In a recent Business Bloomer Club Slack thread, we discussed the possibility of automating WooCommerce checkout testing, particularly in light of how critical the checkout flow is for ecommerce websites.
One member raised a practical and intriguing question: how difficult would it be to include a “checkout uptime monitor” directly in WooCommerce core?
The idea was to build an automation that runs hourly (or on a filterable interval), simulating a real order placement by programmatically clicking buttons and filling out fields.
This concept sparked an insightful discussion around automation, plugin conflicts, and the value of proactive merchant notifications.
Here’s a breakdown of the conversation, the tools mentioned, and why this idea might be one of the most overlooked opportunities for WooCommerce stability and revenue assurance.
The Checkout Is Your Business
It’s no secret that if your WooCommerce checkout is broken, you’re not making any sales. But unless someone tells you, how would you know?
Website monitoring tools generally only track server uptime and page response times, not whether the checkout form is functioning as expected. This leaves store owners vulnerable to missed sales, especially when plugin conflicts or recent updates silently cause issues.
As someone noted in the Slack thread, “The checkout being online is soooo important to all online stores.” That’s an understatement, and yet most WooCommerce websites don’t test their checkout regularly, or at all.
WooCommerce Core and Built-in Automations
The suggestion to include a basic uptime monitoring system in WooCommerce core caught the attention of James Kemp, Product Lead at WooCommerce, who responded, “We’re actually exploring things like this currently, and ways to detect plugin conflicts and notify merchants early. It’s tricky! But I think there are things we can do.”
This is promising. An automation system that runs in the background and checks the checkout process—even without placing an actual order—could offer early warnings. And since WooCommerce already has a cron system, a filterable hook that allows store owners to trigger a simulated checkout test could be feasible.
This doesn’t need to be invasive either. For example, it could use a dummy product in a hidden category, skip payment, and stop before actual order placement.
The idea is to mimic the path a user takes—from cart to checkout—to catch critical issues before a customer experiences them.
External Tools: Ghost Inspector, Usetrace, Checkview
Until something like this makes it into WooCommerce core (if ever), there are several third-party solutions available.
- Ghost Inspector and Usetrace are both visual testing tools that allow you to record workflows (like placing an order) and replay them regularly to detect issues.
- Checkview was also suggested as a potential alternative. This is a SaaS monitoring tool that tests specific functionality like checkout forms and login flows. It’s more ecommerce-aware than standard uptime monitors.
These integrations are generally simple to configure and can notify you via email, Slack, or other channels when something fails.
One idea discussed was including a section in WooCommerce’s “Advanced” settings where store owners could input credentials or API keys to connect to such external services—offering an optional but easy setup.
Testing with WordPress Tools: Cypress, WP Crons
Another developer pointed out that “this is a task for Cypress or similar testing tool.”
Indeed, Cypress and Playwright are capable JavaScript testing frameworks that can simulate user interactions in a browser. Developers already use them for continuous integration and regression testing. However, they’re not beginner-friendly and don’t run natively inside WordPress.
There’s potential here for WooCommerce developers to build an open source plugin that sets up basic Cypress tests specifically for the WooCommerce checkout process.
Alternatively, a simpler PHP-based plugin could use WordPress functions to simulate checkout activity without a browser interface, for example by programmatically calling wc_create_order() in a safe way.
The Risk of Doing Nothing
All too often, a plugin update, a new theme function, or a caching misconfiguration causes the checkout to fail—and store owners don’t realize it until customers complain (if they complain at all). For every broken checkout that goes unnoticed, there are potentially hundreds or thousands of euros lost.
Automated checkout monitoring, even just for the guest user flow, would mitigate this risk significantly. It could also reduce support burden by providing developers and store owners with diagnostic data when issues arise.
What’s Next?
This discussion shows there’s community interest in a robust, automated checkout testing tool. Whether this becomes part of WooCommerce core or remains the domain of third-party integrations, the value is undeniable.
For developers, this opens the door to build a plugin that performs safe, periodic checkout simulations. For store owners, it’s a wake-up call to look beyond just server uptime and think about functional uptime.
If you haven’t already, consider setting up one of the mentioned tools or exploring your own approach to test checkout uptime. At the end of the day, ensuring your checkout is working at all times is just as important as driving traffic to your store.
