Testing your Zest Gift Notes and Multiship setup before going live ensures that orders flow correctly to Shopify, gift messages format properly for fulfillment, and the customer experience works as expected.
Thorough testing helps you catch configuration issues early, prevents customer-facing problems at launch, and gives your fulfillment and operations teams confidence that the integration works correctly with your existing systems.
Unlike corporate gifting, consumer testing uses Shopify's checkout preview This allows you to test the complete checkout flow without affecting your live store or requiring customers to see unfinished configurations.
Before you begin testing, ensure you have:
The Zest Gift Notes app installed in Shopify.
App blocks configured on Checkout, Thank you, and Order status pages, and the Admin block is installed in your Shopify Admin Orders dashboard.
Coordination with your fulfillment team to review the printed gift note, understand how the orders populate in Shopify and your 3PL, and ensure the test order is not shipped.
If you allow your customer to select their shipping method, ensure you understand which methods should be presented to the customer.
Nice to have: Discount codes to minimize test order costs.
Setting Up a Test Environment
The safest way to test Zest without affecting your live checkout is to use the sandbox configuration you created when you installed the app.
As a reminder, these are the steps to creating a test checkout environment:
In Shopify admin, go to Settings > Checkout.
Find your current live checkout configuration.
Click the three-dot menu next to it and select Duplicate.
Rename the duplicate (for example, "Zest Test" or "Zest Checkout Preview").
Click into this preview configuration.
Add the Zest app blocks to checkout, thank you, and order status pages (see the installation article for detailed steps).
Configure all settings in this preview environment first.
This allows you to test functionality without affecting your live store. When ready, you can either publish the preview configuration to make it live or manually add the app blocks to your existing live checkout.
Alternative option: If you have a Shopify development or staging store, you can install the Zest app there for testing without duplicating your production checkout.
Reducing Real Charges During Testing
Test orders require real payment methods to replicate actual transaction behavior. Zest does not support fake or test credit card numbers in production environments.
How to minimize costs during testing
Create a discount code for 95% off the total order
Do not use a 100% discount. You will not be able to check out with a $0 order and it will cause issues with your test.
Use a company credit card for the small remaining amount (typically a few cents or dollars).
Refund the test order in Shopify only after verifying the order flow.
Example discount code setup
In Shopify admin, go to Discounts.
Click Create discount.
Set discount type to Percentage.
Set value to 95%.
Apply to All products and All shipping rates.
Set a code like "ZESTTEST" or "TESTORDER99".
Save the discount.
Use this discount code during checkout to keep test costs minimal.
Preventing Test Orders From Shipping
Coordinate with your fulfillment team to ensure test orders don't accidentally ship to customers.
Best practices for managing test orders
Communicate test order numbers to your fulfillment/warehouse team immediately after placing them.
Request holds on specific order numbers so they're not processed for shipping.
Cancel orders quickly after reviewing the data—in both Shopify and your 3PL/fulfillment system.
Place test orders during business hours when your ops team can intercept them (critical for brands with automated fulfillment that ships within 1 hour).
Use consistent test identifiers like a specific recipient name (e.g., "Test Recipient") or address to make them easy to identify.
For brands with fast fulfillment pipelines, timing is critical. Don't place test orders on evenings or weekends when your team can't intercept them.
Signing Out of Shop Pay Before Testing
Important: Shop Pay does not work with Shopify's preview or draft checkout configurations. If you're logged into Shop Pay, it will loop you back to the logged-in state and interfere with testing.
Note that Shop Pay works perfectly once the checkout configuration is published and live — this limitation only affects preview/draft testing.
How to properly sign out of Shop Pay
Go to shop.app on your device.
Sign into your Shop Pay account.
Fully sign out of Shop Pay.
Close the browser completely.
Important: Simply clicking "continue as guest" at checkout is not sufficient. You must fully sign out at shop.app before testing. This is a Shopify limitation that affects all checkout apps, not just Zest.
Placing Your First Test Order in Preview Mode
Once your test environment is set up, you can preview the checkout experience and place test orders.
Step 1: Access preview mode
In Shopify admin, go to Settings > Checkout.
Find your test/preview checkout configuration.
Click the three-dot menu next to it.
Select Preview.
Step 2: Add products and proceed to checkout
Navigate to your store's front end (the preview should open automatically).
Add an inexpensive physical product to your cart. Subscription products and gift cards are not eligible for multiship orders.
Click Checkout.
Verify that the Zest Gift Note block appears below the Contact section.
Step 3: Complete the gift note information
Note: in your test, do not enter the same text for each field or use the same information for the customer and recipient.
Check the box to add a gift message.
Enter recipient information in the To field.
Enter sender information in the From field.
Enter in a gift message in the Message field
Proceed through checkout.
Step 4: Complete payment
Apply your discount code (e.g., "ZESTTEST").
Enter a real payment method (company credit card).
Complete the order.
Step 5: Verify the order in Shopify
Navigate to Orders in Shopify admin.
Find your test order.
Verify that:
Gift message fields appear correctly.
You see the Zest Gift Notes app block in the Shopify order. Here you are able to edit the gift message and digital card.
Testing Multiship (Multiple Recipients)
If you've enabled the Multiship feature, test the multi-recipient flow separately.
Important Multiship testing limitations
The Multiship button won't route to the multi-address page until the checkout configuration with the Zest app block is published. This is expected behavior, not a bug. To fully test Multiship, you may need to publish your preview configuration temporarily or use a workaround.
How to test Multiship in preview mode:
Sign out of Shop Pay completely at shop.app.
Add physical products to your cart (no subscriptions, digital items, or gift cards).
Proceed to checkout.
Click "Ship to more than one address" (or your customized link text).
Add multiple shipping addresses (test with 2-3 recipients).
If applicable, select a shipping method.
Complete checkout with your discount code.
Verify that:
Order tags include “zest-child” and “zest-parent”
You see the Zest Gift Notes app block in the parent and child orders and understand how to process refunds.
Verifying Orders Flow to Fulfillment and ERP Systems
To validate the complete integration, let at least one test order flow through all stages without canceling early.
What to verify in downstream systems:
Order data reaches your fulfillment system (ShipStation, 3PL, etc.).
Gift message fields format correctly for warehouse printing or packing slip generation.
Order tags and metafields populate correctly in your ERP (QuickBooks, SAP, NetSuite, etc.).
App block is present in the Shopify Admin Orders dashboard.
Shipping methods appear correctly to the customer and on the Shopify order.
Coordinate with your fulfillment, finance, and customer service teams to review the test order data in their respective systems.
Common Testing Issues and Troubleshooting
The Gift Note block isn't appearing in checkout
The most common causes are:
Billing terms haven't been accepted: Navigate to the Zest app in Shopify admin and approve billing.
The checkout configuration hasn't been published: App blocks only appear in the preview configuration you're testing, not the live checkout (yet).
The app block wasn't added: Verify the Gift Note block is present in the checkout customization.
App blocks don't appear on thank you or order status pages in preview
This is expected behavior. App blocks on thank you and order status pages won't display in the Shopify theme editor preview — they only appear when real (or test) orders are placed. This is not an installation error.
Checkout times out or shows cache errors
Preview checkouts time out quickly if left idle for more than a few minutes. If testing takes longer than expected (e.g., 20+ minutes):
Clear your browser cache.
Switch to an incognito/private browser window.
Restart the entire preview process from the beginning.
Timeout and cache errors are common in Shopify's preview environment and do not indicate problems with the live checkout experience.
Out-of-stock products block checkout
Testing with out-of-stock products will prevent the checkout from completing. Ensure test products:
Are in stock.
Are physical products (not digital, subscription, or add-on products that require a shipping address context).
Duplicate recipient orders from double-clicking
In the Multiship address modal during preview mode, clicking "Save" multiple times before the modal closes can create duplicate recipient orders. This appears to be a preview-specific bug—avoid double-clicking during testing.
Shipping methods display incorrectly in preview mode
Preview/test mode may display shipping methods that wouldn't appear in production. Review how these shipping methods are populated and if you use a third-party app. Once you have this information, contact support to present the correct shipping options to the customer.
Test orders create duplicate records in ERP
Test orders may create new customer or business partner records in ERPs like SAP if the test email doesn't match existing records. Use consistent test identifiers and clean up duplicate records after testing.
What to Test Before Going Live
Run test orders representing your most common and most problematic order types. Use this checklist to ensure comprehensive testing:
Order flow and data:
Order data flows correctly to fulfillment and ERP systems.
Gift message fields format correctly for warehouse printing.
Order tags and metafields populate as expected.
Financial and tax:
Discount codes work as expected.
Refund workflow functions correctly.
Customer experience:
Gift Note block appears in the correct position (below Contact section).
Character limits work as configured.
Email/notification flows trigger properly for both gifters and recipients.
Shop Pay works on live checkout (test after publishing).
Multi-recipient orders (if enabled):
Multiship button appears and routes correctly.
Each recipient receives unique gift messages.
Multiple shipping addresses process correctly.
All recipient orders flow to Shopify separately.
Integration testing:
Cancellation workflow functions correctly.
Digital gift message events populate and trigger flows (if configured).
Custom integrations receive expected data.
Involve your fulfillment, finance, and customer service teams in the review to catch issues specific to your internal processes.
Publishing Your Test Configuration to Go Live
Once testing is complete and you're satisfied with the results:
Go to Settings > Checkout in Shopify admin.
Find your configured test checkout (e.g., "Zest Checkout Preview").
Before publishing: Verify that no important changes were made to your current live checkout after you created the preview configuration. If changes were made, either manually add the Zest blocks to the live configuration or verify no important updates will be lost.
Click Publish.
Retitle your live configuration title to match your published checkout naming convention.
The gift note and mulitship functionality will now be live on your store for all customers.
Alternative approach: Instead of publishing the preview configuration, you can manually add the Zest app blocks to your existing live checkout configuration, replicating the setup from your test environment.
Getting Help
If you encounter issues during testing:
Guided testing call: Zest will schedule a testing call where we’ll walk you through placing your first test order and verifying the integration.
Help center guides: Reference the installation and configuration articles for specific setup questions.
Support contact: Reach out to your Zest team contact for troubleshooting or if you discover unexpected behavior.
Thorough testing before launch ensures a smooth customer experience and prevents fulfillment issues that could impact your business operations.