Hi all,

what is a TEST shop?

I believe it's this:

When an MSC is thinking about using iSS, the iSS admin team sets up a fake shop for them so that they can fiddle with it and learn how to use the platform before they go live with a real shop.

That sounds interesting.

I know that there are shops in which you write a test, posing as someone who is writing an exam test for certification. They want feedback to see if the staff is following protocol. ie. not allowing electronics, etc.

I haven't seen those but MFJohnston's answer makes sense!

Hi everyone,

Yes, when MFJohnston said is true, although there are many other cases where a TEST shop is created - for example, whenever a new type of shop is created (for a new client or an existing one), before getting posted and made available for shoppers, the MSP first creates a test shop, and assigns it to one of their admins - they then test it out to see if the shop form looks and works exactly the way they intended. iSecretShop support team and developers also create TEST shops sometimes, whether to test out a new feature, or to replicate/troubleshoot an issue that someone reports.

These shops are almost always set up in such a way that they are hidden from shoppers, but sometimes they may want to test things like scheduling rules, demographic requirements, etc - so they briefly post the TEST shop publicly in order to be able to test if the requesting process works as planned, etc.