E-commerce (or online commerce) has taken the entire world by storm. Irrespective of whether you are living in a developed economy or developing economy, you would have definitely shopped ‘at least once’ on an e-commerce portal. As per reports, the global e-commerce market size is expected to grow at a CAGR of 14.7 percent from 2020 to 2027.
A major part of the growth can be attributed to the widespread penetration of mobile phones and mobile internet. With many countries gearing for the release of 5G, the e-commerce (or omni-commerce) market will witness an unprecedented growth!
E-commerce websites are expected to witness a meteoric amount of traffic during the holiday season, sales, and other such occasions where customers can buy products at a discounted rate. What if existing functionalities of a website stop functioning after new features are deployed on the website? Such an experience could be devastating for the e-commerce company as it could result in a bad customer experience and a loss in sales.
In this blog, we look at how e-commerce companies can address regression testing at scale by preparing a comprehensive checklist. It also highlights how onboarding an experienced regression testing services company can help deliver results of regression testing at a quicker pace.
What is regression testing?
Regression testing is a testing practice of verifying the product features (or functionalities) to ensure that the recent code changes have not resulted in any breakages in the existing functionalities.
Regression testing is necessary since the code changes might be working as expected as an independent unit but it may end up causing side-effects when the code is integrated with other modules.
Eggplant, Test Rigor, Avo Assure, etc. are some of the most widely-used regression testing tools. In further sections of this blog, we cover the list of scenarios (or test cases) that should be a part of the regression testing checklist.
Comprehensive Regression Testing Checklist for E-commerce Websites
Many of us would have come across single page e-commerce websites (or applications) where all the relevant products are listed on one page. It is like an endless scrolling experience. On the other side, there are many e-commerce websites (e.g. Flipkart, Amazon, etc.) where products are listed page wise.
Keeping the product presentation aside, here are some of the common features on any e-commerce website:
- Product Recommendation
- Product Listing
- Product Filtering
- Product Search
- Comparison engine (Price, feature, etc.)
- Product Sorting
- Reviews
- Header Banners
Since the code fixes being implemented would be addressing any of the above features; the regression testing checklist must also be catering to those website folds (e.g. header, product page, etc.) or features (e.g product recommendation, social reviews, etc.).
Also Read – Difference Between Regression Testing and ReTesting
Here is how we can create a regression testing checklist for e-commerce website based on website folds (or functionalities):
Home Page
This is the first point of interaction for new as well as returning users. Any breakage in the home page could be a dampening experience to the visitors of the website. Here is the list of regression tests for an e-commerce website’s homepage:
- Verify whether all the controls on the page are being displayed properly?
- Verify whether search functionality on the home page is working properly?
- Verify whether click to login, new user registration, about us, and other buttons (or links) are working as expected?
- Verify whether product filtering functionality is working as expected?
Product Search Page
Here are the regression tests that should be a part of search page:
- Verify whether the search box (or search bar) is displayed properly on the page?
- Verify whether search queries are working as expected?
- Verify whether product sorting is working as expected?
- Verify whether application of product filters is working as expected?
- Verify if add to cart, product comparison, and sorting functionalities are working?
- Verify if the breadcrumbs are being displayed properly and click on breadcrumbs is taking visitors to the right pages?
- Verify if search shows appropriate (or no) results based on the search query?
Website Header
Almost all e-commerce companies leverage the header section to place CTAs that divert the users to pages specifically designed for catering special occasions like festive sales, etc. Here are some of the regression tests that should be a part of the website header:
- Verify if all the links in the respective menus are working properly?
- Check if there are no 404 errors on the links being displayed on the page?
- Verify if the clicks to create an account, sign in, contact us, etc. are working as per expectations?
- Verify if the display banners (or CTAs) are displayed and functioning properly?
- Verify if the wishlist functionality is working as expected?
Shopping Cart
In some ways, this is the pillar page of any e-commerce website since the intent of the site is to increase sales by letting the users shop on the site. Here are some of the major regression tests that should be performed on the shopping cart page:
- Verify if the products are being displayed as expected (with & without filters) on the page?
- Verify if the users are able to compare different aspects of similar types of products for realizing their shopping needs?
- Verify if the users are able to select the desired product(s) and add them to the shopping basket?
- Verify if the users are diverted to the payments page after the products are added to the basket?
Also Read – Why Use Regression Testing In Agile Projects?
Payments and Reviews
Any lapse in the payments page results in loss in business and might result in an increase in CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost). This is because it is likely that the user may not return to the website due to a bad user experience.
Here are some of the regression tests that should be a part of the payments and reviews pages:
- Verify if all the payment options are displayed on the page?
- Verify if the user is able to choose the desired payment option?
- Verify if payment completes successfully if relevant details are entered on the payment page?
- Verify if the reviews of the relevant products are displayed properly on the page?
- Verify if the users are able to sort the reviews based on positive and negative sentiments?
- Verify if the users are able to sort the reviews based on different filters like verified customer, etc.?
Sign In
Here are some of the sign-in tests that should be a part of regression testing strategy:
- Verify if the validation of email address and password combination is performed during the sign-in phase?
- Verify if the account information button is working as per the expectations?
- Verify if the ‘forgot password’ and ‘forgot user-name’ links are working as per the expectations?
- Verify if ‘remember me’ functionality is working as expected?
Also Read – Different Ways To Manage Regression Testing Challenges
Order History
Returning users on the e-commerce portal who have shopped on the e-commerce portal are more inclined to check their order history. Here are the list of regression tests that should be used to verify the functionalities of ‘Order History’ page:
- Verify if the ‘Order History’ button is displayed properly on the respective pages?
- Verify if the users are able to sort the order history as per their requirements?
- Verify if the PO provides all the details of the items (or products) purchased in that particular order?
- Verify if the option to place a ‘return request’ is present on the orders (wherever returns are applicable)?
As there are so many functionalities on an e-commerce website, the expertise of a regression testing company can be helpful in prioritizing the regression tests (considering the scale & complexity of the website).
It’s A Wrap
Regression testing is an important part of the overall testing strategy since any new piece of code (if untested) can break working functionalities of the product. Since e-commerce websites are complex applications, a formidable regression testing strategy has to be devised to prioritize tests that matter the most to the application.
Startups as well as growing e-commerce businesses must seek help from testing vendors like KiwiQA that have immense experience in developing and executing regression tests for a range of global e-commerce clients.