Briefly and strongly: Why retail needs automated testing

Hi! My name is Eugene Ponomarenko, and I am the founder of an outsourcing testing and QA agency «KVCHK». There are so many articles on the internet about the benefits of autotesting. Well, the tool is actually useful. However, note that I called autotesting a tool because it’s not a panacea. Autotesting works well together with manual testing.

Automated testing definitely helps reduce time and monetary resources required for testing certain functionalities. However, it does not fully replace testers. While it can eliminate the human factor, there are instances where a human is needed, such as when testing an online store for usability.

Nevertheless, this article discusses when automated testing is better suited for retailers, or when it’s the only option. Let’s take a look at these compelling reasons.

Speed is everything

For online retailers, it is important to release new features within very tight deadlines because even a few hours of downtime can cause significant losses to the business. However, rapid feature release can lead to a decline in software quality. Automated testing can help retailers minimize risks associated with new feature releases by automatically running tests at each stage of development.

Functionality that rarely changes

Online retailers rely heavily on the product selection process, shopping cart, and actual purchase. This critical functionality must work perfectly and can be quickly and efficiently tested using an automated method. For instance, the shopping cart functionality rarely changes and testing it manually can take a long time. Automated testing, on the other hand, helps to reduce the amount of errors and eliminates the human element.

It is also convenient that QA specialists can reuse previously written scripts for repetitive scenarios, making minimal changes to them while running multiple automated tests at the same time. This helps to shorten the testing time (especially for regression testing), increase test coverage, and avoid missing critical defects.

Integrations that should work seamlessly

Online stores use various applications such as payment services, CRM system integrations, etc. These applications must be integrated for smooth collaboration. Automated testing can help retailers ensure that their software applications are properly integrated and working correctly. And to do this quickly, which is — again — very important for retailers.

Of course, there are many more aspects in which automated testing is beneficial for retailers. Overall, I have listed the main points as I see them. Perhaps the most important conclusion from my small article is that bypassing the human factor, automated tests can scrupulously and accurately test functions that rarely change, thus speeding up the quality assurance process with minimal costs.

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