testing checkout for subscription products, memberships, and recurring donations, ensure you cancel future renewals after you cancel and refund the first order. You need to do this even if you placed the order while in test mode.

Test Afterpay, Clearpay, and Klarna

You can't check out with Afterpay, Clearpay, or Klarna in test mode. To test checkout with these services, place a real order and refund yourself. Keep in mind, processing fees are nonrefundable and you must make the refund within 120 days.

Test PayPal

You can't use test mode for PayPal or Venmo transactions. To test PayPal, place a real order and refund yourself.  When you test, pay with a separate personal PayPal account. You can’t pay using the PayPal Business account connected to your store.

Keep in mind:

  • If PayPal appears in test mode and you select it, you’ll see a message saying that you can’t place PayPal orders while in test mode.
  • 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.

Send a test invoice

You can send a test invoice to yourself to preview your client experience. Keep in mind, you can't delete an invoice after you’ve sent it. You can cancel the invoice, but it will always appear in the invoices panel.

  1. Open the invoices panel.
  2. Create an invoice and add yourself as a new client.
  3. Edit the invoice details.
  4. Click Send.

Test orders on a trial site

If you're on a trial, you can connect to Squarespace Payments and Stripe and run orders in test mode only.

Test orders on a private site

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.

What to do if a customer places an order in test mode

If you don't disable test mode before making your site public, customers and donors may complete the checkout process while in test mode. This places a test order or donation on your site, but won't charge the customer's credit card. Because their card isn't charged, customers won’t receive a confirmation email for their donation. 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-do the transaction.

Test your acuity scheduler

To make test appointments in Acuity, visit Test your scheduler.

Customize your checkout experience

To make changes to your checkout experience after testing, visit these guides:

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Run test orders