Before customers see your order form, buy something from it yourself. A test purchase shows you exactly what your customers will go through, from the form to the thank-you page to every email that follows. There are five steps: switch to a dummy gateway, publish on a temporary address, fill out the form, check what happens next, and go live.
A dummy gateway acts like a real payment gateway, but it doesn't charge anything. If you don't have one yet, go to Sales, then Settings, then Gateways, and click New gateway. Name it something like "Dummy Gateway," choose Dummy Gateway from the dropdown, and save.
Now open your order page. Hover over the order form block, click the gear icon, and choose Payment Settings. In the gateway section, your default gateway is there automatically. Each order form takes one credit card gateway, so remove your live gateway, then click Add and choose your dummy gateway.
While you test, publish the page on an Ontraport domain instead of your own. Click Publish, select Temporary domain, enter your subdomain, and pick one of the Ontraport domains. Add a file name if you want one, then click Save & Publish. Then open the page at that address.
Fill out the form as a customer would. Use an email address you can check, so you'll see every email that goes out. For a successful payment, use 4111 1111 1111 1111 with any CVV and a future expiration date. Then submit the form.
Run it again with 4111 1111 1111 1103 to test a failed payment. If your automation sends declines down their own path, with the Contact submits a form trigger set for failed transactions or the Credit card is charged or declined trigger, check that path too.
First, did you land on the right thank-you page? If not, click the form's Submit button, then Form Settings, fix the destination, and publish again.
Next, open the automation that runs on this purchase, like one that starts with a Purchases product trigger for this product. Click Performance, and set the date range to include today, or choose All Time Data. Then click the Contacts were here number on the trigger to make sure your test contact is in it. To follow your test contact step by step, see the Testing automations lesson.
Then check your inbox. If you send an invoice receipt, it should be there. So should your delivery email for a digital product, or your confirmation email for a physical one. If an email is missing, look in your spam folder, and check your record's contact log to see whether it was sent.
Fix anything you found and test again. When it all works, open Payment Settings, remove the dummy gateway, and add your live gateway back. Then click Publish, choose My domain, pick your domain, and click Save & Publish. To take down the test address, click Publish, then Un-Host Landing Page, then Remove Current Page Hosting.
If your funnel has upsells, they have to use the same gateway and the same domain as your order form, so test them together.
So: switch to a dummy gateway, publish on a temporary domain, buy with the test cards, check the thank-you page, automation and emails, then put your live gateway back and publish on your own domain. Next up: upsells, so you can offer your customers more right after they buy.