Over the years, the popularity of e-commerce has changed the way people shop. This particular market faces serious competition as more and more e-commerce websites are emerging every day with an aim to deliver consistent performance. If you observe closely, the e-commerce business is established on varied software applications and mobile apps. The global e-commerce market was valued at USD 9.09 trillion in 2019; it is forecasted to advance at a compound annual growth rate of 14.7% during the period between 2020 and 2027. Such an impressive growth rate is backed by crucial features of quality functionality as well as robust test management.
Test automation has taken over as dependable assistance that helps in the creation of robust test cases. You can count it useful as it supports faster time-to-market and spots essential changes within the e-commerce application.
The following write-up will offer a clear picture regarding the practicality and importance of e-commerce testing. Also, different ways to improve the testing of e-commerce apps are listed exhaustively.
Software Issues Cured by E-Commerce Testing
Currently, most of the software testing services available in the market deal with e-commerce applications. To judge the effectiveness of e-commerce testing, it is essential to learn about the issues that can be corrected by its implementation. Below mentioned are the primary problems associated with e-commerce applications which can be cured by active testing practices:
Goods Not Located
Site visitors do explore the items thoroughly before making the final purchase. If your e-commerce application has sluggish search functionality and slow loading speed, this can undoubtedly upset potential customers, impacting the conversion rate.
Shaky UX
We cannot ignore the fact that UX does rank as a critical aspect that impacts potential customers’ choices. As an example, a distorted service toolbar will make the user think that the online e-commerce website is bugged. This influences the credibility of the e-commerce platform. Remember, customers, are picky about layout issues at the checkout pages that require them to enter their card details and other personal information.
Inability to Order Goods
This issue is primarily related to the shopping cart functionality. Consider a case when the customer has found his/her favorite product but cannot apply a discount coupon, or add/remove an item from the cart. This can also turn into a security issue when the transactions are bugged that involve a customers’ banking data.
Deceptive Results
When you access website analytics, you learn about useful insights such as website traffic, sales conversion rate, customer acquisition cost, average order value, and a lot more. However, when the analytics are deceptive, your business will suffer to acquire a factual basis to examine and improve sales, marketing, and other vital business strategies.
Methods to Improve E-Commerce Testing
Deployment of Test Automation
To implement test automation, you will require a perfect blend of resources, strategy, and scripting. In simple words, test automation is an effective way to ensure faster time-to-market. Besides, this software testing methodology helps in reducing the cost of ownership as time passes. For the development of an e-commerce website, several iterations need to be tested separately. With automation testing deployment, you get to save time and working cost, mainly when both the web and mobile versions of the website are tested simultaneously.
UI Functionality
It is necessary to tap crucial customer areas in order to test and update functionalities. Such a methodology covers testing all critical areas of your e-commerce website that allows the user to interact. For instance, the landing pages, shopping cart, categories, order form, search bar, etc., need to be tested for their UX design. Proper testing is a benefit as it helps you understand how it can drag potential customers. Furthermore, you must also focus on the font, font size, typography, color, wish list, etc., which need to be tested to check the site’s responsiveness.
Regression Testing
These days, the crowd comprising e-commerce visitors are full of expectations. The online shopping rate has surged in the past few years since e-commerce services have upgraded security measures, especially with their checkout pages. Regression testing is a trusted method to uncover faults by bringing about several changes. If you consult any well-established security testing service, they will explain how regression testing is useful for e-commerce apps. This test’s implementation doesn’t hamper the functionality, even when the testing environment undergoes continuous altering.
Cross-Platform Testing
Considering all the practical possibilities, it is an expensive affair to create an e-commerce test environment. The presence of multiple platforms is one of the primary blockages of this operation. As a solution, cross-platform testing is a smart way to get rid of this hindrance. With e-commerce websites, cross-platform development comes with cross-browser adaptability, meaning users can securely access the site on multiple platforms and browsers. Therefore, updated automated tools for conducting performance testing should be part of the bigger plan.
Mobile Platform Upgrade
In today’s time, people are more inclined towards internet browsing via smartphones. This has triggered the emergence of a mobile-first approach during the development of an e-commerce application. Testing the responsiveness of the software design covering all valid screen sizes is a must. Moreover, if you provide mobile users with a different version of the desktop application, it is necessary to test that separately.
Performance Check & SEO Friendly Behavior
E-commerce testing also involves checking the performance traits of your website or application. The correct performance testing measures based on vital parameters like loading speed, website traffic load tolerance, data transfer rate, uptime, error messages, etc., should be conducted. Furthermore, for improvised e-commerce testing, you need to assess whether your website is experiencing augmented search engine visibility. This can be achieved by deploying search engine optimization (SEO) techniques to boost website performance. This method involves the testing of SEO facets such as meta descriptions, title tags, image alt tags, URL structure, etc.
For keeping a good check on e-commerce websites, testing activities are very much required. The above-mentioned pointers precisely talk about the prime issues with different e-commerce applications and methods on how to improve them. To learn about various software upgrades and functionality checks, you can consult any of the talented software testing companies. It would be helpful to seek professional assistance as it works to fulfill all your software testing needs at the earliest.
