Effective Ways of Improving Mobile eCommerce Testing in 2020

by Pratik Gupta

Recently, Walmart decided to integrate Walmart Grocery with its main mobile app to hook more customers and simplify the shopping. Target integrated its separate shopping apps a bit earlier. In the summer of 2019, TikTok added an ability to integrate links from online retailers. Later, the app started testing the “Shop Now” button for making in-app purchases. This new feature is expected to remain in the experimental phase for the next few years. And nevertheless, the fact that along with retail giants social networks are changing the face of mobile eCommerce is undeniable.

Mobile eCommerce in Numbers

It is more likely that customers will be interacting with your eCommerce website using a mobile device. As of the beginning of January, 2020, 79% of smartphone users reported having made a purchase using their mobile devices in the last six months. According to the 2018 survey, 29 to 38% of Americans used mobile devices for holiday shopping.

Source: eMarketer

Since 2018, mobile transactions in Northern Europe and Asia-Pacific have been representing over 50% of online transactions. Other regions keep apace with it — 44% of transactions in Europe and 47% in the Middle East & Africa are completed on the smartphones, too.

Source: eCommerce News

In Q1 2019, the share of smartphones in retail visits worldwide accounted for 65% generating 46% of orders. The gap between visits and completed transactions is still considerable. Poor performance and bugs are on the list of factors that cause this gap.

Why You Shouldn’t Skip Testing

According to Baymard Institute research, a technical error or website maintenance in 89% of cases leads to the instant abandonment. The same happens with mobile applications. When a user installs an app and instead of the smooth functioning experiences glitches or technical errors, they will delete this app immediately. And who can blame them?

A bug-free eCommerce app platform is what helps to retain customers and reach new audiences. Effective eCommerce mobile app testing is what makes it bug-free.

Testing Checklist

The things of the primary concern are performance (glitches and crashes), compatibility (incorrect display on certain devices and browser versions), functionality (difficulty finding items, checkout/payment problems, etc.), and user experience issues (layout bugs and poorly designed navigation). The following checklist covers these and the majority of other common bugs.

• General functionality: homepage, product pages, shopping cart, etc.
• Workflow: login, search, sorting & filters, adding/removing an item from a shopping cart, checkout, invoice generation, payment, review posting.
• Payment gateway: whether price and shipping fees are correct, all kinds of payment methods are functional, the refund process works, etc.
• Performance: loading speed, uptime, error messages, etc.
• Other things: content, links, analytics, social media integration, etc.

by Dustin Belt

How to Improve Mobile eCommerce Testing

Marketing + QA

Effective testing requires an understanding of consumer behavior. For example, clothes purchases generate high return rates because the size, color, material or aesthetic properties of an item do not correspond to the ones on the website. By the way, we have some experience in providing a solution to this problem. We have tested the software that helps users select the most suitable size of clothing online. When it comes to groceries, consumers prefer to buy non-perishable items online. People would more likely order canned goods and cereals than bread, milk or dairy products. Thus, QAs need to receive clear guidelines from the marketing team.

Exploratory Testing

This approach includes simultaneous studying of a project functionality and carrying out tests on the fly, without preparing test cases in advance. As a rule, exploratory testing allows finding many bugs at an early stage and reduces the time required for testing. The efficiency to the great extent depends on the experience of QA engineers, their knowledge of the niche apps and common bugs.

UX Testing

The challenge of user experience testing, also known as usability, lies in its rather subjective nature. While layout bugs and vague navigation are usually obvious, a particular type of user behavior may be individual for either a QA engineer or a customer. Thus, prepare numerous user scenarios for testing the homepage, filters, product details, availability, checkout process, etc. Always pay attention to real-life context and analytics on user behavior on the website.

GUI Testing

Technically, it is necessary to verify that the appearance of an eCommerce application meets the requirements. However, sometimes QA engineers should take a more active part in mobile app testing. For example, text font and size may seem neat in the requirements but be unreadable on the screen. The icons, especially those that come without text, may look not relatable to their functions. Testers should be able to provide feedback on this matter.

Performance Testing

The goal of performance testing is to check how quickly an app works under pressure. It is especially important in the present climate, when online shopping and home delivery are in high demand. To start with, check if the content is optimized properly. Then, run a number of specific tests.

• Load tests verify the behavior under peak loads using traffic stimulators. Make sure your app functions smoothly when multiple users try to access it simultaneously.
• Stress tests analyze the behavior of an application when it is pushed beyond normal load conditions for a long time.
• Capacity tests determine how many users and transactions an app can handle while still meeting the performance goals.
• Endurance tests check if a system is capable of handling the extended load over significant amount of time without deteriorations in response time.
• Spike tests to test the performance against the sudden increase of traffic to determine the recovery time and estimate the weaknesses of an eCommerce app.

Integration Testing

eCommerce apps almost always deal with at least one type of third-party software — product search engine, payment system, account service, etc. These subsystems should be tested together. Check how the platform behaves when a payment system is down or the connection is broken and display the correct error messages. Consider involving the providers of the external systems for more effective testing.

Compatibility Testing

Find the right mix of virtual and physical devices. Emulators and virtual devices are excellent for testing script languages, network bypass, and a pseudo-live environment, while physical devices have more opportunities for checking real-life scenarios. You can cover approximately ¾ of the customers by testing an eCommerce app on:

• mobile and tablet version;
• 2 iOS versions;
• 5 Android versions;
• 6 browser families;
• 10 screen resolutions.

Regression Test Automation

Mobile automation testing saves a lot of time and operational costs. Every release cycle requires the repetition of multi-device testing. The suites tend to grow with each found defect. This is why regression testing and automation go hand-in-hand. Automation also helps to cover the verification of complicated vital modules, like contacts validation, loyalty programs, promo codes, etc. Stable, simple, and frequently repeated automated tests quickly check the variety of changes, leaving QA engineers more time for exploration and finding more unusual cases.

Time Management

This is rather obvious, but mobile application testing is a huge scope of work, and you need a well-thought-out test strategy to handle it. Consider creating more checkpoints on the way. Bugs are easier and cheaper to fix when found early.

by Mateusz Dach

Bottom Line

Effective mobile eCommerce testing is vital for business. QA engineers should start with exploratory testing and work closely with the marketing team. It is important to remember that both performance and usability issues can have a damaging effect on the reputation of an eCommerce application.

To increase the accuracy of mobile eCommerce testing, engineers in QA Madness behave like customers online and work in close collaboration with product owners. They know where to look for valuable insights and where tricky bugs usually pop up.

So if you need a specialist that can test your mobile eCommerce application fast and guarantee the high-quality result, don’t hesitate to contact us.