How to test WooCommerce checkout and payments

WooCommerce is a powerful and flexible e-commerce platform that powers millions of online stores globally. However, a common problem that many online store owners face is ensuring that the checkout and payment processes are smooth, secure, and efficient. Issues in these processes can lead to cart abandonment, frustrated customers, and lost sales.

The solution to this problem lies in thorough testing to identify and fix issues before they impact customers. In this article, you will learn the importance of checkout and payment testing in WooCommerce and how to perform it effectively. Let’s start!

We can help you drive payment testing as a key initiative aligned to your business goals

Benefits of testing WooCommerce checkout and payments

As we stated, testing your WooCommerce store's checkout and payment process is crucial to ensure a seamless, secure, and efficient shopping experience for your customers. Here’s why it matters and what it involves:

Optimizing user experience – A smooth and intuitive checkout process prevents frustration and reduces cart abandonment, leading to higher sales. Testing helps you ensure that customers find the checkout process easy and user-friendly.
Identifying technical issues – Thoroughly testing the checkout process can uncover and fix any technical glitches, such as errors on the checkout page, payment processing problems, security vulnerabilities, and compatibility issues with different browsers or devices.
Ensuring security – Payments involve sensitive customer information like credit card details. Testing helps you verify that you have implemented robust security measures, such as encryption and data protection, to safeguard this information from unauthorized access.
Boosting conversion rates – Testing various elements of the checkout page, such as button placement, form fields, and payment methods, allows you to optimize these elements for better conversion rates.
Ensuring compliance – When handling payment information, adhering to standards and regulations like PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) is mandatory. Testing ensures your WooCommerce checkout complies with these standards, reducing the risk of legal issues.
Enhancing performance and speed – Evaluating the performance of your checkout process includes assessing page load speeds and server response times. Testing helps optimize these factors to ensure a fast and responsive checkout experience.

Essential tests for your WooCommerce checkout and payments

Here are the most important tests to conduct:

Functional Testing

Through functional testing, you should verify that all key functions of your store’s checkout work correctly, such as:

Adding items to the cart.
Accessing the checkout page.
Applying coupons.
Selecting shipping options.
Entering billing and shipping information.

Simulate different scenarios, including successful transactions and potential errors, such as attempting to checkout without agreeing to terms and conditions.

How to perform Functional Testing

Follow these steps to perform functional testing:

Cart management: Test adding products to the cart, verifying quantity updates, accurate prices, and total amounts. Consider adding a modern sliding cart for a seamless experience.
Shipping and taxes: Test the selection and calculation of shipping fees and taxes based on the customer’s location. Configure these settings in WooCommerce.
Purchase or order placement: Customize the default checkout page into a high-converting checkout. Test the order placement process, ensuring successful transactions and correct details on the thank you page.
Guest checkout and user registration/login: Test guest checkout and ensure customers can register or log in during checkout. Configure these settings in WooCommerce.
Billing and shipping address: Test the entry and validation of billing and shipping addresses. Use Google Address autocomplete to predict and display relevant addresses dynamically.
Order review and confirmation: Verify the checkout page accurately summarizes the shopper’s order, including item details, prices, shipping costs, taxes, and applied coupons. Ensure the thank you page displays the correct order and customer details.
Email notifications: Test the delivery of order confirmation emails, ensuring they contain relevant order information and are branded and customized.

Payment Gateway Testing

As of 2023, there are over 26.5 million online stores worldwide. So, besides ensuring your store functionality is working as intended, another key aspect is payment gateway testing.

First, you need to ensure your store integrates with a reliable payment gateway to process transactions securely and efficiently. So, test each payment gateway linked to your store to confirm they work as expected in various scenarios, such as:

Successful transactions.
Payments with expired cards.
Tokenization with one-click upsells.
Transaction cancellations.

If your store offers multiple payment methods (e.g., credit/debit cards, Buy Now Pay Later, Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal), test each method to confirm it functions correctly.

How to test WooCommerce checkout for effortless payment processing

Here are steps to test payment methods:

Credit or debit cards – Enable test payment mode, add items to your cart, and proceed to checkout. Enter test card details and verify successful order placement in the Stripe dashboard or WooCommerce orders.
Cash on delivery payments – Enable the Cash on Delivery option and test by placing an order with this method.
Check payments – Enable Check Payments and place an order using this offline payment option.
Digital wallets – Set up express one-click checkout options like Apple Pay and Google Pay. Test these methods to ensure seamless transactions.
Bank redirects – Enable the bank to redirect payment methods like iDEAL. Test by entering relevant details and confirming payments.
PayPal – Integrate PayPal with WooCommerce, create a sandbox account, and test payments by placing orders and verifying transactions.

User Interface and Experience (UI/UX) Testing

Good UX design involves understanding and leveraging e-commerce psychology to drive conversions. It means strategically organizing and presenting your content to appeal to your target audience's preferences, needs, and behaviors. The more aligned your UX design is with your customers' mindset, the more likely they are to convert.

How to perform UX and UI Testing?

Assess the overall user experience of your checkout process, focusing on clarity, intuitive design, and ease of use. To do this, explore different user flows and personas to identify usability issues or friction points. Additionally, regular feedback from customers should be collected through surveys or usability testing sessions.

User interface and experience testing steps include:

Test on devices – Test the checkout process on various devices, including smartphones, tablets, and desktops. Ensure the checkout page is fully responsive and functions correctly on all screen sizes.
Responsive design – Ensure your site uses a responsive design framework, such as Bootstrap, to adapt to different screen sizes and orientations.
Speed test – Use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights, GTmetrix, or Pingdom to test the load time of your checkout page. Identify areas that need improvement.
Optimize performance – Implement performance optimization techniques such as caching, image optimization, and minimizing HTTP requests. Use a content delivery network (CDN) to improve load times for global users.
Clear messaging – Ensure that any error messages during the checkout process are straightforward, informative, and actionable. Avoid generic messages and provide specific instructions to resolve issues.
Guidance – Provide instructions on how customers can resolve any issues they encounter. Use live chat software to offer support or a comprehensive FAQ section to assist customers during checkout.

Pro tip

With GAT, you can elevate your software quality and user experiences while improving your operating margins. With 90,000 testers and more than 60K devices, you can:

Check your designs early and often: Frequent testing at every stage leads to rapid iterations and deeper UX enhancements.
Remove barriers to user success: Global app testing helps uncover and eliminate obstacles to user success.
Spot look-and-feel issues: Identify and fix visual and functional inconsistencies for a seamless user experience.
Optimize core flow KPIs: Ensure critical user flows work flawlessly for everyone, enhancing overall UX.

Compatibility Testing

Given the frequent updates to WordPress and WooCommerce, it is essential to test the plugin across different versions to ensure compatibility. This proactive approach helps prevent issues that could arise from core platform updates, thereby ensuring a smooth user experience.

Ensure your checkout process works smoothly across various devices (desktops, tablets, smartphones) and web browsers (Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Edge). Also, check the WooCommerce checkout process on multiple operating systems and screen sizes to provide the best user experience.

How to perform Compatibility Testing?

Here are steps to conduct compatibility testing:

Set up a test environment – Clone your live site to a staging environment with the latest versions of WooCommerce, WordPress, and related plugins.
Configure payment gateways – Install and configure each payment gateway plugin with the necessary credentials and settings.
Perform checkout testing – Execute test transactions using each payment method to ensure the entire checkout process works smoothly.
Cross-browser and cross-device testing – Test the checkout process on various browsers and devices to ensure compatibility and responsiveness.
Review and document results – Record any issues encountered and verify that order confirmation emails and notifications are correctly sent for each payment method.

Regression Testing

Regression testing for websites is vital to maintain a top-notch online presence. Unlike traditional software, websites are accessible globally, making their stability and functionality critical for a positive user experience and brand reputation.

How to perform Regression Testing

Let's explore its specific importance with practical examples:

Cross-browser compatibility: Websites must perform consistently across browsers like Chrome, Firefox, and Safari. Changes to website code may work well in one browser but cause issues in another. For instance, a new feature might display correctly in Chrome but disrupt the layout in Safari. Regression testing ensures updates work seamlessly across all browsers, avoiding inconsistencies.
Responsive design: It is essential to ensure that a website's design adapts effectively to various devices, from desktops to smartphones. Changes intended for desktops could negatively impact mobile user interfaces.
Interactive element functionality: Websites often feature interactive elements such as forms, menus, and e-commerce carts. Even minor backend changes could unintentionally affect these elements, like disabling a form's submit button or introducing errors in shopping carts. Regression testing detects and resolves such functional issues.
Performance optimization: The speed and performance of a website significantly impact user experience. New features or scripts might slow down a site, increasing bounce rates. Regression testing assesses these changes to maintain fast and efficient website performance.
SEO and visibility: Updates to website content, structure, or technology can affect search engine rankings. Regression testing ensures these updates align with SEO best practices to sustain or improve online visibility.
Security enhancement: Regular security updates are crucial to protect websites from vulnerabilities. However, these updates can disrupt existing functionalities. Regression testing verifies that security updates bolster website security without compromising current features.
Third-Party Integration: Websites often integrate with third-party services like payment gateways or social media feeds. Updates to either the website or these services can disrupt integrations. Regression testing ensures the smooth functionality of these integrations after an update.

Analyzing and resolving checkout issues

Despite thorough testing, checkout issues can still occur, causing frustration for both customers and store owners. Let's explore common checkout problems and effective solutions to resolve them.

Common checkout issues and errors

1. Cart empty error

Problem: Customers encounter a “Cart empty” error when proceeding to checkout.
Solution: Check for caching problems and conflicts with specific plugins.

2. Payment declined

Problem: Customers face payment declines despite accurate payment information.
Solution: Investigate issues with the payment gateway or check for insufficient funds in the customer's account.

3. Shipping calculation errors

Problem: Incorrect shipping costs deter customers from completing purchases.
Solution: Ensure accurate configuration of shipping settings to prevent miscalculations.

4. Payment gateway integration problems

Problem: Incompatible payment gateway causing checkout issues.
Solution: Choose a payment gateway compatible with WooCommerce.
Problem: API connection errors leading to transaction failures.
Solution: Verify API settings and credentials to resolve connection issues.

5. Conflicts with third-party plugins or themes

Problem: Plugin compatibility issues causing checkout errors.
Solution: Temporarily deactivate each plugin to identify the conflicting one and test the checkout process.
Problem: Theme conflicts due to poorly coded themes.
Solution: Switch to a default WordPress theme to determine if the issue persists.

Best practices for WooCommerce checkout testing

Ensure your WooCommerce store's checkout process runs smoothly with these key practices:

Establish a routine to regularly test the checkout process to quickly identify and resolve issues, maintaining a seamless customer experience.
Test all aspects of the checkout process, including form validation, tax calculation, payment gateway integration, and order processing, to catch potential issues at every stage.
Use automation tools to streamline testing. Automate test cases for order confirmation, shipment tracking emails, and post-purchase emails to ensure consistency and reliability.
Incorporate user feedback through usability testing and surveys to understand real-world experiences and identify areas for improvement.
Test how the system handles peak traffic and measure responsiveness through load testing. Improve performance by compressing images, reducing unnecessary scripts, and using WooCommerce caching techniques.

How Global App Testing can help you with WooCommerce checkout and payments testing

When it comes to ensuring your WooCommerce store’s checkout and payment processes are seamless, secure, and user-friendly, thorough testing is quite important. Here’s why Global App Testing (GAT) stands out and how it can benefit your WooCommerce store:

Real-World testing – Global App Testing performs testing in an old-fashioned way: with real humans, actual identity documents, and real devices. This ensures that your checkouts and transfers work properly in real-world scenarios, giving you complete confidence that your payments are truly happening across complex international stacks.
Comprehensive end-to-end testing – At GAT, we verify the entire customer journey from start to finish, ensuring your integrated systems work seamlessly. We also test transactions with virtual payment methods and verify processes that require bank app approvals.
Identity and legal compliance – GAT satisfies identity and legal test requirements by using real people to test identity verification processes, simulating actual financial transactions, and adhering to ISO 27001 certification standards.
International and device coverage – Expand your testing capabilities by ensuring your payment processes work globally in 190 countries, supporting a wide range of payment methods, and testing on 60,000 devices to ensure compatibility.
Enhanced checkout performance – Improve your checkout completion rates with GAT's functional testing to ensure all parts of the checkout process work correctly, localization testing to adapt the process to different languages and regions, and UX review to enhance the user experience and reduce cart abandonment.
Competitor insights – Stay ahead of your competitors by tracking local Know Your Customer regulations, maintaining up-to-date competitor feature descriptions, and gaining insights through video and media reviews.
Scalable QA resources – Ensure your compliance testing meets deadlines by scaling your QA resources on demand with GAT's 24/7 launch capability, quick 48-hour testing results, and access to a vast pool of 90,000 experienced testers.

Using a professional testing service like Global App Testing can save you time and provide peace of mind, knowing that your WooCommerce checkout and payment processes are thoroughly tested and optimized. If you are interested in finding out more about our services, let’s schedule a call today!