Higher stakes than an ordinary site.
WHAT CHANGES CONSTANTLY
Orders Customers Stock levels Coupons and their usage Subscription and membership records
All in the database, and none of it recreatable.
FREQUENCY
Database daily at minimum. For a shop taking many orders, more often.
Files weekly is usually sufficient, since product images change less often than orders arrive.
THE INDEPENDENT RECORD
Your payment gateway holds a record of every transaction. That is effectively a second copy of your most critical data, outside your hosting entirely.
Use it to reconcile after any restore.
BEFORE RESTORING
Export recent orders. You will need to re-enter or reconcile them.
Note current stock levels, since a restore rolls them back.
WHAT TO CHECK AFTER A RESTORE
Orders present and correct Stock levels against physical reality Payment gateway settings intact Checkout completes with a real test transaction Order emails send
TESTING
A restore test for a shop should include placing an order, not just loading the homepage.
