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Once again, Black Friday is fast approaching. Last year, retail spending during what has become a global event – increased 22%. While many consumers still shy away from in-person shopping experiences, 2021 will likely be another period of online sales boom. For the test teams, that means a lot of pressure to make sure everything is in good shape so that there is no downtime, or at the very least, no abandoned carts due to a flawed and frustrating customer experience. Fortunately, there is just about enough time to do a last minute due diligence.
Here’s a summary of the tips based on the successful testing strategies we’ve seen retail businesses adopt. The first step is to test on the devices and browsers that are most relevant to the audience because while it is vital to support all the ones that are currently in use, the most popular should be the priority, and they can vary depending on geography or demographics of the audience. Naturally, new introductions should be included – like Apple’s iPhone 13 – although adoption rates aren’t high yet. Additionally, test teams need to consider new types of app technologies that weren’t so common last year, including progressive web apps, Flutter, APKs, and app clips. Apps like these have different user flows and engagement and are less mature from a quality standpoint, so they need more attention from developers and testers.
End-to-end automated testing
Another first step is to run end-to-end automated tests for core user interactions, especially as many retailers are starting to roll out their Black Friday campaigns well in advance. Teams need to determine which aspects of their applications have the highest value and, therefore, also pose the highest risk in the event of an outage. Every element of key business transactions should be tested, from logging in to entering credit card details. These tests should be part of continuously running stable test automation suites to ensure that everything is working properly, including full feedback and consistent results to minimize mean time to resolution (MTTR).
Here are some basic process examples to consider:
- Add to Cart
- Login or create a guest account
- Entering address and contact details
- Payment processing
- Enamel confirmation
- Email tracking
- Delivery Confirmation
This list is not exhaustive, and each vertical and market segment will have its unique characteristics and requirements. Each user journey must be well covered by tests, in particular:
- Make a sale through the Apple or Google wallet
- Using the AR function of an integrated camera to virtualize the appearance of an item on a person or in their home
- Buy items from specific locations (this is from the blog – can you provide an example location? Thanks)
- Offers and alerts specific to mobile geolocation
Performance Test
Even though retailers try to mitigate the increase in online traffic by offering deals in advance, higher traffic is very likely on a real day. It is therefore essential to test the speed, stability and scalability of an application while managing this increased workload. For web applications, the performance testing checklist should include:
- Page load time on browsers
- Different screen sizes
- Resolution on different OEM browsers
- Refresh rate
For mobile performance testing, this list should cover:
- Variable network conditions, such as poor 4G or 5G network signals
- Applications running in the background
- Sensor latency, such as location and camera
Black Friday is the peak time for a website’s coupon and promotion codes, so accidentally giving users incorrect or outdated coupon codes one of the most crucial ecommerce days of the year. would be a disaster. Additionally, the past year has seen a shift towards greater use of referral opportunities to acquire new customers and keep existing customers coming back. Therefore, testers should include referrals in tandem with unique discounts and promo codes.
Complex terms of use
It is essential that mobile application tests reflect the same environmental profiles as users, including taking into account more complex scenarios. With actual user simulation testing, teams can test any conditions that users may encounter and eliminate the additional work cascade created by escaped faults. The conditions of use to be tested include:
- Biometric scan
- Variable quality of mobile networks
- Airplane mode
- Camera
- Audio injection
- Call and SMS interruptions
- Vital device data
- GPS tracking
- Conflicting apps
- Packet loss
- Accessibility constraints
Finally, to get the most out of all that extra Black Friday testing effort, run regression testing to make sure new Black Friday updates, such as banners, discounts, pop-ups, or codes. promotional, do not cause bugs in other parts of the application. Although regression testing can be done manually, a combination of Agile, test automation, and continuous testing is the most effective way to reveal defects early and support faster deployment of new features and upgrades. up to date.
To help businesses prepare for Black Friday more effectively, Perfecto has put together a free 37-point omnichannel checklist, available here: https://www.perfecto.io/resources/black-friday-testing.
With the omnichannel retail experience becoming more sophisticated, along with new mobile devices and ever-changing web technology, it pays to have comprehensive testing strategies in place for Black Friday, 2021 and years to come.
Article written by Eran Kinsbruner, Senior Director, Author and Evangelist at Perfecto by Perforce
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