How to Test a One-Click Upsell Funnel

Before you send real traffic to a funnel, it’s worth placing a few test orders to make sure every offer shows up and every payment goes through. This guide shows you how to test your checkout, upsell and downsell steps from start to finish without charging real customers or showing them unfinished pages.

How Testing an Upsell Funnel Works

A complete test uses three tools together, each with its own job.

• A staging site gives you a private copy of your store, so test orders and half-finished pages stay away from your customers.
• Your payment gateway’s test mode lets you pay with test cards or a test account, so no real money changes hands.
• CartFlows Sandbox Mode lets you preview your funnel pages while you design them. Use it for the look of your pages, and use your gateway’s test mode for payments.

Once these are set up, you can walk through the funnel exactly as a customer would and check each offer and order.

Preview Your Funnel in Sandbox Mode

Sandbox Mode is handy while you’re still building the funnel. It lets you open each step, even before you’ve assigned products, so you can check the design and layout.

Step 1. From the WordPress admin, go to CartFlows → Funnels and open the funnel you want to test.

Step 2. At the top right of the funnel editor, open the mode selector (it shows Live Mode by default) and choose Sandbox Mode.

Step 3. Open each step with its preview link. If a step has no product assigned yet, CartFlows shows a random product from your store so you can see how the page will look.

A notice bar at the bottom of each step shows that the funnel is in Sandbox Mode. Tip: this notice is visible to anyone who opens the funnel, so switch the funnel back to Live Mode before you share it with customers.

Set Up a Safe Place to Test Payments

To test real purchases, use a staging site, a private copy of your store. Most hosting providers offer one-click staging in their hosting dashboard. Here is a video to help you create a staging site: How to Create a Staging Site.

Step 1. On the staging site, go to WooCommerce → Settings → Payments.

Step 2. Click Manage next to your payment gateway. For Stripe, open the Settings tab.

Step 3. Turn on the gateway’s test mode. For Stripe, tick Enable test mode.

Make sure you’re testing with a gateway that supports one-click upsells. You can find the full list in Supported Payment Gateways for One Click Upsells. Each gateway’s own documentation lists the test cards or test accounts you can pay with.

Place a Test Order Through the Funnel

Now walk through the funnel exactly as a customer would.

Step 1. Open the first step of the funnel in a private or incognito browser window, so you see the same pages a new customer sees.

Step 2. Add your details on the checkout page, pay with a test card or test account, and click Place Order.

Step 3. On the upsell page, click the button to accept the offer. You should go straight to the next step without entering your payment details again.

Step 4. Place a second test order, and this time decline the upsell. If your funnel has a downsell, check that it appears and that accepting it works the same way.

Step 5. Check that each test order ends on your thank you page.

Check Your Test Orders

How accepted offers are saved depends on the setting in CartFlows → Settings → Order:

• Create a new child order (Recommended) — each accepted offer is saved as its own order, linked to the main order.
• Add to main order — each accepted offer is added to the main order as an extra item.

Step 1. Go to WooCommerce → Orders and open the main test order.

Step 2. With Create a new child order, you’ll see the upsell order linked under CartFlows Upsell/Downsell Orders. With Add to main order, you’ll see the offer product listed in the main order’s items.

Step 3. Open your payment gateway’s test dashboard to confirm each charge went through.

Go Live

Once everything works as expected, you’re ready to launch.

Step 1. Make sure your live site’s payment gateway is in live mode.

Step 2. Switch the funnel to Live Mode in the funnel editor.

Step 3. Share the funnel with your customers.

Frequently Asked Questions