Ecommerce QA Testing Guide – How to Test Ecommerce?

Are you searching for e-commerce QA testing guidelines? Or, What is eCommerce Quality Assurance testing, want to know?

Facing problems with your E-Commerce website or application and want to know e-commerce quality assurance testing solutions?

Imagine you have developed an e-commerce application. Now you are willing to live it for the target users. But you need to ensure its quality before publishing.

Or, you might have an ecommerce site but do not know anything about ecommerce QA testing, such as what is ecommerce QA testing, what are the benefits and how it works, and how to test an ecommerce website.

No problem. Here is the solution.

This E-commerce quality assurance testing guide represents all the solutions to your ecommerce test case overview problems.

It will also meet your interests and provide all the information about QA testing in ecommerce that you should not miss in the ecommerce QA testing process.

So, please go through the whole Ecommerce QA testing guide, find your solutions, prepare your ecommerce app or website and meet the goal of your business. 

What is eCommerce

You will be surprised to know that the U.S. Census Bureau found that with the COVID-19 pandemic, eCommerce has risen to over 16% of retail sales by 2020. In 2011, it accounted for only 5% of total retail sales.

 In contrast, in 2020, over two billion people purchased goods or services online, and e-retail sales surpassed 4.2 trillion U.S. dollars worldwide.

First, you should know what e-Commerce is. Electronic Commerce is the broad form of E-Commerce.

To be very specific, buying and selling goods and services over an electronic network is the main concept of eCommerce (electronic commerce). Besides, it includes transmitting funds or data.

However, E-Commerce transactions can either happen as business-to-business (B2B), business-to-consumer (B2C), consumer-to-consumer (C2C) or consumer-to-business (C2B).

Furthermore, e-business and e-tail are often synonyms for e-commerce or transactional processes.

What is eCommerce Testing?

So, you have learned about e-commerce, right? Then, what is e-commerce testing?

E-Commerce testing is mandatory in ecommerce app development or e-Commerce website development. Specifically, eCommerce website testing involves reviewing the website or web application for any issues before it is published and is open to the public.

You might know that a web application requires testing various features like security, functionality, database, etc.

Besides, ecommerce testing helps evaluate and assess the features and functionalities of an eCommerce (online shopping) application to ensure accurate operational functionality of the eCommerce website/application.

Moreover, it focuses on crucial factors such as:

• User experience
• Secure transactions
• Mobile responsiveness
• Customer data security
• Load time

In addition, eCommerce testing is defined as testing an eCommerce (online shopping) application. It helps prevent errors and adds value to the product by ensuring conformity to client requirements.

The objective of testing is to ensure

• Software reliability testing
• Software quality
• System Assurance
• Optimum performance
• Capacity utilization

Setting up an E-commerce system is complex and subject to many market-specific variables. Besides, to maintain the integrity of the E-Commerce system, testing becomes compulsory.

So, eCommerce testing can be defined as the process of testing various eCommerce website elements such as:

• Design
• Specifications
• Functionalities
• Pages
• Features

In order to check these elements’ sanity and ensure they’re not harming the site’s performance in any manner possible, e-commerce testing works.

Testing can improve your site visitors’ overall experience and significantly increase conversions when done correctly and continuously.

You will get a clear and wise idea from this ecommerce QA testing guide about ecommerce testing and why ecommerce testing is necessary.

So go through the ecommerce QA testing guidelines and find the solutions for your e-commerce site or app.

What is eCommerce QA Testing?

An eCommerce Quality Assurance testing is the process where you have already developed an ecommerce application or website and are going to publish it for the target audience. Now, before launching it, you need to test its quality. This QA testing is called eCommerce Quality Assurance testing.

Quality Assurance is to ensure all of these problems have been solved on your e-Commerce site before releasing it to the public.

As mentioned above, the pandemic has rapidly increased the number and use of ecommerce websites and applications. Before presenting these ecommerce sites in front of the customers or the users, you must have checked the following tests on various devices:

• Security
• Load-testing
• Usability
• User experience.

That means before launching an ecommerce application, you must ensure its quality. So Quality Assurance through different kinds of testing is very necessary for your e-commerce app or website.

That is called E-Commerce QA testing or e-commerce quality assurance testing.

Benefits of eCommerce QA Testing

It is time to inform you of the benefits of eCommerce QA testing.

You may know that E-Commerce businesses include diverse mobile applications, software applications and unified, integrated systems.

Especially for retailers who have implemented custom eCommerce solutions, efficient testing and test automation for the eCommerce websites is a very critical requirement.

It will surprise you that a robust test case makes the entire process more effective. And the test automation helps in faster time to market.

Not only for identifying the required changes and taking appropriate actions, but test management also helps develop powerful risk management processes and applications.

There are some other strong benefits of ecommerce Quality Assurance testing.  

These benefits are given below:

• Protects from expensive failures.
• Ensure each page/module is thoroughly tested.
• Affirm before releasing it to live.
• Ensures high visibility.
• Diminish the transactions’ risks.
• Releases a user-friendly application.
• Confirm safeguards of the site.
• Enhances the eCommerce store’s quality
• Solves critical factors.

When You Need eCommerce Testing?

If you are any of the following problems with your ecommerce website or application, you must need to check the Quality Assurance testing for your website or eCommerce application:

Whether your ecommerce site user-friendly?

Is there any curt option?

Does it performing well?

Does the payment system work well?

Whether it takes more time to load?

Is it device friendly?

How to Improve Your E-Commerce QA Testing Process?

Now you know about the e-commerce QA testing process, testing tools and what tests should apply for the Quality Assurance of an ecommerce website or application.

But do you know about the process of your ecommerce website or application?

Here, the ecommerce QA testing guidelines reveal the process of the ways to improve your site:

• Keep various scenarios in mind
• Execute performance tests as much as possible
• Focus on security and reliability
• Consider QA audit to find potential bottlenecks

Keep Various Scenarios in Mind

For running an ecommerce business, you should have a diverse mind.

Since your site’s audience will be from various cultures, ages and demography, you should consider it before scaling the data.

Execute Performance Tests as Much as Possible

You can check the performance of your site through performance testing. Keep monitoring how well your website handles additional user load to see what may cause it to crash.

You can improve your site’s functionalities and user experience and avoid issues by running performance testing in the early stage of it. It will help you save both your time and money.

Focus on Security and Reliability

Security can bring your reliability.

Security is one of the weak and strong points of an ecommerce site. You are responsible for keeping your and the app users’ data secure.

A company’s image is mostly dependent on its security. So, please do not ignore it.

Consider QA Audit to Find Potential Bottlenecks

The next step you can do to improve your ecommerce QA testing process is a QA audit.

A Quality Assurance audit is a valuable process. However, the process helps you estimate your quality assurance process.

You can consider it as the best way to remove issues and eliminate surprises on your way.

Quality Risks That E-Commerce Testing Can Prevent

E-commerce web QA testing can also benefit you by removing quality risks in your ecommerce software development.

You have already known that ecommerce website QA testing can help you to satisfy your client, increase revenue, and create a brand reputation.

Not only these, but a high e-commerce Quality Assurance testing solution can also help you uncover and avoid various other quality risks.

These potential risks are given below:

• Unavailability Of Online Store
• Slow Loading Speed
• Poor Shopping Cart Functionality
• Misleading Analytics

Unavailability Of Online Store

Sometimes online businesses provide sales on occasion or on holidays. During the vacation sale or anything like that, the ecommerce sites get very busy.

Many customers visit online shops at the same time. Due to the overcrowded customers, the ecommerce app or websites might sometimes disappear, which can create a trust issue in consumers’ minds.

This peak load problem can cause a big loss; you might not assume.

But ecommerce QA web testing or ecommerce QA app testing can make you secure from this kind of issue.

Slow Loading Speed

The slow loading speed can reduce your customer’s interest in your ecommerce app as it will be time-consuming.

You may know that most customers or website visitors prefer to browse the items before making a purchase.

So, weak search functionality can disappoint your potential customers and lower conversion.

But if you hire an ecommerce QA tester for the ecommerce app, you may ignore the slow load issues as the tester will run a load test on your app or website.

Poor Shopping Cart Functionality

There must be an option for adding to the cart for the consumers as they can save the product they are interested in buying.

So, in this situation, if you do not have an option in your ecommerce web development to add to the cart or have a problem placing an order, you must lose your customers.

You have to remember that the number of ecommerce sites is huge. If you cannot ensure the quality of your website, you will disappear from the market.

Suppose you have provided an option for applying a discount coupon, but it is not working. Or, a customer of your website added a product to the cart, but now she cannot remove it from the cart. In these cases, they may never come back to your ecommerce site.

An ecommerce Quality Assurance tester can test your potential bugs and resolve the issues.

Misleading Analytics

Website analytics shows you the following insights:

• Website Traffic
• Sales Conversion Rate
• Average Order Value
• Revenue by Traffic Source
• Returning customers Percentage etc.

Misleading analytics increase the chance of losses for a business. Remember, poor analytics and testing reduce the chance of gaining the advantage of a reliable basis for assessing its overall business strategy.

Hiring an ecommerce quality assurance tester can also solve these issues so that you can grow your ecommerce website or applications with healthy analytics.

Types of eCommerce QA testing

There are many types of QA testing in ecommerce that an ecommerce QA tester usually performs.

These major types of ecommerce app QA testing types are:

• Performance Testing
• Functional Testing
• Usability Testing
• Security Testing
• Database Testing
• Mobile Application Testing
• A/B testing

Performance Testing

Performance testing is relevant to the speed examination of an e-commerce software which can vary according to your testing goals.

You should go through ecommerce website load testing to check the website’s performance under normal conditions. It checks the expected average and peak traffic load. 

eCommerce quality assurance testers check the common user activities, such as:

• Logging in or signing up
• Searching for products
• Adding products to the cart
• Checking out, etc.

Functional Testing

Functional testing validates how the eCommerce software product serves against functional specifications.

An ecommerce website should cover the following structural areas:

• The search functionality includes data correctness, error handling, mobile friendliness, etc.
• Different pages include the homepage, product pages, special offers, About Us, privacy policies, News, etc.
• Product description pages include product titles and descriptions, images, related products, add-to-cart features, etc.
• Shopping cart including product list, removing products from the list, delivery options, card payment, pay now option, etc.

Usability Testing

Usability testing refers to the idea of user satisfaction. Everyone wants to achieve their goals as fast and easily as possible in this fast-paced world.

However, E-commerce software that can offer consumers the most enjoyable shopping experience will have more chances of winning the market.

So, to provide the best user experiences to your consumers through ecommerce app development, you must check all the areas in the shopping journey to get the best shopping experience.

Hiring ecommerce QA testers can make you gain this goal by checking that:

• Every product is easy to find
• Enough information about the product
• Help consumers decide to buy
• An error-free, smooth journey. 

Security Testing

The security issue is the most important and pain point of an ecommerce site holder. The importance includes the author and the consumer’s data security and the site’s security.

You must confirm the eCommerce site’s security and the users’ data security. E-commerce security issues are varieties.

You will get a clear idea about ecommerce quality assurance testing from the following:

• Server security
• Privacy and integrity 
• Correct authentication
• Secure payments
• Audit mechanisms

You may face various security vulnerabilities with your eCommerce app. The potential vulnerabilities of an ecommerce website are:

• SQL injection
• Price manipulation
• Cross-site scripting
• Weak authentication
• Buffer overflows
• Remote command execution
• Weak authorization

To find out and solve the issues or potential issues of your ecommerce website, you need to hire ecommerce QA testers who will assure you by performing the security testing process properly.

An ecommerce quality assurance testing process includes:

• Custom code
• Network Infrastructure
• Security Assessment
• Vulnerability Prioritization
• Security Policies
• Critical Areas Focus
• Depth Assessment
• Well-structured Report
• Understandable for Management
• Security Improvement Suggestions.

Database Testing

Database testing is mainly a task for the backend which is not visible to the users. An ecommerce site’s database includes its internal processes of it, such as:

• Storage
• Columns
• Tables
• Keys
• Indexes
• Procedures triggers
• Database server
• Data duplications
• Integrity
• Consistency

E-Commerce testers operate a heavy load testing in database stress testing while assuring the quality to find the breakdown point. They also ensure whether your site can handle the expected peak traffic or collapses.

Mobile Application Testing

Imagine you are going to start an ecommerce mobile app development project and hire ecommerce mobile app developers.

Your app is almost ready to go into the hand of your target audiences. But before launching it, you must check the quality of your ecommerce mobile app and confirm that it is ready to beat the market and can achieve the users’ trust.

For doing this, you need to hire ecommerce quality assurance testers to confirm the following:

• Usability
• Device friendliness
• Loading time
• Visibility
• Easy shopping process
• Add to cart
• Payment system

A/B Testing

In optimizing and making easy shopping experiences for the users of your ecommerce app, A/B Testing is a continuous practice. You may already know that it is one of the most crucial QA testing types.

The basic concept of A/B testing is to compare two versions of design elements in the same environment. It helps to find the best performance product and develop the highest conversion rate.

You will get to know and develop the following through A/B testing:

• Customers’ preferences
• Improving the KPI
• Applying different SEO practices

Types of Testing for E-commerce System

In the above section, you have already got the idea about the types of ecommerce QA testing.

But in this ecommerce QA test case overview, you will find the common type of testing for an e-commerce testing system and know how to test an eCommerce QA testing.

These common types are:

• Browser compatibility
• Page display
• Session Management
• Usability
• Content Analysis
• Availability
• Back-up and Recovery
• Transactions
• Order placing and purchasing
• Internationalization
• Operational business procedures    
• System Integration
• Performance
• Login and Security

Browser Compatibility

A QA tester performs the browser compatibility test through some processes.

These processes are:

• Lack of support for early browsers
• Browser specific extensions
• Browser testing covers the main platforms (Linux, Windows, Mac etc.)

Page Display

Page display is a major testing type since the pages ultimately represent your ecommerce site to the consumers.

The page display testing checks whether:

• Incorrect display of pages
• Runtime error messages
• Poor page download time
• Dead hyperlink, plugin dependency, font sizing, etc.

 Session Management

Whether people can see your site within a session or the session expired before loading the home page is the testing of session management. This testing type includes:

• Session Expiration
• Session Storage

 Usability

You already know about the usability test. So, this type is not required to explain anymore. But remember the main functionalities of the usability testing of an ecommerce app are:

• Non-intuitive design
• Poor site navigation
• Catalog navigation
• Lack of help-support

Content Analysis

Another important type of testing that you might forget is content analysis.

Is the content misleading your customer’s journey in your web shop, or is it available for all time?

These tests are important.

Content analysis tests also include:

• Royalty-free images and copyright infringement
• Personalization functionality
• Misleading, offensive and belligerent content
• Availability 24/7

 Availability

Suppose you are a customer and went to a webshop to get the latest products.

But the page is not available when you have arrived at the page.

So, will it be a good user experience for you?

No, Right?

So, to solve these kinds of issues, you should perform an availability test on your ecommerce webshop and must check the following:

• Denial of service attacks
• Unacceptable levels of unavailability

Back-up and Recovery

Backup and recovery options are necessary for your ecommerce web platform.

The test processes are:

• Failure or fall over recovery
• Backup failure
• Fault tolerance

Transactions

You must assure the transaction system in the ecommerce testing process, as the transaction is related to the core system of an ecommerce web app.

Transaction tests that usually perform by an ecommerce tester are:

• Transaction Integrity
• Throughput
• Auditing

Order Placement

If you have ever shopped from any ecommerce site, you are familiar with Add to Cart.

In an ecommerce site, there must be easy order placement and purchasing procedures so that the customers can shop easily.

For doing so, you have to perform the following tests:

• Shopping cart functionality
• Order processing
• Payment processing
• Order tracking

Internationalization

In this modern world, the market is everywhere.

That’s why you should develop your ecommerce app with international requirements.

Anyone from anywhere can be your customer.

So, you have to check the languages and other tests, such as:

• Language support
• Language display
• Cultural sensitivity
• Regional Accounting

Operational Business Procedures

You have to check the e procedures and the operating system of your business procedures.

Measure how much ability you have to provide. Check the following:

• How well e-procedure copes
• Observe for bottlenecks

System Integration

System integration is a vast type of testing where an ecommerce tester performs the following checking:

• Data Interface format
• Interface frequency and activation
• Updates
• Interface volume capacity
• Integrated performance

Performance

The above section already explains the performance testing.

In short, ecommerce QA testers should perform the mentioned duties:

• Performance bottlenecks
• Load handling
• Scalability analysis

Login and Security

The last thing in the ecommerce QA testing process is checking the login information and confirming the securities.

 The process includes:

• Login capability
• Penetration and access control
• Insecure information transmission
• Web attacks
• Computer viruses
• Digital signatures

Common E-Commerce QA Testing Services Provided by QA Companies

Suppose you are going to hire ecommerce QA testers from any Quality Assurance company. In that case, you must know about common e-commerce testing.

You might need some common QA testing in e-commerce, which the QA companies usually provide.

These common ecommerce quality assurance testing are:

• Ecommerce Web Testing
• M-Commerce Testing
• Omni-Channel eCommerce Testing
• E-commerce Platform Testing
• S-Commerce Testing
• E-commerce Performance Testing
• E-Commerce Validation Testing
• ecommerce Testing CoE
• E-commerce Automation Testing
• E-Commerce Integration Testing
• Payment Gateway Testing
• E-commerce A/B Testing
• ECommerce Regression Testing
• e-commerce Usability Testing
• eCommerce Functional Testing
• E-Commerce Compatibility Testing
• ecommerce Accessibility Testing
• AR Ecommerce Testing
• VR Ecommerce Testing
• IoT Ecommerce Testing
• AI Ecommerce Testing
• ML Ecommerce Testing
• Ecommerce Chatbot Testing
• Online Point-of-Sale (POS) Testing
• Ecommerce Security Testing

Different Types of E-Commerce Business Models?

An ecommerce application works between the buyers and the customers. Depending on the relationship between the buyers and the customers, there have been developed e-commerce business models.

Before explaining the ecommerce QA test cases and checklist for eCommerce QA testing guidelines, you should know the major eCommerce websites/apps models.

The eCommerce QA testing models are:

• Business to Business (B2B) Model
• Business to Customer (B2C) Model
• Customer to Customer (C2C) Model
• Customer to Business (C2B) Model
• Consumer to Administration (C2A) Model

Business to Business (B2B) Model

The B2B business model refers to the Business between two businesses.

 That means an online business helps another business to grow.

This kind of business system is called a business-to-business model.

For example, the affiliate marketing site #ContinueToday will be a B2B model when reviewing Amazon‘s products. The Business to business model also includes Alibaba.com, eBay etc.

Or, when Riseup Labs works for another business to build their software or provide QA, BPO or Unity services, it will also be considered under the B2B model.

Business to Customer (B2C) Model

Surely, you will understand the model very easily.

As a customer, whenever you buy a product from an online shop, it sells the product and helps you meet your satisfaction.

That is called the Business to customer model.

The main idea of Business to customers is to provide services to direct customers. For instance, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Uber are the major B2C models.

Customer to Customer (C2C) Model

The C2C refers to the customer-to-customer business process.

This business model occurs when an individual directly sells his product to the customer.

In this model, the seller person does everything in the business process, which means from producing listings to shipping and website management, the person does everything.

The individual is also responsible for running the shop.

Customer to Business (C2B) Model

When an individual directly sells his products to any business organization, it will be considered under the customer-to-business model.

C2B business model’s examples are the writers, freelancers, artists or web designers who directly provide services to businesses. 

Consumer to Administration (C2A) Model

Consumer to administration business model happens between an individual and administration like govt or non-govt.

Amazon and eBook are online shops that sell their product directly to consumers. So, it is a C2A model.

Theater or Movie houses are also an example of the consumer-to-administration model.

What are the Major Components of an eCommerce Website?

If I am not wrong, you must shop from an ecommerce site at least once. Research says that more than two billion people are now relying on e-comm shops for purchasing.

In that case, you may be familiar with the major components of an ecommerce website or e-comm application.

From this ecommerce QA testing guide, you can find the major components of an ecommerce website or an application below which help you learn how to test an eCommerce website.

• Homepage
• Search
• Product Details Page
• Shopping Cart
• Payments
• Recommended Products

Homepage

The home page is the most noticeable component for an eCommerce website or application and any website.

Where for an ecommerce website, the homepage plays the role of the most powerful marketing tool.

The homepage contains the company’s logo, the search keyword, top navigation and the behavior of the page for the logged and unlogged customers.

Specifically, the homepage works as a banner of the ecommerce website.

Search

You may know the importance of search algorithms. Besides, search functionality is a must-have feature of an ecommerce site.

Since it is one of the most valuable factors for the success of a retail shop, the search option must provide the right product that the consumers want to see.

Your search algorithm should be more advanced, evolved, and precise.

An ecommerce QA tester should be focused on the product users are searching for and whether the results are relevant or not.

Product Details Page

Another major component of an online shop is the product detail page.

Whenever you want to buy a product, you must want to know the details of it before buying, right?

In the case of ecommerce, customers search for the details page of a product when they get a link or find it on the homepage of any site or app.

The product info page is the most detailed page on the e-comm website.

Shopping Cart / Add-to-Cart

The add-to-cart option is one of the most essential and desired features for both the seller and the consumers.

The basic functionality of the add-to-cart button is to help people to save the product they wish to buy. In an ecommerce app, consumers add different products from different pages they will purchase together.

Payments

Payment failure is a major issue for online shops. Especially, the customers do not believe the sites that have issues with their payment system.

An unsuccessful transaction can cause you a great loss, and the same customer will never get back to your site.

So the payment system should be error-free and clear.

Recommended Products

Suppose, please search for night suits on your website. With the result of their searches, you are also suggesting to them the cheap bathing suits available on your page as recommended.

Who knows how many of them get interested?

It is assumed that at least 50% of users are interested in the recommended item. Almost 60% of the new customers buy the product from the recommended page.

Whenever a customer purchases something from an online shop, she will see a follow-up session. If she buys anything from this session, the profit will boost.

E-Commerce Testing Checklist

If you are up to testing an ecommerce website and want to know how to test ecommerce website, you should follow the checklists.

Some basic testing techniques are usually used for testing an eCommerce website and application. Besides, for ecommerce, there are also specific testing strategies.

Some common test cases are mostly used as an ecommerce checklist.

This e-commerce QA testing guide will teach you how to write e Commerce test cases.

The ecommerce QA test cases overview are given below with the basic components of an eCommerce shop:

E-Commerce Homepage Checklist

As mentioned above, the homepage best represents an e-com website.

For ecommerce QA testing of the homepage, the test cases are:

• Whether it is going to auto-scroll?
•  What is the interval time of the image refreshing?
• When the customer hangs on it, is it still going to scroll to the next?
• Whether it be hovered on?
• Is it clickable?
• Is it taking the customer to the right page and the right deal after clicking?
• What is the loading time?
• Is the rest of the content visible?
• Is it browser and device friendly?

E-Commerce Search Checklist

Imagine yourself as a user of an online shop.

It will help you understand the importance of the search bar.

For assuring the quality of your e-com site, you must check the following tests:

• Whether the relevant products are seen when entering the keywords?
• Is it showing related products should be searched using a specific keyword?
• Whether the search results display the product name, image, customer review, and price details?
• Whether the top of the list always has the most relevant products?
• Are there any suggestions that should be listed when the keyword is typed in the search bar?
• What is the number of results to display per page?
• Is it showing multi-page results?
• Sort options for the brand name, pricing, reviews or ratings, etc.
• Check Add-to-Cart functionality

E-Commerce Product Page Details Checklist

You are already knowledgeable about the product page details. But do you know the test cases for an ecommerce product page details?

In short, an ecommerce tester should focus on the buy button, image quality, add-to-cart button, price details, and customer reviews should be checked on the product details page etc.

 Other cases should be checked on an e-commerce website product details page provides:

• Is the Product name, description, image and price showing?
• Is the Add-to-Cart button easily findable?
• Whether the checkout options are available?
• Is the shipping information available there?
• Is it in stock? If not, when will it be in stock?
• Whether the Breadcrumb is findable for navigation?

Add-to-Cart Checklist in eCommerce

For the checkout flow in an ecommerce site, you must check the following things if you are an e-com tester or hire ecommerce testers:

• Does the functionality work as expected?
• Are users allowed to add and remove items to the cart and continue shopping?
• Is the order price updated when a customer adds/removes a new item to/from the cart?
• Check whether VAT and delivery costs add up correctly.
• Are the details like shipping charges and taxes displayed along with the product’s price?
• Is the option for calculating Shipping costs with different shipping options available?
• Whether the Apply Coupons button works?

E-commerce Payment Checklist

The payment system is the place for gaining the trust of your customers in an ecommerce site.

In testing the payment case, ecommerce test engineers should check the given list:

• Are different payment options available?
• Are there any options for a simple purchase
• Whether there any option for registration after shopping?
• Is it able to provide customer data security?
• Check out the session time and whether it confirms the security.
• Is the purchase confirmed through email or message?

Recommended Products Checklist for Ecommerce

Although the recommended product feature is one of the most crucial and directly syncs with an ecommerce business’s profit, it is not that noticeable.

So the ecommerce Quality Assurance testers should check the following very carefully:

• Is it visible immediately after the purchase?
• Are the recommended products relevant to the purchase?
• Check Data mining/BI systems.
• Check the backend search queries that populate these sections.

After-Order Test Cases

You may know that customers have a follow-up session after they buy any products online, such as shipping details, tracking the order, email info or the return procedure.

So, post-order test cases are also very important for your ecommerce site. The checklists for an ecommerce website’s post order should be:

• Order confirmation email or message.
• Is there any cancellation option with the reason?
• Are they able to view the previous purchases?
• Whether the product change option is available?
• Are the customers able to track their orders?

Other Tests

It would be best to do other general tests before launching an ecommerce app or website. The general test cases will help get proper coverage, so you should do it carefully.

The general test cases for ecommerce testers may include:

• User Registration
• Account Verification
• Check Other Pages
• Total Number of the Products
• Discount, Promo Codes etc. 

Useful Tools for Mapping E-commerce Site

You may know that there are some tools for testing an eCommerce website or e-com application. These tools help you find potential problems or other issues that might cause low user experience in ecommerce development.

Some basic tools for mapping an e-commerce site are given below:

• UsabilityHub
• FiveSecondTest
• Feng-GUI
• HotJar
• Optimizely
• Google Analytics Content Experiments
• Silverback
• UserTesting.com
• Monitor.us

UsabilityHub

The usabilityHub is a platform where you will get a research panel. This tool helps you to find the user experience. Moreover, you can improve the UX of your app through the guidelines.

You will get the results from real people from usabilityHub.

 FiveSecondTest

Don’t you want to know whether your messages for the users are working or not?

FiveSecondTest is a testing tool that lets you know the communication effectiveness of your messages to the customers.

This tool confirms what a person likes most about your website design in just five minutes. 

Feng-GUI

Feng-GUI is another tool that works the same as the FiveSecondTest. It finds out the customer’s vision in just five seconds and provides you with a prediction about what a consumer will like most.

HotJar

HotJar is a testing tool that reveals the users’ online behavior to you. You can call HotJar, the customers’ voice.

You will get to know your site’s most clicked and unclicked zones. The most liked page by the users will be shown to you by this testing tool.

Optimizely

Optimizely, the testing tool allows tracking of all the clicks and conversion that matters to an e-com shop.

 It works as the analytics of your websites.

Google Analytics Content Experiments

Analytics content experiments test the different versions of your site.

Provide analytics about their performance and whether they can persuade your users to buy the products or complete the specified tasks.

The google analytics content experiments work on the five different versions of a site with 5 different URLs and determine which one generates the most conversions.

Silverback

The testing tool is only for the Mac usability testing application. It works for mapping the usability at a large scale that includes:

• Record usability testing sessions
• Capture screen activity
• Assign assignments
• Highlight significant moments within a session.

UserTesting.com

Another tool for testing the usability of an ecommerce website that QA testers can use in ecommerce QA testing is UserTesting.com.

You can choose the template for the configuration to build the exam.

You can also select demographics for your target audience.

Besides, it will allow you to find the videos that users mostly view. 

Moreover, you can ask for written responses from them or follow-up questions.

Monitor.us

Monitor.us is another testing tool that helps you check the performance of your ecommerce website or e-commerce application.

You can check and monitor how the apps or the pages of your app are performing.

Challenges of E-commerce QA Testing

You will get a clear idea about the challenges of ecommerce QA testing whether you are an ecommerce tester or not.

The major challenges of E-Com Quality Assurance testing providing below:

• It is difficult to track each buy and store and their behavior.
• Every 3 months, an ecommerce site changes as every holiday or promotional offer comes with new user experiences. These constant changes can bottleneck the ecommerce developers and ecommerce QA testers.
• An eCommerce website may be integrated with a third-party website. Sometimes the third-party site may get down, which can make you face difficulties in end-to-end testing.
• You will never let your guard down. Maybe the day is Black Friday or Cyber Monday. But keeping your performance testing poor for other issues will cause a great loss.
• The context of user-friendliness changes as per the user, so it is hard to guarantee that your usability testing is effective.
• Good understanding of the business model and requirements of the ecommerce QA testers you are hiring is important.
• Access multilingual markets and business regions.
• Since the website keeps changing rapidly, the QA team must focus on the changing test cases and the automation frameworks.
• Checking all the details, including credit card, shipping charges, and tax details, by the ecommerce QA testing team may get difficult.
• Saving sites from hackers and intruders may feel difficult.
• Running the regression QA testing for the impact of the updates.
• Although an e-commerce site may look simple, it has very complicated integrations.
• Automation testing’s achievability may be low, and manual testing is time-consuming.
• Keeping with security guidelines to safeguard customer data and identity.
• Testing the scalability and reliability of applications may get difficult.

Hiring dedicated ecommerce QA testers can solve your problems and help easily overcome the challenges.

Common Bugs in eCommerce Website Testing

You may find some common bugs when starting eCommerce website testing.

The most common bugs that are usually found in the ecommerce QA testing process are:

• Absent Product Data
• Redirect Error
• Poor images without the zoom function
• Low page load speed
• Malfunctioning payment function

Absent Product Data

An E-Commerce site works as a display of various products depending on the category of the site.

Since it shows various data, sometimes you may miss important or valuable product data, measured as a common error of ecommerce app development.

Suppose you are selling a product on your online shop, but you missed to provide any of these details:

• Color
• Size
• Images
• Specifics
• Titles, etc.

If you miss any of these, that may cause you losses. People who cannot see important info about any product will not be interested in buying this from your ecommerce application.

To prevent these issues, must follow the ecommerce QA checklist.

Redirect Error

Another massive issue for eCommerce sites is redirected errors. 

Suppose you face missing redirects when going from one URL to another. In that case, you will understand the issue occurring for missing redirects.

Missing redirects cause a negative website impact on your organic search rankings, user experience, and paid search results.

Hiring a dedicated QA company can help you prevent these issues and establish all redirects and pages in appropriate categories.

Poor Images Without the Zoom Function

Imagine yourself as a customer. If you find any vague image on any ecommerce site, will you go to buy that product?

Of course not, right?

So, poor images are not going to help you sell your product. 

Remember, not only high-quality images, but also you should focus from different angles.

Low Page Load Speed

The research found that 53% of mobile site visitors abandoned it if pages took longer than 3 seconds to load, whereas for 2-seconds, delay abandonment rates of up to 87%.

Suppose you are a user of an ecommerce site and looking to shop for wedding dresses. You have searched for a renowned site, but it’s not loading, and you are waiting. In that case, you might be disappointed, and all your excitement will vanish.

So, ensure high load speed whenever you are developing your ecommerce site.

Malfunctioning Payment Function

If your site has this issue, you will face serious consequences. The users will never trust you if they face it at least once.

Put all of your attention on keeping the user’s data secure. Add the payment methods in detail, and do not let them circuitous too many steps to pay for the product. 

For ensuring your customers use other payment methods, add more methods, excluding Apple Pay, Google, Net banking, and PayPal.

Best Practices for an eCommerce QA Testing

You have learned the types of eCommerce QA testing processes you can run for your ecommerce app QA testing or ecommerce website QA testing. Some best practices that you should be more focused on are:

• Run A/B tests
• Especially treat usability and performance testing
• Use real browsers and devices
• Do not cut out manual tests

Run A/B Tests

Through the A/B testing, you will know the version of your ecommerce website that attracts more customers.

Various features with high-quality visuals can bring more consumers to your shop. Put best-selling items more than good reviews.

Especially Treat Usability and Performance Testing

As the market is global and people worldwide are your potential consumers, you should focus on usability and performance testing specifically.

To compete with other sites and keep the consumers in your online shop, you must ensure a bug-free site.

Use Real Browsers and Devices

If you run your ecommerce app QA testing on real browsers and devices, you will get the best results according to your goal.

So, test your e-commerce app QA testing as many browsers as possible.

Do Not Cut Out Manual Tests

Since the ecommerce site depends on the users, you must understand human perception. For that, only automation testing is not enough.

Manual testing will help if you focus on realizing and establishing what impresses your customers most.

New Technologies Evolving in Ecommerce QA Testing

As mentioned above, the ecommerce business is evolving rapidly due to the pandemic.

In the ecommerce ecosystem, new technologies provide constant customer support. And today, online shoppers are getting more advantages from the new technology.

The ongoing new technology that offers the best shopping experience to consumers includes:

• Augmented Reality (AR)
• Virtual Reality (VR)
• Voice Search
• Personalization etc.

Technology is a continuously changing process. For this, ecommerce QA testers should always be aware of the technological changes and update themselves according to the new skill set.

Conclusion

With the rapid growth of technology and the evolving form of globalization, e-commerce sites are the most demanding over worldwide. Both businesses and consumers are very sensitive in using and developing of an e-commerce website. But you can overcome all of your challenges if you follow this e-commerce QA testing guide. Hope there is no confusion!

E-Commerce QA Testing Guide FAQs:

Usually, people interested in what is eCommerce QA testing have some common questions. Here are these frequently asked questions about the e-Commerce QA testing guide included with the answers:

This page was last edited on 5 January 2023, at 11:22 am