I always thought that those “Christmas in July” campaigns were bogus – that is, until I came into the world of software testing. While the holiday shopping season is probably the last thing on the minds of consumers, the same cannot be said of retailers and their respective dev and QA departments. For them, the holiday shopping season is well underway. And yes, I realize it’s not even July yet.
By this I mean to say that retailers (who, to be fair, never really have an off-season) are busy prepping and refining their applications so that they are ready to roll when the peak holiday shopping season comes around. For them, identifying and fixing bugs becomes a top priority during this time, as they do NOT want these types of issues appearing before users come November/December.
Why? It should be obvious to most, but a recent guest post on retail-digital.com frames the problem perfectly:
Approximately 70% of errors in software projects arise during the early analysis and design stages. Incomplete or inaccurate requirements and inadequate testing can lead to costly re-work, while Early Error Detection and correction can cut the resulting costs by up to 90%.
When software errors and system failures cause consumers to perceive a retail brand negatively, improving quality becomes a priority. However, hastily implemented quality programmes are not the answer. Quality-driven retailers have clear objectives and robust processes for gathering, analysing and taking action on information and feedback on a rolling basis.
Bottom line: Poor quality can cost retailers customers and money! To make sure this doesn’t happen, here are 4 tips for retailers when it comes to testing:
Focus on Core Features: Chances are, your retail app is a work-in-progress, where new features are always being incorporated into the product. It might be a new tool for searching, comparing prices or something along those lines. Sometimes however, these new “nice-to-have” features get all the QA attention at the expense of the core “need-to-have” features. As new operating systems and browsers come out, it’s important for retailers to continually test their core features – sign in & registration, checkout, payment options, etc. – to ensure that they still work as intended. In doing this, you’ll be surprised at the number of broken links, mis-matched search results, missing images and a host of other overlooked problems that cost e-tail sites a small fortune in revenue.
Test Early and Often: For companies adhering to a pure agile methodology, this won’t be much of a problem. But for organizations leveraging waterfall or hybrid approach, it’s important to make sure that testing plays a part throughout the SDLC, not just at the tail end of development. Quality cannot be rushed, and neither can testing. As the opening quote illustrated, most of the errors in software projects surface during the early stages of development. By testing early and often, you can identify and fix bugs as early as possible.
Make Time for Mobile: There’s no getting around the fact that more and more users are making purchases on their tablets, smartphones and other mobile devices. It’s important for retailers to devote as much (if not more) resources to mobile testing as they do to the web. Believe it or not, some of the world’s largest companies still do not have a team dedicated to mobile testing. Part of this is because testing for mobile is a logistical nightmare for in-house teams, with all the different combinations of browsers, operating systems and devices – hence the growing reliance on in-the-wild testing. But the other reason for a lack of mobile QA is that companies still do not view it as separate from traditional QA and they don’t see it as essential step in the SDLC. Don’t be one of those organizations!
Protect Users (and yourself): As a retailer, if you had to pick the absolute worst time for your site or app to get hacked and taken offline (e.g. DDos attack) it would almost certainly be during the holiday shopping season. If your business relies on customers’ expectation of security – and if you’re a retailer, the answer to that question is “yes” - then you can’t afford to have your site taken down from a monetary or a customer experience/loyalty standpoint. It’s becoming more and more apparent that any business – no matter how big or small – is a potential target for hackers. Be proactive. Security test your website and apps and be sure you have backup server plans in place so you’re not stuck if your business is targeted. It’s not the time to start thinking about security after you’ve been targeted.
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Happy holidays!