Key Factors to Consider When Conducting Performance Testing E-Commerce Applications
It’s always been a difficult task for online retailers to estimate
the number of visitors their website would attract at any given time.
There are many cases in e-commerce where a website experienced an
unprecedented barrage of traffic and as a result wasn’t able to handle
the volume. It eventually led to the brand’s reputation biting the dust,
and the visitors were frustrated.
Every time an E-commerce company announces sales and campaigns,
they are flooded by an uncontrolled rush of buyers, and most often than
not, the infrastructure behind their retail websites is not infallible
enough to handle the volume. For instance, look at the Major Indian
E-commerce giant, Flipkart. On October 6th, they hosted a mammoth Big
Billion Day sale wherein buyers could purchase products for even as low
as 1% of the actual selling price. Before even the sale began, users
started thronging to the website, only to be greeted by 404 Error
messages and broken links.
So, what can E-retailers do to ensure that their websites survive a
higher than average traffic or a sudden shopping frenzy? Adopt a viable
performance testing strategy that works by following key
considerations:
CheckingPerformance across Geographies
Research has proven that 57% customers abandon a website if it
takes more than 3 seconds to load and a 1-second delay can cause a 7%
reduction in conversions. To guarantee a pleasant user experience,
E-commerce websites need to make sure that the geographical location of
their customers has no affect on their performance. Key work flows need
to be inspected for acceptable performance across the customer base. In
addition, testing ahead of peak shopping sprees, such as before a grand
sale is announced or the holiday season, helps E-retailers deliver
promising customer experience. An imperative feature to consider is the
variation in devices and browsers. This entails working collaboratively
with not just the technical team, but also, the marketing team to
comprehend the promotions and campaigns that will be executed.
Due Attention to Mobile
With the prevalence of mobile users, mobile internet usage accounts
for 1 in 10 retail dollars. Keeping in mind the facts, it is imperative
that retailers start thinking about developing mobile friendly websites
and apps which fare better for mobile usage. Separate Performance
testing for mobile devices ensures that the apps perform as desired and
do not crash under higher than expected load. One way to go about this
strategy is to use load generation software tools to simulate peak
loads. However, performance testing for mobile meets big challenges due
to the vast variety of mobile devices, platforms, and networks. To
alleviate this dilemma, performance testing needs to address all the
functionality issues stemming from these differences.
Test All Transactions
To retain the favor and loyalty of customers, E-commerce websites
need to guarantee that their web apps are always ready to meet any surge
in traffic. Certain transactions are more network intensive than
others. For instance, product searches. Such transactions need to be
tested separately across myriad devices and browsers to ensure optimal
processing speed. You need to give each and every user path due
attention. HP’s mobile and desktop site showed that performance went
down 30% for the ‘add to cart’ and ‘search product’ features during the
Cyber Monday sale. When the critical operations on a web app fail to
deliver, the impact on the sales target can be staggering.
Cloud Based Testing
High scalability is offered by the Cloud, which allows you to
simulate as many users for performance testing as you want, without
investing in additional hardware. Most E-retailers steer away from
repeated and adequate performance testing due to the high expenditures
required. However, performance becomes a piece of cake with the cloud,
and it becomes easier to test across geographically diverse locations
with a minimum set up.
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