The surge in the number of e-commerce businesses in the last 10 years has outnumbered traditional retail stores. Customers are no longer afraid to purchase products online; they feel at ease and have less effort to go to the physical store with the social pressures of dressing up and the long commuting road filled with traffic and beeping car horns or whatnot.

According to recent research from Statista, global retail eCommerce sales soared to an estimated 5.8 trillion U.S. dollars in 2023. Projections suggest a substantial 39 percent growth in this figure in the coming years, with expectations to exceed eight trillion dollars by 2027. In response to this upward trend, businesses of all sizes have put in the effort to revamp their online services to remain competitive and relevant in this dynamic marketplace. Those who fail to keep up risk losing these promising markets of high revenues with little to no cost in rental stores and the labor costs involved surrounding the physical stores.

Conducting test cases for e-commerce websites becomes the backbone of achieving the optimal online store functions at all times, guaranteeing the delivery of a high-quality and worthy online shopping experience for the customers. However, the challenge often lies in the shortage of resources or technical expertise required for such testing.

In this article, we’ll be addressing the most critical test cases for eCommerce website testing.

What is e-commerce website testing?

E-commerce website testing is a comprehensive process designed to assess an online store’s features, functionalities, and security aspects. The primary objective is to identify potential errors and issues that may impact the performance and user experience of the eCommerce website. This meticulous testing approach is crucial for ensuring 24×7 availability and creating an optimal environment for customers to make purchases and place repeat orders.

By thoroughly examining the various facets of an eCommerce website, businesses can effectively enhance their online presence, build customer trust confidently, and stay afloat in the ever-evolving digital marketplace. The focus on testing helps to cover all potential challenges and keeps a seamless, reliable, and user-friendly shopping experience for online customers throughout.

The various types of web testing

Numerous essential tests prove to be significant and beneficial for eCommerce sites. Here are the primary test types that are particularly relevant to the world of online commerce and have been applied frequently in every eCommerce project that we come across.

Functionality Testing: Evaluating the overall operation of your website, uncovering issues like broken links, browser compatibility, checkout glitches, and cart problems. User acceptance testing (UAT) is closely related to maintaining end-to-end functionality working correctly as it is supposed to, a vital factor in a successful eCommerce experience.

Usability Testing: While your products may be exceptional, a poorly designed website can drive customers away. Usability testing focuses on the user experience (UX) in checking whether or not the visitors navigate your site effortlessly.

Performance Testing: Assessing how your site handles traffic, response times, scalability, and more. Managing high volumes of visitors at times without having website crashes or downtimes, especially during sales or promotions, contributes a large share to your revenue boosters. Load testing and stress tests are fundamental to correctly measuring your site’s performance under various conditions.

Security Testing: Given the sensitivity of customer data, security testing is the baseline for any eCommerce site. Techniques such as penetration testing, API security tests, vulnerability scanning, and security audits play crucial roles in safeguarding your store and customer information from potential cyber threats. It’s better to protect and stay defensive rather than battling and struggling with constant attacks from outside intruders who love to put your brand reputation at risk as long as they can have their hands on your customer’s financial information, such as bank cards, accounts, transactional info, etc.

Device compatibility testing: To check how your store is presented online and performs on different types of devices like PCs, mobiles, tablets, etc.
Why does an eCommerce website need testing?

There are several compelling reasons for store owners to conduct thorough testing on e-commerce sites, including:

• Bug Identification: Helps uncover both major and minor bugs, glitches, or issues in the store’s functionalities, ensuring a seamless customer experience.
• User Experience Assurance: It is essential to guarantee an optimal user experience, focusing on the store’s overall performance and responsiveness to customer interactions.
• Security Verification: Ensuring the security of customers’ sensitive information, such as credit card details, is critical to testing and safeguarding against potential vulnerabilities.
• Functionality Validation: Verify the proper functioning of various features like product filtering, discount offers, and customer service chatbots to deliver optimal customer performance.
• Browser Compatibility Checks: Checking for browser compatibility issues is crucial, ensuring the store performs seamlessly across different web browsers.
• SEO Assessment: Identify any issues related to search engine optimization (SEO) and establish the website’s visibility and ranking on search engines.
• Compliance Standards Check: Certifying whether or not it is in compliance with industry standards and regulations, providing customers with a secure and trustworthy online shopping environment.

Comprehensive testing before launching an eCommerce website or introducing new features is necessary, not by choice.

What is a Test Case?

A test case serves as a scenario designed to evaluate a specific function on your website. The essential components of a basic test case encompass:

• Test Case ID: Identification tag for the specific test case in question.
• Description: A summary outlining the objective or purpose of the test case.
• Prerequisites: The conditions or pre-existing requirements must be fulfilled before executing the test.
• Test Steps: A detailed list enumerating each action undertaken during the test, providing a step-by-step account.
• Test Data: All pertinent information associated with the test case acts as the input data for the evaluation.
• Expected Results: Clear indications of the anticipated outcomes if the test is successful, serving as a benchmark for comparison.
• Actual Results: Document the real-time outcomes observed when the test is executed.
• Pass/Fail Analysis: A conclusive assessment determining whether the test results align with the expected outcomes, categorizing the test as either a pass or fail based on the specific actions taken.

10 most important test cases for eCommerce website

This compilation of 10 crucial test cases for eCommerce websites provides insights into the elements that should be thoroughly tested and verified during your website testing procedures if you don’t want to confront failures.

Test Case for Customer Login/Registration

The customer registration and login process serves as the initial step in welcoming customers and facilitating their purchases on your eCommerce platform. If potential customers encounter difficulties while attempting to register or log in, they may choose to exit your store, opting to purchase comparable products from your competitors. Their enthusiasm for future transactions on your site is constantly canceled. Hence, conducting a thorough test case for your customer login and registration page should be on high alert. This includes a comprehensive examination of the login process, verifying that customers can successfully register or log in without encountering any impediments.

Product Search Test

When your eCommerce site boasts an extensive inventory with hundreds or thousands of products, it becomes excessive for customers to locate items. Listing products in your store is futile if customers encounter difficulties finding them. To optimize sales and enhance the customer experience, conducting test cases for product searches is critical, making sure that customers searching for products using names or keywords can easily and swiftly find the items they are looking for in the product search bar on your site.

Payment Gateway Integration Test

The integration of payment gateway(s) is often lastly tested. This part of the customer journey seems to determine and influence your business the most financially. Any glitch or inadequacy in integrating your store and payment gateway(s) can lead to a loss in sales and potential revenue. Therefore, conducting a test case for payment gateway integration is a must. This test ensures the proper and secure functionality of all integrated payment gateways, such as PayPal, Stripe, Apple Pay, etc., on the eCommerce website. If you are using 3rd party integrations, double-check their security procedures; it may end up backfiring if not done carefully.

Coupon/Discount Test

Providing discount offers in your store is an effective way to attract and boost sales. However, even if these discounts are correctly configured for selected or all products, they must be properly applied when a customer attempts to enter a coupon code or purchase a discounted product on your eCommerce website. This testing procedure verifies that customers can easily apply coupons or discount codes, verifying whether or not they can avail themselves of the offered discounts on their orders without any issues.

Test Case for Add To Cart

While you may choose to hide the “Add to Cart” button for non-logged-in users on your eCommerce site, often allowing all users to shop is preferable for maximizing sales and revenue. However, if the “Add to Cart” functionality is not working correctly, it can lead to customer frustration, prompting them to leave your store. Your customers are just one step away from payment; you would not want them to bounce off, right? Conducting a test on the add-to-cart process/button is equally prioritized as the transaction payment step. This test involves all actions regarding the “Add to Cart” button, which allows items to be easily added or removed from the shopping cart.

Checkout Process Test

This test aims to verify that when a customer clicks on the checkout button, the order finalization process occurs smoothly. This step covers filling in customer details, including shipping address and payment information and is captured accurately and without any issues.

Test Case for Shipping/Delivery

Shipping and delivery options are crucial in a customer’s purchasing decision. Various stores provide different shipping choices, and it’s essential to ensure that whatever options are offered are operational and functioning as anticipated.

Conducting tests for shipping and delivery functionalities helps verify whether all details related to the shipping/delivery of products, such as delivery charges, estimated delivery time, tracking information, etc., are accurately displayed on the order confirmation page.

Customer Service Chatbot Test

Conducting Customer Service Chatbot Test is there to guide customers through the hectic of online shopping while visiting your sites. Responding appropriately and promptly assisting customers with their inquiries has always scored higher in customer satisfaction. It’s advisable to test the chatbot using various queries to avoid producing errors or failing to function on every site of your business, even if it’s a sub-page.

Responsiveness & Compatibility Test

No one enjoys a slow response portion of the website displaying on different devices. Many businesses only focus on iPhone screens of all sizes and neglect Android devices, which happen to account for almost 70% of the demographics. It’s best to stay responsive to all devices’ screen sizes; although the testing efforts can be a pain, it’s an underrated step before launching.

Data Security & Privacy Test

Identifying security vulnerabilities and potential entry points for data breaches is the quickest way to build customer trust and drive more purchases in the long run. Executing test cases for data security and privacy verifies that sensitive information, including passwords and banking details, is stored securely, safeguarding customers’ data from compromise.

Additional consideration

Performance testing: Load tests and stress tests can come in handy for eCommerce websites to ensure the sites can handle heavy traffic and large volumes of users and transactions. No one wants a frozen website during holidays and sales season, don’t we?

Error Handling: Ensure the website displays meaningful error messages for invalid actions (e.g., invalid promo codes and out-of-stock products).

Conclusion

As the eCommerce industry expands and intensifies in competition, testing has become the ritual practice to achieve the triumph of an eCommerce website. Conducting thorough testing with multiple test cases enables the identification of potential issues that may hinder performance or customer satisfaction, ensuring that every aspect functions as intended.

Adhering to these test cases provides a comprehensive grasp of your eCommerce website’s functionality and performance, allowing you to deliver an enhanced user experience for your customers. This, in turn, fosters trust in your brand and eventually contributes to increased sales revenue.