How many eCommerce companies are losing money with poor QA?

Update: Kiabi contacted me upon my post to say that they investigated and found the issue's root cause being an English-language settings file that had not been sent to the store's cash registers and that they took the necessary steps to correct the problem, which now it is fixed on the production systems.

Recently, I visited a KIABI shop, a prominent European fashion retailer with both an eCommerce and physical locations, near Barcelona.

My experience at their self-service checkout was eye-opening and concerning, highlighting a critical issue in eCommerce: a poor QA process.

Upon approaching the self-service counters, I discovered that 70% of the machines were out of order. When I finally found one working and attempted to switch the language to English, I encountered a series of IT code placeholders instead of proper translations.

Buttons were incomprehensible, rendering it impossible to complete my purchase.

This experience raises an important question: how much revenue is being lost due to inadequate QA and not properly tested products, including a key aspect such as localisation?

Spain is a great example of a country with many foreigners, with some of these not speaking Spanish at all, and relying on English translations.

The implications of such issues extend beyond a single store, as the same code would be on all the self-service counters, and this can significantly impact customer experience and brand reputation across multiple locations and countries.

Key takeaways for eCommerce like KIABI:

1. Establish a robust QA Strategy: Ensure that your quality assurance processes are thorough and proactive. A comprehensive strategy can help identify and address potential issues before they affect customers.

2. Thoroughly test your eCommerce Website and Apps: Conduct extensive testing in all available languages ("l10n testing"). This ensures that customers can navigate and complete transactions seamlessly, regardless of their language preference.

3. Include Self-Service Machines in your testing plans: Self-payment kiosks should be part of your QA process. Testing these machines regularly can prevent frustrating customer experiences.

4. Ensure operational machines, especially on weekends: It’s critical to have all self-service machines operational during peak shopping times, to scale up to the expected high number of clients.

Prioritizing customer experience is essential for maintaining revenue and loyalty.

If you’d like to learn more about implementing proper QA strategies for eCommerce and retailers, feel free to reach out.