As important as it is for stores to have an online presence, setting up an e-commerce system on your website is a complex process.
Several factors influence the performance of your website. On the server side, there will almost definitely be numerous applications running. These programs must function correctly to maintain a consistent amount of traffic to increase sales. You need e-commerce website testing for this.
By the end of 2021, the number of online buyers is estimated to reach over 2.14 billion. Overall, user experiences have improved as a result of this growing popularity. Simultaneously, the testing standards for e-commerce websites have intensified.
You can add significant value to your product and ensure that your website grows over time by regularly implementing several e-commerce testing strategies on your website. In essence, the more attractive the website, the more successful the business.
What is E-commerce Testing and How Does it Work?
E-commerce testing is the practice of putting your e-commerce website and related web apps through various tests. It can aid in the detection of flaws and inefficiencies, allowing you to provide a smooth experience for your customers.
The main goal is to find and resolve issues to ensure quality and dependability.
Some people believe that e-commerce website testing is primarily focused on security features. It isn’t the case. It’s more about ensuring that every component of your platform is stable and reliable.
You’ll be able to uncover and handle all kinds of problems in advance with effective ecommerce website testing in a staging environment, long before your visitors have to deal with them.
It’s critical to test e-commerce websites and mobile apps to ensure that they don’t fall short on vital features, including user experience, mobile responsiveness, customer data security, quick load speed, and secure transactions.
Furthermore, the success of your e-commerce website is reliant on the effective operation of these components and the absence of bugs. You can provide a pleasant experience for your customers this way.
10 Crucial E-commerce Testing Cases
Using many test cases on e-commerce websites enhances performance and ensures that the sites remain up and running.
Daalder provides the resources needed for customers to perform these tests for optimum performance at all times. Here are some crucial e-commerce testing scenarios to be aware of. Remember to test your website when there isn’t much traffic or in a staging environment.
1. Functional Testing for E-commerce
Every e-commerce website is unique and has been created to accomplish a range of tasks. However, to avoid glitches after launch, it’s critical to test the fundamental functionality of these websites individually.
Keep in mind that an e-commerce platform cannot run without these basic services; thus, testing them is essential.
A consumer, for example, would be unable to access your website if the ‘Create Account’ or ‘Login’ features are unavailable.
Other vital services, such as product searching, adding and deleting items from carts, payment gateways, order tracking, and so on, are also necessary for any e-commerce website.
Several essential tasks are not visible to clients but are equally crucial. Inventory management, payment processing, customer relationship management, and other services are necessary for an e-commerce website.
Functional testing ensures that all of these fundamental functionalities are working correctly.
2. Evaluation of E-commerce Performance
Customers nowadays are particularly sensitive to minor bugs, and if they experience any delays on a company’s website, they may abandon their purchase.
This is why several performance indicators, such as database performance, load tolerance, website loading speed, throughput, efficiency, uptime, and data transfer rate, are critical for evaluating your website’s performance.
Performance testing aids organizations in determining how well their websites operate in simulated versions of real-world circumstances.
As a result, you’ll be able to assess your website’s volume capacity, track response times, make it scalable, identify performance bottlenecks, and eliminate downtime.
3. Payment Gateway Reliability
The payment gateway is another critical feature to test, and you should run many tests to ensure it works properly and provides security while doing online transactions. You should test the following checkout and payment processes:
It would help if you verified that the product pricing is correct, that shipping charges, VAT, and discount codes have all been applied, and that the price the consumer would pay is accurate.
You can test this payment procedure by changing the final product list, using different discount coupon codes, and selecting another region to see how shipping prices alter.
By using various payment methods such as net banking, credit/debit cards, PayPal, and so on, you need to ensure that the payment is executed appropriately.
All of these can be tested with dummy accounts and fake debit/credit card information. You should also check to see if the orders have been cancelled and the payment ID has been returned.
Verify that the invoices and emails created as a result of the payment process have been sent.
It would help if you also double-checked that the refund process, email, and refund receipt are all functioning correctly.
4. E-commerce Testing for Compatibility
Because e-commerce is a global business, it must be compatible with various devices, apps, and operating systems. Compatibility testing helps determine if your website is responsive and runs smoothly across multiple platforms and browsers.
E-commerce applications must be compatible with various web browsers, including Google Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Internet Explorer, Safari, and others. To ensure that your clients can use your e-commerce website without difficulty, you should evaluate the application’s browser compatibility.
5. Mobile Responsiveness Testing
Mobile devices are rapidly displacing desktop platforms in terms of internet consumption, and businesses are adopting a mobile-first strategy in their e-commerce applications.
You should test your app’s responsive design on a variety of mobile devices with different screen sizes.
Customers will access your website via a variety of devices and platforms. Test your website’s responsiveness and make sure it loads quickly on all platforms. Check to see if the products are visible across all platforms.
6. Product Searching
One of the most widely utilised features in an e-commerce business is the search function. Even the most comprehensive and user-friendly category design might make it challenging for clients to find what they’re looking for.
This necessitates the testing of search functions to make it easier for customers to locate things quickly and easily.
The following are essential elements to test in the search feature:
- Is it possible to search by product name, brand name, or other criteria?
- Are there multiple sorting options based on price, brand, reviews/ratings, and other factors?
- What is the optimal amount of results per page to show?
- Are there any ways to navigate between pages in multi-page results?
- It’s worth noting that customers can search for products directly from the homepage or any of the inside pages. As a result, you’ll need to adjust your website search accordingly.
7. Testing for Security
Most online shoppers are indeed concerned about the security of an e-commerce website. Nobody wants to be a victim of e-commerce fraud. This is why e-commerce websites must undergo security testing to guarantee the safety of their clients’ credit or debit card information, personal information, and login credentials.
Aside from that, security testing is responsible for assessing visitors’ ability to log in. This implies you’ll need to set up particular access restrictions for administrators and limit access to others.
Security testing can reveal hidden flaws in an e-commerce system and confirm that it is secure against cyber-attacks. Several businesses expose these systems to cyber threats such as SQL injection, DDoS, and other assaults to evaluate the website’s security. They can do this with the help of ethical hacking.
8. Payments
One of the main reasons most clients leave a website or online store without completing a purchase is unsuccessful or failed transactions.
As a result, one of the most critical test cases for running a successful e-commerce website is payment. Here are a few key elements to check on the payments page:
- Evaluate all of the possible payment options.
- Is it possible for consumers to check out as guests to make payments? Should they register first and then check out?
- Is there a prompt for returning clients to sign in on the page?
- Customer credit cards and other financial information are subjected to security testing. It is critical to take all necessary precautions to ensure that user financial information is kept safe.
- What is the defined return page once the payment is made?
- When the order is completed, does the consumer receive an order confirmation through email or text message, along with the order number?
9. Product Information Page
Testing the product page is just as crucial as shelving the goods offered in a brick-and-mortar retail store when it comes to e-commerce website testing. As a result, it’s critical to ensure that these products are displayed correctly on the website.
Because the product page displays a lot of vital information, such as the product description, image, specification, and pricing, all of this information must be true every time a consumer signs in. Here are some essential things to look into:
- Image or photos of the product’s price
- Detailed specifications (size, colour or variation options)
- Options for reviews and checking out
- Information on shipping
- Options for delivery
- Details on what’s in stock and what’s not
10. Shopping Cart
One of the most critical components of an e-commerce website is the shopping cart, which necessitates extensive testing.
Customers can quickly choose and save several goods in their shopping carts before purchasing them all at once. Some of the primary test cases that should be included in a shopping cart’s testing include:
- Option to add goods to the cart and continue shopping if all goods and totals are displayed in the cart
- Taxes that apply depending on where you are
- More goods can be added to the cart, and the count will be accurate.
- Removing items from the shopping cart
- Calculate shipping costs accurately for various shipment alternatives.
- Ability to apply coupons
Tips for E-commerce Website Testing
Website testing can be intimidating for most individuals since there are so many different aspects to consider. However, by following the guidelines below, you can improve the effectiveness of your e-commerce testing strategy:
Perform Performance Evaluations Early
Another important aspect of e-commerce testing is performance testing. This round of testing will assist you in identifying any threats that may cause the e-commerce website to crash as the number of users increases.
Many website developers, on the other hand, put off performance testing until the very last minute. As a result, determining which code component is causing issues might be challenging.
Applying e-commerce performance testing earlier, on the other hand, can help you detect core issues sooner. As a result, the time spent dealing with these issues and the cost of resolving them will be significantly reduced.
These tests should be run in conjunction with functional regression tests to guarantee that the website’s performance is not harmed when the codebase is modified.
Opt for A/B testing
A/B testing is a strategy that involves creating multiple versions of a single web page and randomly assigning 50% of website visitors to one of them—this aids in determining which version of the webpage is the most effective.
You can use this testing method in different circumstances and with a variety of objectives. As a result, you can more precisely test various components of your e-commerce system.
Nonetheless, you must set your goals and be explicit about what you wish to accomplish. Furthermore, you must be consistent in your approach and test both versions at the same time.
Final Thoughts
The importance of e-commerce web testing in addressing your website’s main concerns cannot be overstated. To guarantee that all of the website’s essential components work together smoothly, you must test them all.
E-commerce testing is critical for your platform’s success. Instead of having a customer notice something malfunctioning, it’s advisable to fiddle with your website to guarantee that it continues to work smoothly.
You won’t have much to worry about as long as you stay on top of e-commerce testing!
