eCommerce Testing - How to Test an E-Commerce Website and Application

What is Ecommerce Testing?

The testing an e-commerce application or your online shopping platform is defined as ecommerce testing. It helps with avoiding different errors that may occur during the software development process, and thus add value to the product by making sure it conforms to the clients' requirement. In order to develop an e-commerce, the first thing to think about is the design of the website it should be user-friendly. In an e-commerce website, everything is about the user and if the website is a bit complicated to use, then the user will refrain from using it. Your conversion rate will be low. Read more=> E-Commerce Testing Services The website should be thoroughly tested as well, in order to ensure that all the features provided in the website are working properly and no unwanted bugs or defects will occur during use. This should be done so that the user will have a smooth and enjoyable experience with the e-commerce website. Ecommerce testing requires the knowledge of web-based and mobile app testing. Testing is performed continuously on different platforms, different browsers, and in different combinations. This is done to make sure that the e-commerce website is working properly on all devices and is compatible with every browser.

Why Do We Test E-Commerce Websites?

An e-commerce website is usually used for selling. It is used for conversion rate, so it needs to be secure and user-friendly. These e-commerce websites and applications are very crucial for business nowadays. Technology has evolved very much and everything is available at your fingertips. These e-commerce websites are today's shopping stores and everything depends on them. These applications and websites are in huge demand because they provide faster and better delivery. The e-commerce websites and applications are growing at a very fast rate as it is the need of the future. It requires a lot of investment of money and resources. To ensure that the investment doesn't go to waste it also requires extensive testing. Sometimes when an e-commerce website crashes it can cause a lot of damage to the users and to the organization as well, therefore, it should be tested continuously.

How E-commerce Website Testing Helps

As we discussed above ecommerce is vital for businesses. Many things should be taken care of in order to maintain a good e-commerce website. Some of the important factors in which testing of e-commerce websites are really helpful are:

Ensuring the readiness of transactions

Testing an e-commerce website will help you make sure that every single webpage on your website is tested well enough and is validated to complete all the e-commerce transactions. It will also confirm whether it is ready for the customer use or not.

Validation of different factors

Testing of an e-commerce website is also helpful in checking the website in terms of its compatibility, functionality, usability, performance, and security. These are some of the most important factors for any website.

Enhancing the usability

One of the criteria of a successful online buying website is about enhancing the usability of the website along with reducing the risk factors associated with it. Testing process for an e-commerce website deals with both of these aspects. Reducing the challenges in delivering a good buying experience. The most important factor in an e-commerce website is giving the customer a smooth experience. Testing an e-commerce website provides a better user experience without incorporating major time challenges for the customers.

Reducing the risk of changes

The changes in an e-commerce website is necessary to make the experience faster and smoother for the user. Regression testing is employed to make sure that the incorporation of new changes doesn't affect the website and ensures no unintentional bugs occur.

Evaluating the functionality and compatibility against load

In order to serve customers' requirements and needs perfectly, every organization needs to ensure that the function provided in their websites are working properly at different amounts of load conditions and whether the website is able to support different browsers and platforms or not. Testing is a must for an e-commerce website to ensure the compatibility and good working conditions of the website during heavy loads as well.

Important Segments Of E-commerce Testing Web and Mobile Application

Every testing process contains small processes and segments within them. The completion of all of these segments altogether will make the testing process complete. QA Specialists performing testing in an e-commerce system should plan well and lay down an integrated plan which should cover every aspect of e-commerce. Some of these aspects are mentioned below:

Homepage

source Homepage is the first page to appear when a user opens the website. On an e-commerce website, the homepage consists of a very rich and useful source of information, it will also link the user to different pages contained on the website for further use. It is very crucial to test the interoperability and functionality of the homepage of the e-commerce website. You should also verify all the details and visual elements on the page.

Category Pages

source It is also one of the major areas in terms of testing. The range and breadth of the products should be tested by checking that the products are grouped under a similar category or not. QA Specialist should also check how quickly the user is able find the correct product category on the website for them. Split testing can also be used to test the category pages for an e-commerce website.

Product Detail Pages

source The page containing the details of a product namely the product detail page is the heart of the e-commerce system. This is a very important factor in the way of success. Hence it is really important to make sure that the product details pages are tested thoroughly, and how the functionality of these pages work. The appearance of these pages should also be tested, this involves checking elements;

• the product code and title,
• product images, product description,
• enlarging the image,
• displaying related products,
• adding a product to a shopping cart,
• full body view of the product

and many more.

Shopping Cart

source Separate resources and efforts should be dedicated towards the functionality of the shopping cart. They should also test that the quantities, shopping cart items and display option are shown according to whether the transactions taking place on the website or not. The buying process should be the same throughout the store, therefore, it should be tested with the same regards. The functionality of removing and changing items in a shopping cart should also be tested and the effect of this activity in the final transactions should also work properly.

Checkout and Payment Gateway

source This factor is very important for both the businesses and the customers because it involves money. QA Specialists need to make sure that the completion of the payment should be smooth and secure. The checkout and payment gateway should also be tested with different payment options such as PayPal, cash, online banking, etc. Testing and making sure that the process of refunding and sending an email to a buyer is working properly should also be considered in the testing process of an e-commerce website.

Cookies

Cookies are used by the website to store information and data so that the memory of the web browser can be recalled for preferences whenever a user returns or revisits the same page. This feature exists to make the experience smooth and user-friendly. QA Specialists need to test whether the cookies used by the site are provided to the user as per the content stored. QA Specialists should also test the security settings, domain, and expiry date to make sure that the data is transferred between the browser and the server properly.

User Accounts and Registration

source E-commerce and many other websites have the feature of creating an account on the website for personal use. Therefore, testing is obviously required in this aspect as user registration is the first step taken by the user before using the site. QA Specialists should test the registration process. This will verify that every user has a unique password and ID which is encrypted and stored in the system. It also includes various features such as validating the user's account and some related information, such as the shipping address, transaction history, and the stored information; this is to make sure that the customers should never have any trouble while using the website.

Related and Recommended Products

source This is a marketing factor for businesses. This feature shows the product which is related to the product of interest to the customer. This feature is mainly incorporated to attract customers to shop more and more by showing them the products they may also be interested with. Clearly, this is a good business factor in a website. Various parts of this segment are also tested so that customers can buy more products. The main thing to test here is whether the algorithm showing these related products is working properly or not, which means that suggested products are relevant.

Search

source This is also a crucial segment which should be tested thoroughly because most of the customers come to the website and search for a specific product that they have in mind. Hence the website should provide the result that the customer is expecting. This feature is also an important factor in determining the success of the e-commerce website because customers often have only a few features of a certain product in mind. Search algorithm of that website can help them find the best product. Read more=> How to Test Search Forms: Blueprint There are various aspects within the search for which tests are performed. How are the results displayed after the search whether the results shown are relevant and related. For the search which has multi-page results, the navigation option should be available and it should be working properly. Many other tests concerning the results after the search and the accuracy of the search algorithm of the e-commerce website should be also carried out.

After-Order Tests

Whenever a customer places an order there are many things that will happen afterward, such as it showing the shipping status of the product, there is an option to cancel the order in case the customer doesn't want it or if they want to change their order - there is a feature for that too. Sometimes the customer wants to return their product in case of a defect or a complaint so there should be a feature relating to the returns as well. The things to be tested here are that these features are working properly and, most importantly, whether these features are easy to use or not because this can affect the customer.

Browser Compatibility

Different users use different browsers, therefore it is necessary for the website to work on every platform and browser. Browser compatibility is a very crucial aspect in the testing process for an e-commerce website. Therefore, the e-commerce website should be thoroughly tested on major browsers and their versions to make sure that the website has a wide reach and no potential customer should be left out due to the incompatibility of the website with a certain browser.

Testing E-commerce Application Workflow

The overall workflow of an e-commerce website testing consists of:

• Search functionality, Signup, and Login options.
• Feature for posting product reviews so that other customers can see them and make their decision.
• Sorting features to filter different product types according to different categories, such as men's, women's, etc.
• Feature for choosing a desired product by applying a filter, adding or removing products from the shopping cart.
• Checking out process, Invoice generation, and Order number, Payment processing, and payment gateway for buying the product.
• These are the most important things in the workflow of an e-commerce website and all these features need to be tested and checked thoroughly and continuously.

Read more--> Test Cases for Ecommerce Websites ( in this article, we will focus on what are actually test cases for e-commerce sites and what are their functions. Followed by that, we will be focusing on the important areas where testers should focus while composing test cases for e-commerce sites. ) Before planning and performing the functional testing QA Specialists should understand and familiarize themselves with the e-commerce website very well so that they can plan tests accordingly. Most of the e-commerce websites contain similar features that are customized and configured according to the need and requirements of the businesses.

Challenges of Ecommerce Testing

E-commerce websites are generally very complex in nature. There are lots of processes going on in the back of the website. One click can trigger different algorithms and processes. Maintaining and testing an E-commerce platform may become difficult. Read more--> Ecommerce Testing Company As A Partner. What's The Point? There are many possibilities and certain things that might be missed by the QA Specialist. Some of the major challenges of ecommerce testing are mentioned below: The rapid change of technology: technology is evolving rapidly and the tools are upgrading and changing every day. QA Specialists and developers need to be aware of these changes and then incorporate these new and updated tools on the website to enhance its functionality and features. Customer profiles: there are many users on the internet and every customer is different in various ways. Testing process should consider every possible way a user can think and test according to those simulations. Security: There are lots of hackers lurking around on the internet. Therefore, maintaining the security parameters and testing them can be difficult. Business environment: The business environment should be simulated as well by QA Specialists in terms of delivery, item tax, dispatching, and shipping cost. Sometimes issues related to payment also arise.

Manual vs. Automated Testing of E commerce Site

Testing incorporates both manual testing techniques as well as automated testing techniques. Both techniques ensure a very high quality of testing.; With automation testing, some of the problems can remain unseen. There are certain drawbacks to manual testing too. Manual testing requires a lot of labor, effort, and resources and the process of manual testing is also very time-consuming. Since it is performed by a human it is also liable to have mistakes. On the other hand, testing using automation tools has very few drawbacks and the advantages are numerous. It is faster and it shows better & quantifiable results as compared to the process of manual testing. It makes sure that the incorporation of the transaction happening on an e-commerce website is taking place in a good and effective way, without creating any customer simulations. Automation tools help with validating the work and performance of an e-commerce website during heavy loads and with having quicker delivery cycles. Automation doesn't require as much labor and resources as compared to manual testing as well as being more time-efficient. Some of the advantages of using automated tools in testing are that it simplifies the testing of compatibility for an e-commerce website. The automated tool has more coverage than manual testing.

What Are The Best Testing Tools Available For Ecommerce Sites?

For an e-commerce site, many automated tools for testing are available on the market. Tools according to a specific type of testing are also available. Some of the tools for ecommerce testing are:

JMeter

source The Apache JMeter is an open-source software which can be used as an automated tool for testing an e-commerce website. It is purely based on Java and it is designed specifically to load various test functional behaviors and test their performance.

Burp Suite

source The Burp Suite provides an integrated platform for implementing testing of security for web applications and e-commerce websites. It contains many tools that work in coordination to facilitate the whole testing process right from the beginning when the initial mapping is done and then the analysis of an attack surface of application is done towards the end where the vulnerabilities in the security are found and exploited. The best feature of Burp is that it gives the QA Specialists full control of the process as it lets you combine different manual techniques and high-quality automation to work swiftly and effectively as well as enjoyable.

LinkMiner

source It is very easy to use. It is a backlink tool and it contains a combination of more than 8.5 trillion backlinks in the database. The best feature that LinkMiner provides is that you can see an embedded website preview on its dashboard and the tools also highlight various link placements.

SOAP UI

source This is one of the most popular and most advanced REST and SOAP testing tools in the world. This is also an open-source software which contains every type of testing ranging from functional testing, security testing, performance testing, and many more types of testing. After the testing SOAP UI provides a very detailed and comprehensive report of the testing for measuring success. So.. if you asking yourself what are the best tools to automate testing of the eCommerce website, now you have an answer.

Most Common Ecommerce Bugs

Despite being somewhat different on the outside, under the hood, your eCommerce website is a normal web application, just like every other. Because of this, it's prone to have bugs. Here are some of the most common defects you can encounter in different areas. Focus on these areas during eCommerce testing.

Problems Finding Items

Most of the time when users visit your ecommerce site they know exactly what to look for. The easiest way to find those items is by using the Search option. What can happen there includes:

• Search option returning no results despite the proper query
• Search option not responding to click
• Search option finding results different from expected (e.g. not associated with the search)

Problems Adding Items To Cart

User experience and purchase begin with finding a product and adding it to your cart. Only then can you begin the checkout process. But this functionality may sometimes not work properly. Some of the causes include:

• "Add to cart" button not responding to click,
• "Add to cart" button responding to click, but the product will not be added to cart (despite being shown as "Added" on the website),
• "Add to cart" button responding to click and adding item, but immediately removing it.

These bugs may be a result of various things. Mistyped code on the frontend, problems with communication between your eCommerce site and its server, missing code on either side - there can be a variety of reasons.

Problems Removing Items From Cart

Obviously, it's just as important to see if users can remove items from cart too, should they change their mind. What can happen here is pretty much mirroring the effects of adding items to cart:

• "Remove from cart" button not responding to click,
• "Remove from cart" button responding to click, but the product will not be removed from the cart (despite not being present e.g. until the user refreshes the cart),
• "Remove from cart" button responding to click and removing an item, but immediately adding it again.

As said before - these bugs are very similar, because so is the behavior of this functionality.

Checkout And Payment Problems

Probably the most important step during checkout - if you want to earn some money, you want users to be able to pay (conversion rate) for the products. What you have to pay special attention to conducting eCommerce testing is:

• User data is not transferred properly to the summary screen (either when a user is buying as a guest or has been registered before),
• Delivery options are not available (if delivery is necessary)
• No payment methods are available,
• Certain payment methods malfunctioning (e.g. problems with communication between your eCommerce website and PayPal).

Obviously, your users should be able to complete the process from start to finish. If any bug stops them here, they won't give you a second chance. As simple as these cases may be on the outside, they take a huge toll on your eCommerce site. No customer wants to fight with bugs, everyone expects your app to work flawlessly.

E commerce Testing Services

Instead of selecting a good tool and then using it, why not go for a better option You can hire ecommerce testing services to do all the things mentioned above for you. This will take a lot of work from the organization's shoulders. There are a lot of companies and organizations that offer high-quality ecommerce testing services. The only thing you have to do is to make a decision if you want to hire them and allow them to do their work. They will test every aspect of your e-commerce website and will exploit its every feature. They also work according to your needs and requirements. If you have anything that needs to be tested, then you can just tell them and they will perform test and give you an immediate report.

Hiring an eCommerce Testing Company

Hiring an ecommerce testing service company is highly beneficial for an e-commerce website as it will overcome difficult challenges associated with e-shop quality. That way the developers of your organization can focus solely on developing and building the website, instead of being worried about testing it.