eCommerce Testing: How to Test an E-Commerce Website
Details
What is Ecommerce Testing?
eCommerce testing is defined as testing of an eCommerce (online shopping) application. It helps in the prevention of errors and adds value to the product by ensuring conformity to client requirements.
The objective of testing is to ensure
Software reliability
Software quality
System Assurance
Optimum performance and capacity utilization
Setting up an E-commerce system is a complex process and subject to many market-specific variables. To maintain the integrity of the E Commerce system, testing becomes compulsory
E-Commerce Domain Knowledge is important for testing.
Types of Testing for E-commerce System
A common type of testing included into e commerce system is
Sr.#
Type of Testing
Testing Process
1
Browser compatibility
Lack of support for early browsers
Browser specific extensions
Browser testing should cover the main platforms (Linux, Windows, Mac etc.)
2
Page display
Incorrect display of pages
Runtime error messages
Poor page download time
Dead hyperlink, plugin dependency, font sizing, etc.
3
Session Management
Session Expiration
Session storage
4
Usability
Non-intuitive design
Poor site navigation
Catalog navigation
Lack of help-support
5
Content Analysis
Misleading, offensive and litigious content
Royalty free images and copyright infringement
Personalization functionality
Availability 24/7
6
Availability
Denial of service attacks
Unacceptable levels of unavailability
7
Back-up and Recovery
Failure or fall over recovery
Backup failure
Fault tolerance
8
Transactions
Transaction Integrity
Throughput
Auditing
9
Shopping order processing and purchasing
Shopping cart functionality
Order processing
Payment processing
Order tracking
10
Internationalization
Language support
Language display
Cultural sensitivity
Regional Accounting
11
Operational business procedures
How well e-procedure copes
Observe for bottlenecks
12
System Integration
Data Interface format
Interface frequency and activation
Updates
Interface volume capacity
Integrated performance
13
Performance
Performance bottlenecks
Load handling
Scalability analysis
14
Login and Security
Login capability
Penetration and access control
Insecure information transmission
Web attacks
Computer viruses
Digital signatures
Performance testing- a top priority in E-commerce
Just delay about 250 milliseconds of a page load time, is what keeps your customer going to your competitor. Retail giant Walmart overhaul their site speed and noticed an increase of 2% in visitor's conversion rate and revenue by 1%.
Performance of your site depends on these factors
Throughput
Request per second
Transactions per minute
Executions per click
Response Time
Duration of a task
Seconds per click
Page Load
DNS Lookup
Length of time between click and seeing page
Useful Tools for Mapping E-commerce Site
UsabilityHub: UsabilityHub's user testing platform and research panel help you improve the UX of your apps and websites. Get feedback from real people.
HotJar: It shows the most clicked and unclicked zones of sites by visitors
FiveSecondTest: This tool ensures that your message is communicated as effectively as possible, in just five seconds it tells what a person recalls about your website design
Feng-GUI: It simulates the human vision during the first five seconds and predicts what a real human would most likely look at
Optimizely: It enables you to test track, clicks, conversions or anything else that matters to e-commerce business
Challenges of E-commerce Testing
Compliance with security guidelines to safeguard customer data and identity
Compliance with accessibility standards to support multi-lingual markets and business regions
End to end testing and test management for large e-commerce transformation programs