Things one should know while E-commerce Testing.

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On observing the fast-changing retail landscape, Jeff Jordan of Andreesen Horowitz said: “We’re in the
midst of a profound structural shift from physical to digital retail.” Today, eCommerce is a $341 billion
industry and growing at the rate of approximately 20% each year. It is estimated that eCommerce sales
will cross $414.0 billion in sales in 2018 according to Forrester.

While the popularity of eCommerce continues, the past two years also have been witness to
many high-profile website glitches and crashes, especially during the high-traffic holiday season.
From Walmart, Belk, Tesco to the mighty Amazon, all have experienced major glitches at
crucial times, resulting in heavy losses, disgruntled customers, and some serious media bashing.

The expectations that people have of these eCommerce websites are increasing. Today,
eCommerce websites need to not only look great but have to also ensure that they are user-
friendly, easily navigable and do not take much time to load. Thus e-commerce site/website
testing has emerged as a crucial component of e-Commerce business success. The need is to
ensure that all the parts of the website function in harmony and that performance and security
issues do not lead to bad press. For this to happen, testing cannot be treated as an afterthought
and should ideally be built into the project from the very beginning. In this blog, we identify
things to test when testing an eCommerce website.

1. Product Page and Shopping Cart Behavior:

While testing eCommerce website, the product page is equivalent to the shelving and the
goods available in a brick-and-mortar store. Thus testing that the products display
correctly and properly on the site is a given. Considering that the product page displays a
lot of information such as product image, description, specification and pricing etc. it is
critical that all this information and the associated value proposition display correctly
whenever a customer logs in. Additionally, you have to check if the shopping cart is
adding the products and the associated pricing correctly. Testers need to add multiple
items to the shopping cart and then remove them to see if the price alterations during the
changes are correct. You also have to ensure that special deals, vouchers, coupons etc.
process correctly all the way through the checkout. Further, testers need to ensure that the
cart remembers the items that have been stored when the browser is closed suddenly and
then restarted.
2. Category page:
Category pages have a lot to convey so testers need to pay a great deal of attention in
testing the category pages and must ensure that sorting, testing and pagination (SRP)
making testing the search result page essential for eCommerce success. Considering that
 the search form is present in most of the pages, testers must make sure that when a
customer goes to the SRP page the relevant products, product information, and the
number of products per page display correctly, and all items on the next page and that
there are no duplications in the next page. Ensuring that the sorting parameters work
correctly and the sort order remains as chosen even when you paginate is important.
Further, testers need to play close attention to filtering options and ensure that filtering
and pagination work harmoniously. Finally, testers have to check if sorting and filtering
options are both applied they remain the same as we paginate or if new products are
added.
3. Forms and Account creations:
Optimizing forms in eCommerce with the help of testing can help increase conversion
rates. Since forms are a key talking point, whether it is to sign up for the site newsletter or
to create an account or at the checkout, testers need to make sure that these forms
function correctly. Testers need to make sure that the information gathered in these forms
is being stored, displayed and used correctly. If the customer creates a new account, then
testers need to check the login behavior and ensure that the customer is connected to the
right account. Testers also need to check the login and logout sessions, the login redirects
and finally, check if the purchased items get added to the correct account. If the customer
is proceeding to check-out as a guest, then testers need to make sure that they, the
customers, get the option to create an account when the order is placed.
4. Checkout and Payment Systems:
Testing checkouts and payment systems are critical to the success of an eCommerce site.
Lengthy checkout procedures and complicated payment systems can increase the chances
of shopping cart abandonments. Testers need to ensure that the checkout and payments
process is smooth and glitch free. For this taking a close look at the checkout process to
assess that the final amount to pay is correct after all other charges such as VAT, delivery
charges etc. are levied. Testers also need to check that final updates after alterations such
as changes in products being ordered, change of delivery address etc. reflect correctly.
Testers need to also check the payment systems using each payment method that is on
offer. Debit cards, credit cards, PayPal, mobile payment options, all should be checked
individually to check if the systems work correctly and also ensure that confirmation
emails are sent correctly.
5. Performance and Load testing:
Testers need to pay special emphasis on performance and load testing of eCommerce
sites. Almost 18% of shopping carts are abandoned because of slow eCommerce
websites. For an eCommerce website that makes $1 100,000 per day, a 1-second page
delay could potentially cost $2.5 million in lost sales each year. Testers also need to make
sure that the website can handle high traffic and assess how the website performs when
instead of two, 200 people log in simultaneously on their website without slowing down.
Apart from this, testers need to check web browser compatibility, ensure that cookies
are audited and that there are no broken links. Further, they need to also check if the
website has mobile device compatibility considering 7 out of 10 users access
eCommerce websites from their mobile devices.
6. Security Testing:
Testers need to focus on the security testing to safeguard customer data and ensure that
the customers privacy is not compromised. Testers thus need to check the penetration and
 access control, check for insecure information transmission, web attacks, digital
signatures etc. They also have to ensure that the application handles incoming and
outgoing data securely with penetration tests and identify vulnerabilities that can cause a
security breach and jeopardize client information.

Conclusion:

Testing an eCommerce website requires careful planning, meticulous execution and an eye for
detail. However arduous this task may seem, it is a critical element that contributes significantly
to the success of an eCommerce website.

Top 5 Secrets to Bug Hunting Success in Software Testing

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What’s a Bug in a software?

A bug is a defect present in the software, obstructing its desired performance. The defect(s)
could be a mistake in coding, error in designing, faulty requirements and many more. Presence of
bug continuously degrades the software quality.

How to remove bugs?

Testing Team is deployed, to locate bugs, for their removal. Testers build test strategies and test
cases to identify bugs, in order to remove them. In the era of agile development, tester’s role has
become more relevant than catching the bug. Now, their work is not limited to just testing only.
Testers are working closely with clients and development teams, so as to attain the maximum
quality of the software in the minimal time. They are acting as the representatives of end-
users/client, to have better & deeper understanding of the quality improvement needs, as desired
by the end-users/client.

Testers with acquired knowledge & gained skill and experience know how to perform their job
efficiently, but a good tester is always starved for anything related to testing. Here, we are giving
you, top 5 secrets to achieve a sure shot success in the bug hunting process.
 Explore, beyond the rules: It is impossible to make 100% bug-free software, considering the

impracticality in covering all facets of the software. However, a good test strategy along with

effective test cases keeps your target of achieving bug-free software, close to 100. But, a good

tester should not always stick to test strategy and impulsively follows it. This may make you the

victim of unintentional blindness and shortens your range of thinking. They should try to explore

more feasible scenarios, by thinking beyond these strategies. Along with test cases, a good tester

should consistently try to explore more functionalities under the test.

 Pattern Study: Bugs are social in nature, they are likely to reside in groups. Each bug or groups

have the tendency of affecting the same place, feature or functionality, again & again, uniquely.

Regular monitoring of the bug-catching mechanism and using past test ideas could assist, in

locating bugs, by evaluating the pattern of occurrence of the bugs, responsible for the affecting

the similar functionality. The information derived from this evaluation, will aware and prevents

developers, to make bug-occurring mistakes.

 Quick Attacks: Unless you don’t have any prior or little knowledge and understanding of the

software, you cannot gather requirements, which is a must requirement for formal preparation of

test strategies, plans, and documentation. Instead of waiting for the requirements, quick attacks

may be made on the software by executing wrong or inappropriate things. Quick attacks can be

like

o Leaving any field blank, which is mandatory to be filled.

o Typing words in the field, that requires numbers only.

o Typing numerous words or large numbers in the field, to check the acceptability and

efficiency to handle, of the software.

 Hit the bug hard: Discovery of a bug may appear as a success to you. You may try to record

your success in the bug-tracking report, but wait, this is just the beginning, not the end. Presence

of bugs indicates potholes in the software, thereby confirming software’s unstable nature. Testers

should take the advantage of this instability, and try to thrash the software, rudely by feeding it

with unfeasible inputs, cutting down its resources, etc. This may result in the revelation of more

harmful bugs.
  Be open to taking help from colleagues: No one is perfect in the world, everyone needs help.

Even the vivid tester, alone could not discover the bugs in all cases. There might be some cases,

where a tester alone, is unable to locate bugs. In that case, he/she should feel free to collaborate

with their colleagues and share their ideas and views on bug-hunting. This may generate several

ideas and effective solutions for any typical case.

Conclusion:
Testing is a large domain, which not only encompasses various approaches and strategies, to
provide the bug-free product but also empowers the testers to make use of their skills and
experiences, to reveal out the defects in a software product, in any possible way. Still, a tester
may consider and go through above stated noteworthy points, to make a testing process, easier
and meaningful.