Influenced by the pandemic, online businesses get boomed because more people keep a social distance. E-Commerce has become the first option for many start-ups. How to present a user-friendly online shopping website with all necessary functions working normally? Ecommerce testers will tell you the answer.

Generally, we test an eCommerce website in two different modes:

● According to the test types

● According to the system architecture of the Ecommerce website

According to Test Types

According to the test types, here is the test that we should do for an eCommerce website.

1. Compatibility testing

Generally, we test the browser compatibility to see if our website can display normally in different browsers such as Firebox, Chrome, and Edge, etc. Meanwhile, the operating system compatibility is a key point. We will check if our website can work normally in different operating systems like Windows 10, Windows XP, macOS, etc.

2.UI testing

You should consider the questions below for the user interface of an Ecommerce website.

● If the link is correct?

● Is there any textual error?

● Whether the product price is displayed correctly?

3. User experience(UE) testing

Firstly, check if the classification of the products on the homepage can fit the normal classification rules, and the display of the products is neat and clear enough.

Secondly, check the search result page. If the search result is correct and the display of the information is clear.

Finally, check the products details page. The product detail page will play a key role in the customer’s buying behavior. Product pictures, advertising commentary, product descriptions are all important elements.

4. Shopping process and shopping rules test

The most important process of a B2C website is the shopping process, which includes several important functions: shopping cart, delivery method, payment method, and order submission. The importance of the user experience of this process is to allow customers to easily complete the order process.

5. Shopping cart testing

When a certain product has a shopping limit, can it be placed in the shopping cart if it exceeds this value? Are the shopping limits in the shopping cart correct? Can the points be redeemed for genuine products or restricted products? Whether the points can be redeemed for promotional products?

6. Payment process

Can the selected products in the shopping cart be paid for normally? When the payment is completed, without waiting for the page to jump, whether the data transmission is correct if we close the browser directly? When the payment is completed, wait for the page to jump, whether the page we jump to is correct? Whether the data transmission between a certain module of the website is correct?

7. Order process test

After the order is submitted, verify the processing flow of the order and check whether the corresponding order status is correct.

● Performance and response speed test.

● Concurrency testing such as the seckill function.

● Purchase the same restricted product at the same time.

● Concurrent operation of twice points redemption with the same account.

When submitting an order, whether there are multiple orders during concurrent operations.

According to System Architecture

According to the system architecture of the e-commerce website, we should focus on the testing below.

For a typical system structure, the three-tier C/S architecture is currently adopted, namely 1.Presentation layer, 2. Business layer, and 3. Data layer (the page interacts with the database).

1. Presentation layer

Check if the front end of the application is correct.

● content test

Check the correctness, accuracy of the information provided by the web application system.

● site structure

Check if there are errors in the site structure and find out the invalid links.

a. Whether there is an empty link

b. Whether link to the specified page

c. Whether there is a connection error.

● user environment

Check if the website is compatible with the users’ browsers and operating systems.

2. The business layer

In this layer, the test work is mainly to find out problems in the business logic.

● performance test

The load test is to measure the performance of the Web system at a certain level to ensure that the Web system can work normally within the required range.

● data verification

Collect data of test user in a way of form and submit the data after ensuring the consistency, correctness, and completeness of the data. Then go to the database to verify.

● business test

Test the correctness of the business process of the system. Such as adding products to the shopping cart, settlement, order submission, order processing flow, etc.

3. Data layer

The test of the data layer mainly refers to the test of the database management system used to collecting and storing information.

● response time

Quantitative concurrent operations, whether the application system has an impact on the response data, which directly affect user experience.

● data integrity

The test work mainly verifies the submission and storage of data. Compare the data to be submitted with the data in the database to confirm whether it is correct.

What testing should we focus on the homepage, shopping cart, and payment gateway of an eCommerce website?

Homepage test

The homepage test is divided into two important modules, UI test, and search function test.

The UI test mainly tests items below:

● Whether the layout of the page is neat and beautiful?

● Whether the information, text, and pictures of each product are displayed correctly?

● Whether the pictures are deformed?

● Whether it jumps to the correct page by clicking the link?

● Whether there are empty links?

● Whether the input box, drop-down box, multi-select box, button function, js animation effect are normal?

● Whether the carousel diagram is normal when the mouse is hovering？

● Whether the page loading speed is normal？

● Whether it is compatible with different browsers, and whether it supports mobile terminal？

The search function test is divided into product search and shop search:

● Whether the search function has a character type and length limit?

● Whether there are prompt messages?

● Whether we can match the correct information when entering the complete product information?

● Whether there is a search history prompt when clicking the empty search box?

● Whether there is any prompt information in the search box, whether the prompt information can be selected, whether the matching information can be displayed when clicking the prompt information?

● Whether the required products can be displayed when entering the keyword?

● Whether the products can be displayed when the search box is empty?

● Whether there is a prompt when can not find the products? Is there a link to return to the homepage?

Shopping cart testing

● Interface test

For the website/APP interface, we need to check whether the layout of the page is reasonable and the display of the page is in full.

● Functional test

All page links work normally and can turn into the correct page.

Products added from the product listing page can be displayed in the shopping cart.

When products are added to the shopping cart from other pages while the shopping cart page is opened. The newly added products can be displayed after the shopping cart page is refreshed.

If click on the shopping cart when not logged in, the user will be prompted to enter the user name and password, or another shopping way will be prompted for non-registered users.

When the product is not selected, the settlement button is gray and cannot be clicked.

After selecting the product, the total price of the selected product will be displayed, and the settlement button will be highlighted and can be clicked.

Select the product and click the settlement button, and then the user can enter the order confirmation page.

On the shopping cart page, you can modify the added product information and save it automatically.

Check whether there is a corresponding reminder in the shopping cart if there is a price reduction or an urgent inventory and whether the out-of-stock product can be added to the shopping cart.

Check if there is a limit on the number of goods that can be added to the shopping cart.

Unwanted goods can be deleted.

● Performance Testing

How long does it take to open the shopping cart page;

● Usability test

Whether the shortcut function is supported

● Compatibility test

Whether the functions on different browsers are normal?

Whether the functions are normal on different APPs?

● Delivery information

Whether the functions of adding, modifying, deleting, and receiving information functions are normal?

How many receiving information can be added at most?

Whether the input box has restrictions on the character type and length?

Whether the receiving information can be saved when the required field is empty?

Can it be displayed correctly in the list after saving successfully? Whether the saved information can be viewed in the background?

Can an order be submitted without receiving information?

Can the user choose more than one receiving information?

● Commodity information

Whether the picture, data, price, and other information about the product are correct?

● Invoice Information

Whether the character type and length are restricted when adding invoice information, whether the display is normal, and whether the correct invoice information can be queried in the background?

● Coupons and points

Whether the coupons and points are displayed correctly and whether they match the background?

Whether coupons and points can be used normally and can they be used in stacks?

Whether the payment amount of coupons and points is reduced accordingly? Whether the coupons and points in the background are also reduced accordingly?

● Order submission

After the order is submitted and the payment is successful, whether the order information can be queried in the background?

● Abnormal scenarios

If the payment amount is not enough, can the customer buy it? Is there any hint?

Does the network interruption and power outage during the payment process affect the payment?

Can the payment be made normally in the weak network?

Payment gateway testing

Payment functions are often involved in many software applications. The focus of the payment function test is whether there is a loss of assets and consistency of transactions.

When doing payment gateway testing, we should pay attention to the below situation on the payment amount.

- The minimum amount of payment: such as $0.01

- Amount without actual payment: such as an order of $0

- Wrong payment amount: wrong format, wrong number (the payment amount is negative)

- Maximum amount limit: For some payment gateway, there is a payment maximum limit.

- The balance is less than the actual amount to be paid.

- The payment amount exceeds the daily consumption amount limit or a single consumption amount limit.

There is much third-party payment gateway. For example Alipay, Paypal, online banking, mobile banking, etc. So pay attention to the difference among these payment gateways.

On the operation of payment, these payment methods should attract your attention.

- Biometric payment (Fingerprint payment)

- Password-free payment

- Account + password payment

- Get payment verification code dynamically

- Bank card number + password binding payment

If there are abnormal scenarios, fault tolerance becomes an important matter to consider.

- How to deal with refunds?

- What if the network is disconnected during payment?

- How to replace the order or refund the order after the payment fails?

- If the payment amount is insufficient, can the customer continue to pay after recharging?

- Whether there will be multiple deductions if keep clicking?

- If multiple deductions occur, how to refund the payment account?