How To Test E-Commerce Apps & Enhance The Digital Customer Experience

Testing e-commerce apps can be challenging making it more difficult for retailers to enhance their digital customer experience. Given the latest rise of online shopping due to the coronavirus pandemic, the stakes are high for retailers to offer great online shopping experience. In this article, we will explore the current state of e-commerce apps as well as provide advice on how to properly test e-commerce apps.

The Current State of E-Commerce Apps

Mobile Buyers on the Rise 

Even before the coronavirus pandemic, more and more people were shopping online via their smartphones. Whether through a retailer’s app or mobile website, mobile e-commerce traffic and sales were on the rise. A review from Business Insider shows that m-commerce sales have doubled since 2015 and represented 25% of the total e-commerce sales in 2019.

Image: Mobile buyers are on the rise and will continue to make up a greater proportion of online shoppers. 

Today, mobile e-commerce sales are being accelerated by the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, which has altered consumer behavior and pushing more people to shop online. In particular, the number of mobile app shoppers has increased during the pandemic. According to App Annie, shopping apps reached 14.4 million downloads between March 29th and April 4th representing a 20% increase since January. 

While all mobile e-commerce sales includes both mobile apps and mobile sites, apps tend to outperform mobile sites. According to one study, about two-thirds of e-commerce traffic comes directly from mobile apps. A study by Criteo reveals that mobile app conversion rates are 2x higher than conversion rates for mobile sites. Retailers can also provide an enhanced digital customer experience through mobile apps such as one-click payments, augmented reality, and greater personalized service. 

Innovation in Mobile App Development

While consumer behavior is driving the increase in mobile e-commerce sales, it is noteworthy to take into account the impact of smartphone innovation and the evolution of mobile apps have had in changing the e-commerce landscape.

Smartphones today are better equipped for online shopping thanks to the adoption of larger, high-definition screens. Improvements in network speeds have also helped to improve the overall digital experience making online shopping more convenient.

From a development perspective, new innovations like virtual and augmented reality, artificial intelligence, chatbots, one-touch payments, geofencing, image searches, and a push toward an omnichannel retail experience are resulting in the type of apps that consumers want.

What Do Online Shoppers Want?

Consumers want retailers to embrace technology to enhance the customer experience.

• 33% of consumers want to see retailers invest in AI to offer personalized recommendations.
• 44% of consumers want to see the adoption of AR that helps to visualize products in real-life settings.
• 92% of consumers want retailers to offer a frictionless e-commerce experience.

In building better e-commerce apps, retailers can position themselves to succeed in a competitive industry. However, the quality of these apps will play a major in determining how successful retailers can become.

How to Test E-commerce Apps

Knowing what to test to improve the quality of an e-commerce application is key to the success of any retailer. Like a website, there are a number of aspects to test before launching a new app or updating an existing one that can have a significant impact on a business. Below, we highlight some of the most vital aspects to test to guarantee a great digital customer experience. 

Homepage

The homepage of the app will receive the most traffic since it is the page that users land on when launching the app. Since the first impression is key, let us discuss aspects on the homepage that should be tested. Here, test cases should verify that the homepage is played correctly with clean and clear images and text. In addition, testing all the functionalities (search, language/country settings, menu, etc.) found on the homepage is a great way to ensure consumers will find what they are looking for.

Account & Login

The ability to create and login into their account is not only important for the customer, but also the retailer to create personalized and seamless customer experience across both their website and app. Testing the functionalities connected to creating an account or signing into one is crucial.

Shopping Cart

The shopping cart plays an important role in every e-commerce app. It allows customers to select and keep various articles, and to buy them together. Thus, it comes as no surprise that there are several specific aspects that must be tested. In general, testing the cart involves making sure it updates correctly whenever an item is added or removed. It also involves making sure the items are displayed with their name, quantity, and corresponding price.

For retailers with websites and apps, tests should also validate the shared cart functionality to make shopping easier across different devices particularly smartphones and desktops. Promotional codes, discounts, and BOGO offers should also be tested to ensure that they are applied according to their terms and conditions.

Checkout Page(s)

The checkout page(s) is the final step in the purchasing process, which must function flawlessly to avoid unnecessary cart abandonment. Here, the stakes are higher making even the effects of minor bugs more pronounced. Attention should be paid to the field forms to uncover any bugs that can make it harder or impossible for consumers to enter their shipping or billing information.

Payment

The payment functionalities are key and need to be thoroughly tested to eliminate any bugs or anomalies that can prevent customers from completing their orders. Payment fields as well as the payment options are important to test to make sure orders can be placed. Also, the app enables consumers to save their payment information or one-click payments, it is quite important to test these functionalities.

Post-Purchase

Tests should also focus on the functionalities that are available in the post-purchase section of the app in order to make sure that they all result in the intended behavior. There is a plethora of cases to take into account here, it is generally recommended to ensure that email confirmations are sent to the customer with all the relevant and correct information needed. For customers with accounts, it is also a good idea to ensure their order history is updated to reflect their most recent purchase.

Software testing plays a major role in e-commerce apps. To ensure a successful launch of a new app or even or redesigned app, it is vital to execute a thorough test campaign to uncover any bugs that will hinder the digital customer experience.

To learn more about testing e-commerce apps, do not hesitate to download our white paper below.