Digital Testing for E-commerce Web and Mobile Apps

According to Gartner, the significance of digital commerce is on the rise and is expected to be the top growth priority for enterprises in the next two years, with 86% of surveyed leaders stating its importance, thus coming into the picture of digital testing As predicted by Forrester, US B2B e-commerce was expected to reach $1.8 trillion by 2023, but the impact of COVID-19 caused it to hit that mark a year later. By the end of 2021, B2B e-commerce had reached $1.7 trillion. The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the shift towards digital commerce, with most enterprises reporting they exceeded digital commerce revenue and profitability targets last year. However, this creates a challenging outlook for CMOs as they must maintain their performance and adapt to the changing preferences and behaviors of customers who now desire a combination of digital self-service and in-person experiences.

The current state of e-commerce

In today’s digital age, e-commerce has become a vital part of the economy and a crucial aspect of many enterprises’ success. With the rise of online shopping, customers expect a seamless and enjoyable experience, and digital testing has become a critical component in ensuring that e-commerce platforms meet these expectations. As the e-commerce industry continues to evolve, digital testing will play an increasingly important role in ensuring that businesses stay competitive and meet the needs of their customers. By thoroughly testing web and mobile apps’ usability, functionality, and performance, enterprises can identify and fix any issues that may negatively impact the customer experience.

Mobile buyers are on the rise!

As per Forrester’s Retail And Technology Consumer Buyer Journey Survey, 2022, 92% of US online adults use a smartphone, 89% use a computer, 52% use a tablet, and 35% use a smart speaker. The trend of mobile e-commerce was on the rise even before the coronavirus pandemic, with more and more people opting to shop online through their smartphones via retailers’ apps or mobile websites. However, the pandemic has further accelerated this trend by significantly altering consumer behavior and driving even more people to shop online. In particular, the number of people shopping through mobile apps increased dramatically during the pandemic. According to App Annie, there were 14.4 million downloads of shopping apps between March 29th and April 4th, 2022, representing a 20% increase since January.

Mobile e-commerce sales encompass mobile apps and sites, but apps tend to be more successful. A study shows that about two-thirds of e-commerce, traffic originates from mobile apps. Additionally, a study by Criteo found that the conversion rates for mobile apps are two times higher than conversion rates for mobile sites. Retailers can also use mobile apps to offer improved digital customer experiences, such as one-click payments, augmented reality, and personalized service.

In a survey by Forrester in 2020, the customer experience was considered a high or critical business priority for 41% of purchase influencers at retail and wholesale firms, ranking second behind growing revenue.

And this criteria has since then increased by a lot. So for businesses, it is critical to ensure that digital experience quality is seamless and perfect for all users, no matter what device they use to access that digital experience. And that’s where digital testing comes into the picture.

What is digital testing for e-commerce websites and apps?

Digital testing for an e-commerce business evaluates the usability, functionality, and overall user experience of the e-commerce website or app across all possible devices a customer may use to access it. The process aims to ensure that the e-commerce site is easy to navigate, provides a seamless shopping experience, can handle all transactions securely, and identify any issues that impede the customer’s ability to interact with the e-commerce site effectively. This includes testing how the website’s layout, design, and speed are across various devices and the functionality of features such as the search, forms, shopping cart, checkout process, payment gateway, etc.

Why is it essential to conduct digital testing for e-commerce websites and apps?

A website with poor usability or a confusing layout can lead to visitors leaving the site without purchasing. If this happens frequently, it can significantly impact the bottom line. Digital testing can help identify performance and usability issues and highlight all the technical problems affecting the website’s functionality. Additionally, it can help ensure that the website is accessible and usable for all users, including those with disabilities.

More reasons to conduct digital testing:

User engagement and satisfaction: More than half, 54%, of customers believe that companies need to change their engagement approach. Measuring how well the website or app design is meeting the needs and preferences of users can help identify areas for improvement and increase engagement and satisfaction.

1. Navigation and usability: Digital Testing can help identify potential issues hindering the user experience by testing the navigation and overall usability of the website or app.
2. Loading speed and performance: Measuring the loading speed and performance of the website or app during digital testing can help identify potential issues that may be causing delays or crashes, which can negatively impact the user experience.
3. Mobile responsiveness: Testing the website or app’s responsiveness to different mobile devices can help identify potential issues with display and functionality on different screens.
4. Checkout and conversion optimization: Testing the checkout process and conversion optimization can help identify potential issues restricting the user’s ability to complete a purchase, which can negatively impact revenue.
5. A/B Testing: Testing different variations of a website or app can help identify which design elements or features are most successful in meeting user needs and driving conversions.
6. Accessibility: The global market of individuals with disabilities, as well as their loved ones and advocates, is estimated to have control over an annual disposable income of over $13 trillion. Additionally, A majority of Americans with disabilities, 75%, use the internet daily, as reported. Testing the accessibility of the website or app during digital testing can help identify potential issues that may be hindering the ability of users with disabilities to access and use the website or app.

Advantages of digital testing

Digital testing is crucial for enhancing the overall experience for site visitors and significantly increasing conversions. Here are a few reasons why testing is essential:

1. Enhance user engagement: A good customer experience (CX) is crucial for fostering customer loyalty and repeat visits. 35% of US online adults cited a positive experience as the motivating factor for returning to a retailer they have purchased from before. Testing helps identify which page elements or processes impact the user’s on-site journey, allowing for faster rectification of any issues. The better the user experience, the more engaged users will be on the site.
2. Develop marketing plans: Testing and optimization enable the creation of effective strategies for your website. By identifying and addressing problematic areas of your site, you can attract more visitors and keep them on your site for longer.
3. Minimize risks: Making significant changes to your site can often lead to major strategic shifts or even substantial losses. However, systematically testing these changes can reduce the likelihood of these uncertain losses.
4. Boost conversion rates: A large majority, 86%, of buyers indicate a willingness to pay a premium for an improved customer experience. Visitors are more inclined towards a business with a better digital customer experience. Through testing and optimization, you can ensure a smooth visitor experience, which can increase conversion rates.
5. Gain insights into visitor behavior: Testing is an effective way to understand the needs and preferences of your website visitors and optimize your site accordingly. It is one of the quickest ways to confirm what your visitors like.

Digital Commerce Leaders Are Investing Aggressively to Deliver Sustainable Revenue Growth

According to Gartner, 90% of surveyed leaders across all maturity levels agreed that they are investing in additional capabilities to drive digital commerce growth. However, enterprises are facing challenges as budgets are being cut, requiring them to ensure that their investments yield results over multiple time horizons.

In the short term, many leaders are investing in digital commerce customer experience (CX) to meet customer expectations for a seamless purchase experience. In the long term, they are shifting their focus to digital-first value creation by investing in digital commerce products/services that will be distributed through new digital business models.

Finding the appropriate balance between short- and long-term investments depends on the current level of digital commerce maturity. CMOs in less mature digital commerce organizations may need to prioritize short-term tactics to demonstrate performance and secure additional investments. Meanwhile, CMOs in advanced digital commerce organizations should balance short-term and long-term investments, carefully choosing opportunities and communicating to stakeholders that these investments are essential for future growth.

Advanced organizations provide valuable insights on how to make digital commerce investments future-proof:

Cultivate a culture of testing and learning: CMOs play a crucial role in setting the digital commerce vision. However, they face challenges balancing an organization’s risk appetite and willingness to disrupt the status quo. To address this, 69% of surveyed leaders have adopted a test-and-learn approach to increase the organization’s risk appetite and belief in digital commerce. Organizations with advanced test and learn maturity report a more significant risk appetite to allocate resources and are more willing to operate outside established boundaries than less mature organizations. CMOs can develop a culture of testing and learning by being visible in celebrating successes and sharing failures and lessons to encourage curiosity and courage to try new things.

Overcome talent challenges: Retaining top digital commerce talent is challenging for digital commerce leaders, especially when competition for top talent is high. Nineteen percent of decision-makers in retail and wholesale companies who handle global data and analytics report that a lack of technology skills is a significant obstacle in achieving their big data and analytics goals. To address this, leaders must prioritize developing and nurturing talent to keep them engaged, challenged, and appropriately compensated and rewarded.To attract and retain top digital talent, it is essential to have a combination of critical incentives, a strong HR team, an efficient digital team, and an inclusive and appealing culture. Building cross-functional teams is also key to expanding your company’s capabilities.

How LambdaTest helps e-commerce platforms in Digital Testing

Web testing

Website testing or web testing is checking your web application or website for potential bugs before it is made live and accessible to the general public. Web testing checks for functionality, usability, security, compatibility, and performance of the website or the web application.

With LambdaTest, you can choose from a wide range of Windows and Mac operating systems and all legacy and latest browsers. You can also test your website or web app on the latest mobile browsers with Android and iOS mobile operating systems. More features of LambdaTest web testing include:

• Live Web Testing on 3000+ Environments: You can test your website on 3000+ OS and browsers. Get instant access to web browsers, browser versions, OS, and resolutions.
• Run Automation Scripts on 3000+ Mobile and Desktop Devices: LambdaTest provides a cloud of 3000+ desktop and mobile environments on which you can run your browser compatibility automation tests. This makes it easy to ensure that your website looks good across multiple operating systems and devices.
• Increase Device Coverage with Real Device Web Testing: Test your website’s responsiveness, reliability, and compatibility on a wide range of devices like iPhones and Android Devices on the cloud. Choose from our pool of more than 3000 real devices.
• Web Testing Across 50+ Countries: Make sure your website appears as intended when viewed from different locations. View the results in other countries, and check if your page looks different or the same in each location.
• Responsive Web Testing in a Single Click: LT Browser lets you create and test responsive behavior in your website or web app with a single click. Choose from 50+ built-in viewports or create a custom viewport to see how your site behaves.

Mobile testing

Mobile Testing validates a mobile application (Android or iOS) for usability, functionality, and performance. Mobile testing enables organizations to verify if their mobile applications work as intended and meet end-users’ needs using manual testing or automation testing tools and techniques.

With LambdaTest, you can test your native mobile applications using LambdaTest’s online real-device cloud and virtual testing platform of emulators and simulators. Additionally, you can reduce costs by eliminating your in-house device lab. LambdaTest’s Mobile testing features include:

• Test on Real Device Cloud: Perform live interactive or automation testing of your dev and production apps on a real device cloud. Test and debug your app for responsiveness and compatibility from our pool of thousands of real devices.
• Test on Emulators and Simulators: Accelerate your mobile app testing using LambdaTest’s emulators and simulators. Eliminate the need for an internal device library and test your apps for different screen sizes, gestures, etc., on virtual mobile devices.
• Run Automated Mobile App Tests: Run automated mobile tests using Appium. Find bugs earlier by testing your native apps on a wide range of real devices. Ensure a seamless user experience with a no-complicated setup to slow you down.
• No Download or Configuration Required: Start testing immediately. No installation, download, or setup is required. Unblock your team and give them instant access to emulators, simulators, and real devices.

Visual regression testing

When software developers fix a bug, add new functionality, or modify an existing feature or functionality, they must change the program code. Even a slight change will likely result in a plethora of new bugs. In such a scenario, a Test Engineer can reveal and pinpoint undesirable side effects through Regression tests. A properly executed regression test suite is vital. It is imperative that after a bug fix, the original product does not stop working.

With LambdaTest, you can perform Regression Testing in Just one click using LambdaTest. Additionally, you can find out Visual UI Regression Bugs using Smart Testing. LambdaTest’s visual regression testing features include:

• Pixel by Pixel Visual UI Regression Testing: With smart image-to-image comparison, you can identify visual deviations introduced with the new build related to Icon Size, Padding, Color, Layout, Text, Element position, and much more.
• Run Automation Scripts on 3000+ Desktop and Mobile Devices: Compare the screenshots of your application’s webpages taken from two different browsers to view/detect any visual deviations. Increase browser coverage by running automation scripts on a cloud of 3000+ desktop and mobile environments.
• Fast Test Execution for Faster Release: A reliable, scalable, secure, and high-performing test execution cloud that empowers development and testing teams to accelerate their release cycles. Test in parallel and cut down test execution by more than 10x.

Continuous testing

LambdaTest is a cloud-based continuous testing tool that enables you to run automation tests at scale on the cloud. The platform seamlessly integrates with all significant DevOps platforms like Jenkins, CircleCI, Microsoft Azure DevOps, etc., and helps run tests faster and more frequently. In fact as frequently as every code push.

Faster test execution helps in faster developer feedback times, which in turn helps the team catch bugs and errors early in the development process and release error-free products. This improves the overall quality of the product and reduces the number of bugs and errors that users encounter.

Finding the issue early ensures that costs associated with correcting them are not incurred, as well as reduces the risk of revenue loss because of bad user experience.

Conclusion

Digital experience refers to how an audience perceives interactions facilitated by technology as they engage with an organization to achieve a goal or outcome. Organizations that want to interact with an audience digitally, such as analysts, investors, influencers, employees, partners, or customers, must understand how to approach the digital experience with a specific purpose.

Digital testing is crucial for e-commerce websites and apps. To ensure a successful launch of a new app or website, it is essential to conduct a thorough testing campaign to identify any bugs that could negatively impact the digital customer experience.

Anusha K

Experienced and versatile Marketer adept in strategizing and executing brand plans in a timely fashion and creating SEO-optimized articles for various social media platforms

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