Most Concierge sites that take payments do it with Stripe, through one of three plugins: WooCommerce, FluentCart or Fluent Forms. In all three, Stripe has two modes:
- Test mode for trying things out. No real money moves. You pay with special test card numbers.
- Live mode for real customers and real charges.
Test and live are separate connections to your Stripe account. Connecting one doesn’t connect the other, so you’ll usually do both once.
Where To Connect Stripe
You’ll need to be logged into your site as an administrator, and have your Stripe login handy.
WooCommerce
Go to WooCommerce → Settings → Payments, find Stripe, and open it. Under the Settings tab you’ll see the connection to your Stripe account and a box called Enable test mode. Test mode only works once a test Stripe account is connected too (look for the option to configure or connect the test account).
FluentCart
Go to FluentCart → Settings → Payment Settings, then click Manage next to Stripe. There are separate Test and Live tabs. Pick the mode, click Connect with Stripe, and approve the connection on Stripe’s site. Repeat for the other mode. The same page lets you choose which mode the store is running in.
Fluent Forms
Go to Forms → Global Settings → Payment Settings → Stripe. Choose Test or Live mode, click Connect with Stripe, and approve it on Stripe’s site. Then click Save Stripe Settings.
One thing to know: in Fluent Forms, the mode applies to every payment form on your site at once. Switch it to test mode while you try a new form, and all your other payment forms are in test mode too. So keep test sessions short, and switch back to live as soon as you’re done.
Making A Test Purchase
With test mode on, go through your checkout like a customer and pay with Stripe’s test card:
- Card number: 4242 4242 4242 4242
- Expiry: any date in the future (like 12/30)
- CVC: any three digits (like 123)
- ZIP / postal code: any valid-looking value
The order goes through like a real one: the receipt email, the account creation, the course access and so on. It’s the best way to make sure the whole flow works. No money changes hands.
Want to see what a customer sees when their card is declined? Use 4000 0000 0000 0002.
A few tips for useful testing:
- Test while logged out, in a private or incognito window. As an admin, you’ll see things your customers won’t.
- Use a fresh email address each time (a Gmail trick: yourname+test1 [at] gmail.com, yourname+test2 [at] gmail.com… all land in your normal inbox).
- Check the emails the buyer gets, and click every link in them.
Before You Launch
- Switch to live mode. It sounds obvious, but it’s the most common launch-day slip. A store left in test mode happily “sells” to real customers without charging them.
- Make one small live purchase yourself if you can (a low-priced product, or a 100% coupon on a real product), then refund it in Stripe.
- Check your coupons. Make sure any limits (one per customer, new customers only, expiry date) are actually set.
Need a hand setting any of this up, or want me to run through the test purchase with you? Post it in Basecamp.