E-commerce Website Testing Advice for Online Store Owners

You will agree that before every important event in our lives we all undertake a thorough check-up of all details. With launching your website things are the same. In this article there is an ecommerce website testing checklist that will help you to make sure once again that you’re moving in the right direction.

Why do e-commerce site testing

One of the reasons for ecommerce testing - your website was launched some years ago, you hired a staff (managers, sellers, delivery men) and now you need to monitor its work.

There are always updates of information on your e-commerce website. You can add new products or provide special offers several times a day. The slightest careless motion can lead the whole website to unstable work. That’s why you need to know how to do website testing.

How to test your eCommerce website

Site view/Pages

Visit your website and examine everything as a guest. What questions does a customer have before making a purchase? Besides the detailed descriptions of goods do you want to know how you can pay here? Would you like to know some information on the company? Or the shipping terms? As a user if you can’t find what you need on a site you shut it down and move on to another one. Your buyers act just the way you do.

• Browse everything on a home page. Make sure it creates the right impression on your company and goods in the visitor's mind.

• Information on “About Us” page (especially necessary if you provide services).

• Conditions on what you replace and return goods.

• Shipping and delivery information.

• Make proof-reading to evaluate grammar and spelling mistakes especially on a bilingual site. Most of the visitors need time and advice to make a decision. Text plays a supporting and advisory role.

• Does your logo stand out?

• Is the phone number correct? Is it easy to find it on the page?

Shopping cart testing checklist

Does someone else need your store besides you? A buyer, of course. What does your ordinary buyer want? A visitor wants to find exactly what he/she is looking for and to buy it. A cart is one of the main features of any ecommerce site. An opportunity to make an order should be as simple as possible.

• Check whether all necessary payment methods are enabled.

• Add several items of different kinds to the cart.

• Add and remove one product to the cart.

• Change quantity, check whether the final amount to pay is correct.

• Make a test purchase.

Product pages

In e commerce website usability testing careful attention is paid to goods and their description. It is better to check out all images and descriptions of products twice as it is a major focus of any consumer. An old saying “A picture is worth a thousand words” acquires new meaning online.

• Make sure all pictures are compressed accordingly for the internet. It will improve the loading time of your online store.

• Check that the images have equally good quality and size. Check whether the photo matches the product.

• Check names of goods. Do they include brand names?

• Check descriptions.

• Check whether pricing is right.

• If you sell clothes make sure all data in the size chart coincides with real sizes of goods.

SEO website testing plan

Since your store is located on the internet it has to be responsive to searching engines.

• Are your texts unique?

• Check keywords.

• Titles. It can be pretty hard to write a unique title for each page of your store. You can build titles the following way – Brand-Model-Type of Product.

• Check meta-descriptions.

• Alt-text to images of products. Model of an item and its color should be included in alt-text.

Social

The website promotion in social networks has a positive impact on the position in search engines. It is important to interact with your audience not just create a community that people can join. You should have a social media page with a certain amount of posts in which you share some information. Also there should be information on your company, photographs.

• Check links to your online store.

• Sharing buttons.

Emails

Sending emails is the most popular way to remind buyers of your store.

• Send a test email to yourself. Make sure that there is everything necessary in it – the field “From” contains correct information on the sender, “Subject” reflects the summary of your message.

• Include an unsubscribe link to prevent your emails marking as spam.

• Check what is written in your greetings email.

Conclusion

We have considered one of possible ecommerce website testing scenarios. After all, what is your online store in customer’s eyes? Attractive images of goods. Price justification. And “Buy”-button. If you like your store and would buy goods here so would your customers.

You’ve narrowed your choice of platform for your e-commerce website and made up your mind to start a demo-version with Getsocio.

After registration there is a lot of work to do. Filling a website with content and customization matters most. Getsocio offers you a 14-day trial to configure everything properly. Feel free to contact our support in case of some difficulties. Start small and remember any marathon begins with the first step.