eCommerce Testing – Why Is Testing Important In The E-Commerce Application?

E-commerce applications are online business applications where users sell and buy products. E-commerce is a software and business process which allows businesses to work through the internet that is digital.  The E-commerce applications have various business processes like online fund transfers, marketing, inventory management, supply chain management.  In developing an e-commerce website, we need to find out designs and features which are customer friendly. It is important that these features are properly working and don’t have any bugs in it, to give the customer a nice and enjoyable experience thus; e-commerce website testing is an essential part of the development of an e-commerce website. The e-commerce website testing requires knowledge of the web-based testing techniques. The E-commerce website testers test their websites continuously. Testing is done in different browsers, different platforms, various combinations are tested, and also testing occurs on devices like mobiles and iPad.

Why Do We Test E-Commerce Websites?

The e-commerce application testing ensures that all the pages of the website are thoroughly tested all the e-commerce transactions are secure and validated and the application can be now given to end users to use. The e-commerce applications are very critical for businesses. The applications promise to provide the fast delivery and at very competitive prices and are in huge demand always. The e-commerce websites are the future of the world, growing at the fast rate and also massively, it requires a lot of investment, thus it requires and extensive testing. The e-commerce applications have been in since a long time now and there has been a lot of failure in this field, if we look in the history. These failures have lead to heavy losses which could have been avoided with better testing techniques. To check the usability of the application, how user friendly it is, make the application defect free are the reason we perform testing on e-commerce application. Maintain Quality Assurance standards are also vital part of a software development, so to see if our application comply to the quality assurance standards we perform testing

What To Test In E-Commerce Websites?

Some common things which should be tested in e-commerce applications are:

Testing the workflow of the application

The testing of the complete workflow would include

1. Login and Register to the website
2. Search Functionality of the Product
3. Applying filters on the Product range
4. Sorting feature in the website
5. Add/Remove to the shopping cart
6. Post Reviews on the Products
7. Check Out process
8. Payment Gateway and Payment Processing
9. Generation of order number and invoice

Functionality of the application

Basically, an e-commerce application has structure like:

• Main pages

1. Home Page
2. Product Page
3. Special Offers
4. Sitemap Pages like information , about us

• Product Type /category pages

1. The product page have options like size, color , type
2. Sorting feature is present to sort size, price
3. There is a feature to add to cart or add to wish list.

• Product Detail Page

1. Product Details page has product title, description
2. Images of the Product
3. Relates products
4. Information like features, compare to a related product
5. Add to cart feature

• Shopping Cart

1. View the list of products
2. Remove the product from the list
3. Select  delivery option, cash on delivery, card payment
4. Pay now

We need to understand the e-commerce website functionality to test the website. The features mentioned above are the common features of all e-commerce sites, but it may also be customized on business needs.

• Payment Gateway of the application

Test the checkout process and payment process taking in consideration the following things:

1. Final Amount to be paid: Check that the price is correct, the VAT, shipping charges, any discount codes all are applied and the final amount is right. Test with making changes in the final list of products, applying different discount codes, selecting different area to see the change in shipping charges.
2. Payments: Check if the payment is processed correctly by using all kinds of payment methods. Methods like Debit Card, Credit Card, Net Banking, Paypal. Check using demo card numbers and dummy accounts. Also Check if the orders are cancelled, the payment id sent back
3. Check the generation of invoice and the emails that are sent when payment is made.
4. Also ensure that the refund process and email, receipt of refund are all working fine.

• Security and Vulnerability Issues

Perform security testing in the application to make sure that the website is not prone to any security issues. Techniques like SQL Injections, Ethical hacks on various pages like Log in, Register. Also check that the payment gateway is secured.

• Browser Compatibility

It is important for the e-commerce applications to work on all types browsers, since if the customer uses one particular type of browser on which application desont work then he might not be able to use the website. The old browsers are now obsolete and new browsers are used generally.  The latest browsers used include, IE7 and above, Good Chrome, Firefox and Safari.

• Compatibility on Mobile Devices

If the website is build for use on mobile phone and website then it should be tested on various devices as well. Devices like Apple iPhone, Apple IPad, Apple IPad Mini, Android Phones, Windows Phone.

• Performance and SEO

The e-commerce application should load fast so that the users get the best experience. Use performance testing tools to test the performance of the website.

The website should be searchable by the user easily, so it should have good Search engine optimization. It can be achieved by using unique title tags, Structure of URLs, Sitemaps.

Other common things which should be tested in the e-commerce applications:

1. Content of the application
2. Formatting of the pages
3. Adding content /Deleting Content
4. Making changes in the settings
5. Removing and adding links
6. Making changes in shipping settings
7. Web Standards
8. Accessibility to the website.
9. Cookies
10. Analytics.
11. Social Buttons

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