How do I create a 'test user' for my Shopify shop?

[PaulThomas]

Hello Shopify Community,

I have just joined a CPG small business as the Chief Customer Experience / Product Officer. I am trying to test all the customer workflows, including 1-time non-member purchases, member purchases, and recurring monthly subscriber purchases. Since our site is already live, I am trying to figure out how to test all the purchasing workflows with a 'test user' account that includes fake payment information, as I do not want to be charged each time I run a test purchase. What are some Best Practices on how to test these types of activities once the site is already live?

Several of my coworkers have said that what they have been doing is using the company credit card as the payment information to make 'test purchases' and then they go into our Shopify account dashboard and issue a refund. I see several problems with that approach, 1.) that is not a scalable solution since we will be adding more purchasing worklfows over the next few weeks/months, and 2.) if we issue a refund on the 'test purchase' then that does not fully test the post-purchase steps like customer notifications.

Any advice is greatly appreciated!

Thank you in advance!

Paul