Introduction to Ecommerce Testing
In Ecommerce Testing, eCommerce is a commercial activity of buying and selling goods/services digitally through the internet. Amazon, Taobao, Walmart, Flipkart, Ola, and Uber are the top eCommerce companies globally and most of them have a presence in India. -The share of eCommerce sales in total retail sales is around 8% globally, in the US it is 13.5% and in India, it is 2.2% and it’s growing in double digits everywhere. No Smartphone users globally raising to 2.7 billion, the volume of eCommerce transactions is bound to grow exponentially. Ecommerce vendors should host a vibrant website with superior performance/user experience features to enhance their online sales. Websites should be tested thoroughly in all aspects before it is deployed to users.
In this article let’s see various techniques in testing eCommerce sites.
What is eCommerce Testing?
It is a process of checking all the features and functions of a website to ascertain whether it works as per its original specifications and also ensuring it performs to the expected speed if the load reaches designed levels or more.
The Purpose of Testing is to Enhance:
- Reliability by fixing defects in the code.
- Quality by removing ambiguities, misunderstanding of requirements of coders/analysts.
- Performance level by ensuring the right level of resources are allotted to manage the load and fine-tuning/optimizing the code.
- The user experience by removing unwanted navigations/process steps and improving look and feel.
- Security by stressing on coding standards and structures.
- Compliance with all rules and regulations by adhering to set policies/principles.
- Availability of the website to users on a 24×7 window without any disruption.
How does eCommerce Testing Work?
Below are the steps shows how does it work:
The success of Web site development/implementation depends on the depth of the testing carried out before it is deployed online.
1. As the first step of the testing process, we need to identify scenarios to be tested, which
- Will have to be derived from the system requirement documents (SRS or BRD)
- Need to spell out various functionalities to be tested and it should cover end to end to processes of the application.
- Are defined at a high-level asset of actions.
- Are brief one-liners.
- Should focus on what to test rather than how to test.
2. The next step is to identify test cases for the scenarios identified. There could be multiple test cases derived from each scenario.
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A test case consists of:
- A list of actions to be executed to verify a feature or functionality of the applications.
- Set of test data for testing each action.
- Steps to be followed, Preconditions.
- Expected results.
- Unique conditions that may be used by Tester to check the functionality.
More resources are required to run through test steps and document the results. Test cases should be simple, unambiguous, end user-oriented, cover all the features and it should be easily identifiable. Test scenarios and test cases should be prepared along with system requirement documents and once the development of the application module is complete the testing team should get into the testing activities interacting with the development team.
Types of Testing
Below are the Types of Testing:
eCommerce applications are hosted either as a web site or mobile apps. Websites are accessed by Desktops/Laptops and mobiles through browsers using URLs. Mobile apps are downloaded from the apps store in mobile devices.
eCommerce Testing should cover scenarios of:
- Website access thru Desktops/Laptops and mobile
- Mobile Apps
1. General Testing
There are some general testing the eCommerce applications undergoes like any other applications and they are listed in the table below:
| Type of Testing | Process |
| Functional | Verification of each function of application as per requirement specification |
| Usability | Measuring the comfort of end-users while transacting in the application |
| Security | Assessing threats, Vulnerabilities, risks and recommend remedial steps |
| Database | Checking data integrity/consistency and database objects |
| A/B |
Comparing two versions of software to measure incremental performance improvements. |
2. Specific Testing
There are specific types of testing pertaining to eCommerce applications and they are listed below:
| Types | Testing Process |
| The workflow of the application (Step by Step testing) |
|
| Browser Compatibility | Verification of functioning of application with all browsers and its versions |
| Devices Compatibility | Accessibility of the website in all intended end-user devices. It could be Desktop/Laptops or mobile devices like iPad, Tab, Smartphones in any OS (ios, android, windows), etc. |
| Page Display | Checking the format of pages, font size, page Settings, display of products related to browsing history, related pages, look and feel of the page, Cookies, analytics, and social sites. |
| Content | Authentication of content for quality, legality, integrity and piracy aspects |
| Availability | Continuous Availability of services 24×7 with little downtime |
| Performance |
Checking Home page loading, Search speed, Transaction speed, Load handling, scalability, and stability. Check Throughput and response time at various stages of operation and compare it with norms. |
|
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) |
Verification of SEO parameters like HTML, Keyword & Phrases, Screen handling, Quality of content, Responsive design and backlinks, etc. |
| System Integration | Check the functionality of the interface, activation of the interface at frequent interval and its performance |
| Globalization |
Support of Multiple languages, Multi-region Culture management, and accounting |
Testing Tools in Ecommerce Testing
Some of the widely used tools for testing websites are:
- Selenium: Open-source testing suite for web Applications in any browsers/platforms. It enables automated functional & regression testing using simple scripts. It has a record/playback facility for authoring tests without knowledge of script language.
- JMeter: Used mainly in performance & load testing and it is an open-sourced tool in Java.
- Spur: Tool to verify web design and used by the web development company.
- Browsers: Tool to check cross-browser layout differences and scripting errors on a website.
- Link research tool: SEO tools to check content quality on the website.
- Click heat: Provides a pictorial heat map of clicks to assess hot and cold zone in an HTML page.
Conclusion
With more and more users embracing online shopping, a good response time/speed and stability of the website plays a big role in retaining customers. A well-tested eCommerce site will provide the vibrancy needed for the success of the online business.
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This is a guide to Ecommerce Testing. Here we discuss types, tools, What is Ecommerce Testing? how does it work?. You can also go through our other related articles to learn more –
