Testing the Online Checkout & Order Handling Processes (Impact Transactional)
If you ever want to test the Checkout process on your transactional Impact eCommerce site, e.g., if you want to become familiar with order handling, or if a customer alleges that the checkouts aren't working, here are instructions regarding how to test checkouts on your site.
Testing Preparation
You will need to use a real credit card during your testing.
You should promptly refund and cancel the test transaction(s) as per Stage 3 after your testing.
Stage 1 - Create Test Order(s)
- Go to your public Impact eCommerce site (not your Admin mode)
- Put at least one item into your Cart (we suggest using a low-dollar amount product)
- Go to your Cart
- Enter "TESTING" or something similar into the Note box
- Tap the [Checkout] button
- You can ignore the "Log In or Continue as a Guest" section (i.e., you do not need to log in or create an account)
- Enter your Contact Information (acting as a customer)
- Select one of the Shipping Methods
- Either: (a) enter your Shipping Address; or (b) your Pick-up Location and Billing Address (i.e., whatever is requested after selecting the Shipping Method)
- Tap the [Continue to Payment] button
- Scroll down to the Payment Information section and enter your credit card details
- Tap the [Place Order] button
- Loop back and repeat this Stage 1 if you wish to do another test (Note: You should do "Stage 3" refund(s) on the same day to avoid fees)
Stage 2 - Review Test Order(s)
- Log in to your Elastic Path (EP) account
- Click Orders in the left margin
- Click Orders in the sub-menu
- Find a test order and click on the customer name to review its details
- Review the two order confirmation email messages: (1) sent to the customer email address you entered; and (2) sent to the merchant email address configured in your Impact site
Stage 3 - Void & Cancel Test Order(s)
If the test Authorize.net payment transactions are canceled/refunded/voided on the same day, while they are still unsettled payment transactions, then there is usually no merchant fee charged.
If the test payment transactions are canceled/refunded/credited later (not on the same day), i.e., once the test transactions have been settled, then there could be a merchant fee charged for each cancel/refund/credit action of a settled transaction.
- Log in to your Authorize.net account
- Under "Transaction Search", tap "Unsettled Transactions" (Authorize.net has multiple menu layouts; the "Unsettled Transactions" report might be in a sub-menu)
- Find a test transaction and click its "Trans ID" to see its details
- Click the [Void] action and confirm it when prompted (or the [Refund] action if the transaction has been settled)
- Make sure that you don't void any real customer transactions, only the test transaction(s).
- If you have multiple test transactions to cancel, go back to find, open, and void them now.
- Once you have voided all of your test transactions within Authorize.net, you are not yet done; please continue with the remaining steps of this Stage 3
- Log in to your Elastic Path (EP) account (if not already logged in)
- Click Orders in the left margin
- Click Orders in the sub-menu
- Find a test order and click on the customer name to view its details
- Click the [Mark as Refunded] button within the order details
- Click the "..." menu in the top-right corner and select the "Cancel Order" option from the drop-down list
- If you have multiple test transactions that you canceled within Authorize.net, then loop back in "EP / Orders" to find, open, mark as refunded, and cancel too
If the test transactions are not voided on the same day, then they might not be listed within the Authorize.net "Unsettled Transactions" section, and you might need to do a normal report by date range to find them. Older transactions might not be able to be voided; you might need to credit or refund them within Authorize.net, which usually incurs an Authorize.net merchant fee.