Ecommerce sales continue to surge year after year. But with over 2 billion digital buyers and endless choice, consumers have high expectations. If your site is buggy, slow, or confusing to use, they will quickly click away to a competitor.
Thorough testing is imperative to provide flawless customer journeys that drive conversions, revenue, and loyalty.
This comprehensive 3000+ word guide draws on over 10 years of expertise in ecommerce testing to arm you with the methodology, knowledge and best practices to launch a high-performing site tailored to your customers.
Why Proper Testing is Crucial for Ecommerce Sites
Consider these statistics that demonstrate the current ecommerce landscape:
- Ecommerce sales will reach $5.4 trillion globally by 2022, up from $3.5 trillion in 2019 [Source: eMarkerter]
- Over 2 billion people worldwide now shop online [Source: eMarkerter]
- The average online shopper spends just 50 seconds assessing a website‘s credibility before leaving [Source: NNGroup]
- 53% of mobile site visits are abandoned if pages take >3 seconds to load [Source: Akamai]
- 79% of customers who have a bad online shopping experience are less likely to shop with that retailer again [Source: PwC]
- Getting new customers is up to 25x more expensive than retaining existing ones [Source: Invespcro]
With ecommerce expanding exponentially each year, competition is extremely high. Consumers have endless choice and will quickly leave your site if it is difficult to use, lacks desired information, loads slowly, or looks broken.
Plus, the costs of acquiring new customers make losing existing ones due to site problems especially detrimental.
That‘s why thoroughly testing and optimizing the usability, functionality and performance of your ecommerce site is more crucial than ever.
Proper testing will help you:
- Spot usability issues causing struggles for customers
- Fix bugs preventing purchases or causing data loss
- Meet rising consumer expectations for site speed
- Support rising traffic levels without slowdowns
- Deliver mobile experiences matching native apps
- Keep customer data safe from security exploits
The following 3000+ word guide draws on over a decade of expertise in ecommerce testing to provide a comprehensive methodology you can follow.
Let‘s dive in!
Ecommerce Site Components Requiring Rigorous Testing
Modern ecommerce sites have many components that combine to create the overall customer journey. When building test cases, be sure to check:
Home Page
- Hero banners and top promotions
- Top navigation and main menus
- Category links and images
- Spotlights on top products, new arrivals, sales etc
- Searches – natural language and advanced
- Content personalization based on history
- Popups like email capture, chat window etc
Product Pages
- Image galleries – main image, thumbnails, zoom
- Titles, pricing, SKUs, inventory status
- Detailed descriptions and specifications
- Options – sizes, colors, capacities etc
- Calls-to-action – Add to Cart, Buy Now etc
- Recommendations – matching, recently viewed etc
Shopping Cart
- Accuracy of added items
- Changing quantities
- Coupon codes and validations
- Shipping quotes and options
- Proceeding to secure checkout
Checkout Process
- Account registration/login forms
- Multi-step personal/shipping/payment info
- Live validation of inputs
- Guest checkout flows
- Payment integrations like Stripe
- Confirmations and order lookup
Account Dashboard
- Order history with statuses
- Default addresses and payment methods
- Account info editing
- Subscription management
- Wishlists/gift registries
Search & Navigation
- Predictive search algorithms
- Search result page content
- Refinement filters and facets
- Internal site search usage
- Category/menu navigation
- Micro-interactions like hover states
Mobile Experience
- Tap/swipe interactions
- Screen sizes and responsive Testing
- Hybrid apps vs mobile web
- Camera, wallet, biometrics etc
And MORE!
As you can see, ecommerce sites combine expansive catalog data with complex front-end code and extensive back-end integrations.
Attempting to test every possible permutation is impossible. That‘s why taking a user-focused approach and prioritizing key journeys is essential.
Types of Testing Critical for Ecommerce Sites
While you should test ecommerce sites manually, relying solely on human testers exploring flows is not scalable or comprehensive.
Combining manual testing with test automation is key for catching a higher percentage of issues while also testing more flows in less time.
Here are the testing types to employ:
Functionality Testing
Verifies all elements of the site work per specifications. Includes unit, integration, smoke, sanity, and regression testing using both manual and automated checks.
Usability Testing
Observing real users interacting with the site to catch confusing workflows, unclear messaging, difficult inputs, and other issues impacting customer experience.
Visual/UI Testing
Confirming design elements follow style guides and best practices for web/mobile. Checking consistency of fonts, icons, colors, animations.
Performance Testing
Checking site speed and stability during peak simulated loads. Confirms acceptable response times for page loads, searches, checkouts.
Security Testing
Validating data protections against exploits like SQL injections, XSS attacks, unauthorized access attempts. Ethical hacking identifies vulnerabilities.
Compatibility Testing
Verifying consistent appearance and behavior across different devices, browsers and OS versions. Especially important for ecommerce.
Accessibility Testing
Ensures support for disabilities by meeting standards like WCAG 2.1 and Section 508. Facilitates access via screen readers, keyboards, captioning.
SEO Testing
Checks that metadata, tags, URLs, links and site architecture meet search engine guidelines. Confirms pages are indexable.
Localization Testing
Verifies site properly adapts to other regions and languages. Checks translations, currency/date formats, regulatory compliance.
Compliance Testing
For ecommerce, validates adherence to standards like PCI DSS for secure payment processing by third parties.
Common Bugs to Catch in Ecommerce Sites
While each site will have unique issues, these are frequent pain points:
Site Speed Regressions
Catching speed drops before users notice is key. Use site speed tools like Lighthouse, WebPageTest, and SpeedCurve to catch regressions.
Payment Integration Failures
Entering wrong payment details shouldn‘t lose orders completely. Testing should catch integration points with payment gateways failing.
Persistent "Out of Stock" Errors
Don‘t let genuinely in-stock items show unavailable. Sync your product catalog and order management system.
Functional Issues on Mobile
Testing directly on mobile devices will catch tap/swipe fails, non-responsive elements, clumsy inputs unseen on desktop.
New Release Bugs
Don‘t let new features break existing flows. Comprehensive regression testing is a must with continual improvements.
Inconsistent Hybrid App Functionality
Whether wrapper-based or custom-built, hybrid mobile app architectures can obscure or alter site features vs the mobile web.
Unexpected Redirects
Don‘t lose user trust through unpredictable redirects. Crawler bots also don‘t enjoy redirects while indexing sites.
Login Failures
If social login plugins fail or custom identity solutions are buggy, users will abandon your site. Test auth thoroughly.
Chat Function Breaks
Live chat is proven to raise conversions. Ensure chat works on all site pages without interfering with other elements.
Cookie Consent Impact
From GDPR to CCPA and beyond, cookie consent can unintentionally break site functionality. Test it doesn‘t.
Overcoming Ecommerce Testing Challenges
While vital, properly testing ecommerce sites has inherent challenges:
Prioritizing What to Test First
With endless flows, prioritize journeys tied to revenue. Verify users can:
- Quickly find products through search and navigation
- View details like images, specs, reviews, recommendations
- Add to cart, adjust quantities, apply coupons
- Provide shipping and payments details to checkout
- Complete purchases without data loss or errors
Responding to Frequent Site Changes
Constant A/B tests and feature additions means rigorous regression testing is a must. Automate sanity checks on key journeys.
Testing Dynamic Elements
Personalized content, flash sales etc require adjusting test cases continually. Make use of Test Data Management.
Simulating Peak Traffic Levels
Use open source tools like Locust to safely overload servers and validate acceptable response times are maintained.
Accessing Device Diversity
With 41% of traffic now from mobile, testing across device types is mandatory. Leverage cloud services like BrowserStack to access thousands of real mobile devices in minutes with debug capabilities.
Confirming Security
Employ ethical hackers to probe for vulnerabilities missed in standard tests. Prioritize fixing injection risks, insufficient encryption, and exposure of sensitive data.
Testing Third-Party Integrations
Services like CRMs, payment gateways must interface correctly. Isolate issues through contract testing of integration points.
The key is balancing manual exploratory testing with savvy test automation across devices. Let test tools amplify human insight.
Best Practices for Ecommerce Testing
Follow these tips for smooth website testing:
Start Testing Early
Begin QA during initial build, not just before launch. More incremental testing reduces big fixes down the line.
Test Across More Mobile Devices
Don‘t rely solely on emulators. Test on real iOS and Android devices via services like BrowserStack to catch mobile issues missed otherwise.
Involve Users Continually
Have both new and existing users evaluate journeys to surface pains early. Synthesize feedback into new test cases.
Implement Regression Testing
Automate sanity checks on key user flows before deployments. Catch new bugs immediately.
Monitor Site Speed Obsessively
Continuously check page load times and server response times under load. Catch performance drops impacting conversions.
Review Accessibility Frequently
Check compliance with disability access guidelines via automated tools. Enable more customers to shop your site.
Confirm Security Protections
Conduct quarterly penetration testing to check defenses. Prioritize fixing high risk findings immediately.
Go Beyond Functional Testing
While critical, functional testing alone isn‘t sufficient. Combine with visual, UI, UX, performance, security and more specialized testing.
Leverage Outside Expertise
Consider having a third-party QA team validate your test coverage model for unbiased perspective.
The most successful ecommerce sites never stop testing and optimizing. By continually experimenting and improving site speed, usability and conversions, you will boost revenue and outpace competitors. Use this comprehensive guide to build a rigorous testing strategy tailored to your ecommerce site‘s unique needs.
