How To Test Woocommerce Memberships

How to Test WooCommerce Memberships: A Beginner’s Guide

So, you’ve set up WooCommerce Memberships on your WordPress site. Congratulations! You’re ready to Explore this article on How To Override Woocommerce Template Files In Child Theme offer exclusive content, special discounts, or unique experiences to your loyal customers. But before you launch, you need to make sure everything works flawlessly. This guide will walk you through how to test your WooCommerce Memberships setup like a pro, even if you’re a complete beginner.

Why is testing so important? Imagine a scenario: You launch your membership site offering access to a premium video course. A user signs up, pays, and then… can’t access the course. Frustrating, right? Testing prevents these embarrassing and damaging situations, ensuring a smooth experience for your members and a professional image for your brand.

What Needs Testing?

Before diving in, let’s define what we need to test:

• Membership Purchase and Activation: Can users successfully purchase a membership? Is the membership activated correctly upon payment?
• Content Restriction: Are only members able to access restricted content (pages, posts, products, etc.)? Is non-member access blocked?
• Membership Benefits: Are members receiving the correct discounts, shipping perks, or other promised benefits?
• Membership Renewal: Are renewal notices sent correctly? Does the membership status update appropriately upon renewal payment?
• Membership Cancellation: Can members easily cancel their memberships? Does content access revoke upon cancellation?
• Email Notifications: Are all the relevant email notifications (welcome email, renewal reminders, cancellation confirmation, etc.) being sent and received correctly?

Setting Up Your Testing Environment

The safest way to test your WooCommerce Memberships is in a staging environment. This is a copy of your live site, isolated from the real world, where you can experiment without affecting your live customers. Many hosting providers offer a one-click staging environment feature.

If you don’t have a staging environment, you can still test on your live site, but be very cautious. Consider these options:

• Use a test membership plan: Create a temporary, very cheap (even free) membership plan specifically for testing.
• Restrict access to your site: While testing, use a maintenance mode plugin to prevent real customers from accessing your site while you’re making changes.
• Test during off-peak hours: Choose a time when website traffic is low to minimize disruption.

Testing Methods: A Step-by-Step Guide

Here’s a practical approach to testing your WooCommerce Memberships:

1. Purchasing a Membership

• Create a Test User Account: Create a new user account with a different email address Learn more about Woocommerce Product How To Add Amazon Product than your admin account. This will mimic a real user’s experience.
• Navigate to the Membership Product: Find the product or page that allows users to purchase the membership.
• Add to Cart and Checkout: Go through the entire checkout process using a test payment gateway. WooCommerce provides several options for this, including “Direct Bank Transfer (BACS)” which doesn’t require real payment.
• Verify Membership Activation: After “purchasing” the membership, log into the test user account and verify that the membership is activated. You should see the updated membership status in the “My Account” area.

Example:

Let’s say you’re offering a “Premium Access” membership. After “buying” the membership with the test user, you should see something like “Premium Access – Active” in the user’s “My Account” -> “Memberships” section.

2. Content Restriction

• Identify Restricted Content: Choose a page, post, or product that’s restricted to members only.
• Access as a Non-Member: Log out or use a private browsing window to access the restricted content as a non-member. You should be redirected to a login/membership page or see a “content restricted” message.
• Access as a Member: Log in with the test user account (the one with the active membership) and try to access the restricted content. You should be able to view the content without any restrictions.

Reasoning:

This ensures that only paid members can access the content they are paying for, protecting your exclusive material.

3. Membership Benefits

• Discounts: If your membership includes discounts, add a product to the cart as a member and verify that the discount is applied correctly.
• Shipping Perks: If you offer free or discounted shipping, test the checkout process to ensure the correct shipping rates are displayed for members.
• Special Access: Test any special access privileges (e.g., early access to new products, exclusive events) to make Discover insights on How To Build A Woocommerce Store With Elementor sure members are receiving them.

Example:

If your membership gives 10% off, and you add a product worth $100, the member should see $90 as the price in their cart.

4. Membership Renewal (and Cancellation)

• Set Up Test Renewal: For testing renewals, you’ll likely need to adjust the membership length to be very short (e.g., 1 minute) for testing purposes. You might also need a plugin to manually trigger renewal actions.
• Simulate Renewal Payment: Manually process a renewal payment (if you’re using a test payment gateway or BACS).
• Verify Status Update: Check the membership status to ensure it updates to “Active” after the renewal payment.
• Test Cancellation: Use the test user account to cancel the membership. Verify that the membership status changes to “Cancelled” (or whatever status you’ve configured) and that access to restricted content is revoked.

5. Email Notifications

• Check Your Inbox: After each action (purchase, renewal, cancellation), check the email inbox associated with your test user account and your admin account.
• Verify Email Content: Make sure the email content is accurate and professional. Check for any broken links or formatting issues.

Debugging Email Issues:

If emails aren’t being sent, consider the following:

• Check your spam folder: Emails may be filtered as spam.
• Use an SMTP plugin: Configure WordPress to use an SMTP server for sending emails. This increases reliability. Popular options include WP Mail SMTP and Easy WP SMTP.
• Check your hosting provider’s email sending limits: Some hosting providers limit the number of emails you can send per hour/day.

6. Using WooCommerce Memberships API for Advanced Testing

For developers or those comfortable with code, the WooCommerce Memberships API offers more granular control and automation for testing.

Example:

You can use the API to programmatically create memberships, grant access to content, and simulate membership renewals.

 // Example: Creating a membership for a specific user using the API $user_id = 123; // Replace with the user ID $plan_id = 456; // Replace with the membership plan ID 

wc_memberships_create_membership(

array(

‘user_id’ => $user_id,

‘plan_id’ => $plan_id,

‘status’ => ‘active’,

‘start_date’ => current_time( ‘timestamp’ ),

)

);

echo “Membership created for user ID: ” . $user_id;

Important Considerations:

• Test with different browsers and devices: Ensure your membership site works seamlessly across various browsers and devices.
• Test with different user roles: If you have different membership levels, test each level to ensure the correct benefits are applied.
• Document your testing process: Keep a record of your testing steps and results. This will help you track down any issues and ensure that you haven’t missed anything.

Final Thoughts

Testing WooCommerce Memberships thoroughly is crucial for a successful launch. By following the steps outlined in this guide, you can identify and fix any issues before they affect your customers, ensuring a smooth and positive membership experience. Remember to start with a solid testing environment, methodically test all features, and document your findings. Good luck!