Testing Checklist for a Better Black Friday

Black Friday will be here before you know it. Expect another year with high volumes of digital shopping and high stakes for delivering exceptional shopping experiences.  

This checklist offers an overview of the top processes your team should test to get your application ready. With this checklist, you can steer clear of outages, angry tweets, and thousands of dollars of lost potential revenue. Each section covers a different focus area, from payment processing to applying discounts and promo codes. Use it as a rough guide or follow each step as an itemized list.

Confirm Consistency Across Platforms 

Are items showing exactly as they should? Across the many device and browser iterations of your customers? Make sure the content associated with items, including SKUs, pricing, warranties, return policy, and other elements, is correct. The content should not only be correct but also consistent across platforms, including native mobile applications, mobile web applications, and traditional desktop browsers. 

What to Test

• Item Content: Add content validation to UI tests.
• Item Prices: Test against data sources to validate prices (databases, REST API, etc.)
• Relevant Devices: Run cross-browser tests across the most relevant devices and browsers for your audience.  

Price changes need to be consistent across digital channels.

Unsure if you are testing on the right devices & browsers? Use the Perfecto Test Coverage Guide to see what platforms you should be testing on.  

 See Coverage Guide

Don't Abandon the 'Add to Cart' Experience

Ensuring this process runs smoothly is even more critical during Black Friday, when one wrong move can drive your potential customers to your competitors. 

What to Test 

• Stock Availability: Items added to the cart are in stock.
• Item Accuracy: Clicking “Add to Cart” button adds correct items to the cart.
• Sale Prices: Clicking “Add to Cart” button applies sale prices to the total, when relevant.

Adding an item on the phone (right) should sync in real-time with the iPad (left).

Log Time With Your Login Experience

With high engagement from new and returning customers, Black Friday presents great opportunities for short-term gains and long-term customer retention. Creating or returning to an existing account is the first step to making that happen.  

What to Test 

• Login Validity: Email addresses and passwords only pass when valid.
• Credential Accuracy: Emails and passwords only pass when correct, in terms of spelling and letter case.
• Account Alignment: Email and password input result in either a new or existing account after testing against customer database.
• Rewards: Points, redeemable rewards are added to the account after the login process.

Automate end-to-end scenarios involving third-party sign-ins.
 

Related Content: How a Major e-Commerce Company Automates 50k Monthly Tests 
 

Double-Check Discount Codes

The urgency to get the best discounts is at the heart of Black Friday. Giving seamless, easy-to-redeem discount codes on one of the most important e-commerce days of the year is a surefire way to knock Black Friday out of the park. 

What to Test 

• Code Accuracy: Codes apply the correct discount to each item.
• Capitalizations: Codes work regardless of case (for improved UX).
• Referral codes: Post-purchase emails send relevant referral codes.  
• Gift Card Redemption: Codes apply when a user also redeems a gift card.
• Code Exclusions: Codes do not combine with other offers, when relevant.

Test codes from previous campaigns to ensure they are no longer valid.

Check Out Your Checkout Process 

A clunky checkout process reduces trust and leads to abandoned carts. Make sure it is easy to enter addresses and contact information.  

What to Test

• Auto-Population of Existing Accounts: Addresses & contact information auto-populate for existing accounts.
• Shipping = Billing Address: Offer the option to have the billing address be the same as the shipping address.
• Auto-Population of Location: Auto-populate city and state after inputting zip code. (Tests for U.S. only)
• Form Personalization: Update relevant form fills for different countries (e.g. no “state” option for countries not broken into states).

Switch frequently between native mobile and web view when executing automation for responsive web apps.

Put Your App Under Pressure

Many consumers are still minimizing in-person shopping experiences, so traffic is expected to be especially high on Black Friday. Test application speed, stability, and scalability while handling an increased workload. Stagger traffic even further by offering early access opportunities to customers. 

What to Test 

• Response Time: Tests results do not exceed the response time threshold.
• Page Load Time: Page load time is acceptable across browsers.
• Resolution: Resolution is as expected across different browser OEMs.
• Load Time by Network Conditions: Load time under varying network conditions, such as poor 4G or 3G networks.
• Background Apps: App performs well with other applications in the background.  
• Screen Size Load Time: Load time for various screen sizes is acceptable.
• Refresh Rate Performance: Performance under different refresh rates.  

Does your application respond well under varying network conditions?

Make Your Omni-Channel Flow 

Multiple platforms are involved throughout a customer’s buying journey. They may begin researching products using an iPad in the family room and then read reviews on their mobile device before finally making a purchase decision on their computer. No matter what device they are on, a customer should have a seamless transition from platform to platform.

What to Test 

• Critical Flows: Critical flows that switch among web, mobile web, & native mobile apps run smoothly (when applicable).
• Key Events: All key event tests pass (e.g. user signup, transactions, and updating the cart).
• User Interface: User interface is consistent across different platforms.

A consistent UI across viewports improves user engagement and often leads to better sales conversions.

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Pay Attention to Payment Process 

Retailers must support multiple methods of payment (major credit cards and other systems like PayPal), which adds complexity to the ecosystem. Add the myriad of rules and regulations for international payments and this can quickly become a nightmare to test.

What to Test

• All Payment Methods: Cover all available payment methods, as they may have a different backend gateway.
• Screen Navigations: Test the flow of all possible screen navigations, including going back. Errors are common when checkout flows involve multiple screens.
• Network Conditions: Check payments pass (or fail elegantly) in degraded network conditions, especially on mobile platforms. Uncertainty of a pending transaction impacts customer experience.

There's no such thing as "too easy" when it comes to your customer's purchase experience.

Investigate the Inbox Experience 

Newsletters, promo codes, flyers, account updates, and more are now a standard part of e-commerce experiences. Make sure your materials make it to customer inboxes.

What to Test

• Mailing Clients: Test early with mailing clients & incorporate tests as part of your standard regression.
• Sender & Receiver: Make sure to check both the sender & receiver mailbox.
• End-to-End Flows: Cover all bases with strategic UI-level end-to-end tests.

Test your email links and ensure the right content is displayed.

Speak the Language(s)

If you have a global presence, there may be slight differences between countries. Organizations can hire a local team or have a centralized development shop that can reproduce all end-user conditions.

What to Test

• Country Restrictions: For native apps, Google Play & Apple Store have country-based restrictions. Test on all your markets.
• Redirects: Some websites & apps swap to different sites based on geolocation. Ensure you are redirected to the correct URL

Features such as resetting geolocation will save you time and allow for centralized development & QA shops.

Ensure a Breakout Black Friday With Perfecto & BlazeMeter 

Be the master of your Black Friday experience by preparing with the right strategy and equipping your teams with the right tools. 

Using Perfecto’s automated testing platform and mobile device cloud, you can create and execute your tests faster, on a greater scale, and with better test coverage.  

Plus, don't miss the opportunity to take your Black Friday testing to the next level with Perfecto and BlazeMeter, the first combined solution on the market to run performance tests from a mobile user’s perspective.  

With Perfecto and BlazeMeter, you can ensure a high mobile UX by testing both your mobile user experience and your backend under load in the cloud and scale up to two million virtual users. Simulate realistic mobile traffic patterns and test your app with greater confidence.

See how Perfecto and BlazeMeter can help your team get ready for Black Friday.

14-Day Free Trial

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Need Access to Devices Now?

Deliver a better Black Friday by accessing the devices and browsers you need — now — starting at $83. See Plans >>