In December 2014, Amazon came under fire as a glitch in software saw hundreds of articles on the website being sold for just 1 pound. From mattresses, to headphone, to clothing, to games….everything was available for 1 pound. While for the consumers it was Christmas shopping galore, the third party retailers nursed heavy losses that potentially spelt bankruptcy for some of them. While Amazon worked to cancel the orders that had not been dispatched, this glitch still cost the retailers heavily, some stating that they lost over 20,000 pounds overnight, especially since a number of these were small, family owned or independent businesses. Additionally, the cancellations also negatively impacted the seller ratings.
This almost catastrophic incident shows how important it is that each and every component of an e-commerce website operates without a glitch. While some glitches cannot be avoided, e-commerce stores have to make sure that their systems are tested thoroughly so that the performance and security issues don’t lead to bad publicity.
Testing for e-commerce websites has to be built into the project right from the start and simply cannot be treated as an afterthought. But what should you test in an e-commerce website? In this blog, we try to cover everything you need to know about testing your e-commerce Site.
E-commerce websites generally have a common structure that consists of the home page, the search result page, the product details page, log-in form and accounts page, order form page, order configuration page, etc. While e-commerce websites will have many more pages, these mentioned pages typically chart the Customer Journey. These front-end pages need to communicate seamlessly with the back-end pages such as content service, booking engine, accounts services, payment services, etc. to ensure that an online shopping experience takes place smoothly and avoids shopping cart abandonments.
Shopping carts can be considered the centerpiece of an e-commerce website and need to be intelligent to remember what has been stored. Cookies can be used to store this data or, in the case of an active account, the logged-in session can be stored against the user’s database. To test a shopping cart, add one and then multiple items to the cart and then remove the same from it. The price reflected during these iterations should be of the right amount. Finally, add items to the cart and close the browser. On opening the browser, the cart should still hold the items. Testers also need to check if the price of the items in the cart is reflected correctly when a valid/invalid discount coupon is added.
Testing the Search Results Page (SRP) is an arduous task and must test sorting, filtering and pagination. Testers need to check that the relevant products are displayed, the correct product information and price is displayed, the correct number of products are displayed, pagination is correct and that each article is different in the next page, sorting options are presented, sort order and pagination are aligned, multiple parameters for filtering are offered, and finally sorting, filtering and pagination work correctly when used together.
Test the Account and Login feature of an e-commerce website to test if an item purchased gets added and connected to the correct account. Log-in redirects, log-in and log out sessions should also be tested thoroughly to ensure security.
Payment testing is critical to the success of an e-commerce website and should test the different payment modes e.g. Credit cards, net banking, EMI options, mobile wallet/pay options. Payment testing should also check how card details are being stored securely and are PCI compliant.
Testing the post-purchase functionality is also an important component of e-commerce website testing. You need to review if changes to the order, adding products or cancelling the order, review of the recent purchase history, changes to shipping address or account deletion are happening smoothly.
An e-commerce website testing plan should include performance testing to ensure that the website loads properly and quickly, cookies are audited, there are no broken links and that the website it accessible. Test plans should also check browser compatibility to ensure that the website loads properly across web browsers such as Safari, Chrome, Mozilla, Internet Explorer 7,8, 9, 10 and 11.
Since 7 out of 10 customers prefer to access websites over mobile devices and one-third of all e-commerce purchases are made via a smartphone (Kissmetrics), testing for mobile device compatibility becomes a crucial part of an e-commerce website test plan.
Further, testing the security of an e-commerce website is crucial for success. Conventional penetration testing is not enough in the fast evolving world of e-commerce because of the rising security threats. Specialized penetration testing that addresses potential e-commerce vulnerabilities during order management, rewards management, payment gateway integration and content management system integration are essential to assess a breach impact and also ensure that the client database information and payment information is secure and that incoming and outgoing data are managed properly.
Testing tools such as Concept Feedback, ClickHeat, Silverback, User Testing.com, Feng- GUI, Unbounce, Five Second Test, Optimizely and Spur are great for Usability testing. For performance testing tools such as Monitor.us, Google PageSpeed Insights, Browseera, BrowserStack, Perfecto Mobile, Cross Browser Testing, Xenu’s Link Sleuth, W3C mobileOK Checker, SEOmoz, Link Research Tools work well.
Testing your e-commerce website to make it function smoothly is only going to get the cash registers ringing faster. Are you planning to test your e-commerce website? What are the parameters you would be evaluating? Share with us.