Testing e-Commerce Sites - Some Guidelines

With the commencement of internet, one of the fastest developing phases of the same are the e-commerce platforms which help people buy anything and everything they want, sitting right on their couch. However, with the massive advantages provided by the e-commerce sites come various risks and problems which can cause havoc if not dealt with on time. This is why it is absolutely important to test these sites before they are released for public use.

Security Tests: When a person is buying something online, in most cases they tend to pay with the help of their credit or debit card or with the help of a net banking procedure. While they do it, they trust the particular e-commerce site with the details of their banks and hence it is absolutely important that their details are protected by the admin of the site. Hence security testing becomes very important in case of such sites to make sure that breaching he parameters are next to impossible

Usability Tests: The prime purpose of the e-commerce sites is to provide the customers with desirable product which they can add to their cart and shop. Hence the sites must be easily uploaded with new products in order to keep the customers updated with the latest items as well as the old ones that were available previously. Thus the usability testing is to be performed regularly on such websites.

User Friendly Interface Test: No one will waste their time on understanding the complicated work structure of the e-commerce site and hence will move on to a site with a simpler interface. Thus, as and when the features of the e-commerce sites are being upgraded, tests must be conducted to check that the user interface is still simple and it can be handled with utmost ease.

Performance Tests: The traffic on an e-commerce platform on a particular day is completely unpredictable. Hence the sites should be prepared for zero traffic as well as a huge surge of customers trying to buy products concurrently at the same time. This makes performance testing along with stress testing an absolute vital part of the software testing life cycle when it comes to the e-commerce sites.

The following tests can be conducted in order to make sure that the e-commerce sites are up and running at all times and are providing the customers with a superior experience while using the same.

1.    The accelerated functional test cycle should be conducted with QA strategies and various business process libraries which can be customized according to organizational needs, paying special heed to reusable test scenarios.
2.      With the help of performance modelling frameworks, performance-critical business flows and Service Level Agreement (SLA)-based performance reporting, the improvement in the performance issues should be checked.
3.     Features of the e-commerce sites like data security testing, legal compliance checks, and compliance with Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) should be thoroughly tested with the help of Effective Test Data Management services.
4.      As the customers are capable of using various types of browsers as well as different devices and OS to access a particular e-commerce site, hence the compatibility of the site with these features must be checked.
5.      In-house solutions like Functional Test Case Generator should be used to form test cases from customised libraries.