Ecommerce tracking QA checklist
Preview mode shows what a container intends to send. A live order shows what actually left, which is the only thing that matters — and the gap between the two is where most ecommerce tracking failures live. This checklist runs in order of consequence: purchase correctness first, then deduplication, then refunds, then the funnel. Every item has a specific check rather than an instruction to be careful, and every one is runnable by someone who isn't a tracking specialist.
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Ecommerce QA · what breaks
Where teams get this wrong — Ecommerce QA
- 01
QA done in preview mode only
Preview shows intent. A live payload shows what left, and they differ more often than people expect.
- 02
Testing one payment method
Wallets, cards and hosted gateways each return differently. The untested one is where the missing conversions are.
- 03
Never testing a refund
Which is why almost no ecommerce setup reverses them.
Ecommerce QA · the fix
What a correct implementation looks like — Ecommerce QA
Every check run on a real order
Placed, paid and refunded.
Every payment method tested
Card, wallet, and any hosted gateway.
Deduplication verified before sign-off
Not assumed from configuration.
Reconciled against store orders
For a fully closed window.
Ecommerce QA · architecture
The checks, in order of consequence — Ecommerce QA
Run them in this order. Each one rules out a class of failure, and the early ones matter far more than the late ones.
- 1
Purchase fires once, with correct values
Order ID, value, currency, items. Read the live payload, not the preview.
- 2
Refresh and back-button produce nothing extra
The single most common source of duplicated ecommerce conversions.
- 3
Every payment method reaches the event
Wallet payments can be abandoned after payment, so the order exists and the event doesn't.
- 4
Deduplication is confirmed
Where both browser and server paths are live, verify the destination's indicator.
- 5
Refunds reverse
Test with a real refund. Almost never implemented.
- 6
Funnel events fire in sequence
view_item through to purchase, with consistent item identifiers.
Ecommerce QA · diagnose
Common mistakes and how to validate each — Ecommerce QA
Ordered by how often we find them. Each one has a specific check rather than a general instruction to be careful.
- 01
Signed off in preview mode
Re-run on a live order. Preview does not prove delivery.
- 02
Only card payments tested
Test a wallet payment specifically — it's the path that most often loses the event.
- 03
Duplicate purchase from a second integration
Count how many systems could be sending. It's usually more than the team thinks.
- 04
Non-web orders in the reconciliation
POS, draft and phone orders belong in your store total and not in a platform comparison.
- 05
No refund test
Issue one. If nothing reverses, your reported revenue only ever climbs.
Ecommerce QA · prove
How to prove your implementation is right — Ecommerce QA
Against your own records and a live payload, not against a preview screen.
Source of truth
your store's order records, web orders only, matched on order ID
- A live order payload captured and read field by field.
- Confirmation page refreshed with no additional event.
- Every payment method tested with a real transaction.
- A real refund confirmed reversing.
- A closed week reconciled on order ID.
- Checked on a live conversion, not in preview mode.
- Reconciled over a fully closed window, matched per record.
- Re-checked 30 days later.
Ecommerce QA · free audit
What we check in the free audit
- Signed off in preview mode
- Only card payments tested
- Duplicate purchase from a second integration
- Non-web orders in the reconciliation
- No refund test
Checked against
your store's order records, web orders only, matched on order ID
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Ecommerce QA · when not to buy
What this reference deliberately leaves out — Ecommerce QA
Stated openly, because a reference that's silent about its own gaps is the dangerous kind.
- Platform-specific quirks — Shopify's Customer Events sandbox, Magento's full-page cache, WooCommerce's gateway returns — are covered on their own pages.
- This is functional QA. Consent behaviour has its own checklist because it has to be tested under several states.
- Subscription and recurring order testing needs additional checks beyond this list.
- Vendor documentation is the authority, not this page. Where the two disagree, the vendor is right and we'd like to know so we can correct it.
- Parameter names and behaviour change. Anything here is accurate as we last verified it; verify against the current documentation before you rely on it for a build.
Ecommerce QA · what we deliver
The checklist — Ecommerce QA
Place a real order and capture the payload
Read every field rather than checking that it fired.
Refresh the confirmation page
Nothing extra should fire. This catches the most common duplication.
Test every payment method
Especially wallets, which can skip the confirmation page entirely.
Issue a real refund
Confirm a reversal arrives at every destination.
Reconcile a closed week
Store orders against each platform's purchase count, matched on order ID.
Pricing
Pick the package that fits your ad spend
Browser-side starter
$400One-time fee · lifetime ownership
Repairs and verifies your existing browser-side setup against this reference, on a live conversion.
- Implementation checked against the spec
- Verified on a live conversion
- Reconciled against your own records
- Written handover
1st-party server-side
Recommended$800One-time fee · most popular
Money events sent from your own records through a first-party container on your subdomain, built to this specification.
- First-party server container on your own subdomain
- Events from your records, not the browser
- Deduplicated on a shared event ID at every destination
- First-party cookies beyond Safari's 7-day cap
- 95%+ accuracy and 8+ Meta EMQ, guaranteed in writing
Full 1st-party stack
$1,800One-time fee · lifetime ownership
Every paid channel server-side plus the offline loop, documented to this standard.
- Everything in 1st-party server-side
- Pinterest, Snapchat, Reddit and LinkedIn CAPI
- CRM and offline conversion loop
- Refunds and cancellations corrected wherever each platform allows it
- Monitoring so the next break surfaces in days
FAQ
Ecommerce QA questions, answered
It shows what the container intends to send. A live payload shows what actually left, and consent, blockers and page conditions all sit between the two.
A wallet payment. Shop Pay and PayPal can be abandoned after payment completes, so the order exists in your store and no platform ever hears about it.
If you take returns, yes. It's the check almost nobody runs, and it's why reported revenue only ever goes up.
A fully closed week at minimum. Comparing a partial period produces differences that are just timing.
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Run the checks before you trust the numbers
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