Do you still perform manual testing for your ecommerce user experience (UX)? You may want to consider automated UX testing tools.
In the current competitive ecommerce landscape, automated testing tools have become essential for online stores to improve testing efficiency and speed up the release of new features. Automated testing solutions help you amplify test coverage and execution speed – currently there are tools in the market that can easily execute dozens of user journey tests in minutes that a single manual tester (or multiple) would take days to complete.
In this article, we will explain exactly what are automated UX testing tools in ecommerce, the criteria to consider when choosing one for your online business, and the top automated testing tools in the industry in 2023.
What are automated UX testing tools for ecommerce?
In general, automated testing tools are specialized applications that are designed to automate software testing processes, such as:
- test planning
- test creation
- test programming and execution
- test management
- test results reporting
Automation minimizes human intervention as much as possible. Note that some tools may not have all of these automations, and could be purely focused on automating just one aspect of the software testing process.
In the case of an ecommerce UX, automated testing tools enable you to quickly and easily identify errors and fix bugs that impact the user experience and performance of your online store platform. They can be used to assess the user experience across a wide range of devices, resolutions, browsers, O/S, and user locations. However as you will see later below, not all tools are equal.
What should I consider when choosing an automated UX testing tool for my ecommerce?
In order for you to be able to choose the right tool to test your online business, there are a number of things to consider.
What are the challenges / issues affecting your online store?
First, you need to ask yourself what are the most common or critical issues affecting your online store performance. Are you receiving a lot of negative user feedback? Are your users experiencing poor page speed performance? From the business side, are you noticing lower conversions, a higher bounce rate, or lower use retention than usual? Perhaps your ecommerce store doesn’t have any critical UI/UX bugs but you are looking to reduce manual tasks. All these questions need to be answered before you can identify the right fit for your business.
What are your testing priorities?
Ecommerce testing comes in many different forms. For example:
- UX testing: helps you catch errors or bugs that impact the end-to-end user experience and subsequently conversions. It also focuses on the ease-of-use and identifying usability frictions.
- User testing: uncovers whether your target audience needs a solution and whether there is a need for your product or service. This is usually to test a concept or an idea against a small subset of users, and is intended for market/product research. A good example of this is A/B testing.
- Usability testing: focuses on understanding user behavior and the design intuitiveness of an ecommerce. However, according to the proper definition of its use, it is tested with users who have no prior exposure to a service or product. It is also not often focused on detecting and resolving UX errors in real-time.
Which teams in your organization need the tool the most?
UX testing tools not only benefit your customers by giving them a seamless shopping experience, but they also benefit your organization in many ways, such as gaining market insight and increasing productivity.
As a guide, think about which individuals or teams in your organization should benefit from having a UX testing tool. Are your Quality Assurance (QA) engineers lacking proper functionality testing or visual testing tools? Do your support and monitoring teams need to automatically test the real-user experience to supplement their application performance monitoring? UX testing tools also make it possible for development teams to deploy with confidence and release high-quality and compliant features. Last but not least, business teams such as digital marketers can benefit from having a tool that can help them extract user experience insights, so they can effectively monitor the performance of new campaigns.
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The best automated UX testing tools for your ecommerce in 2023
Here’s a list of the top free and premium tools to test your ecommerce user experience, key features, and advantages.
Top choice: Valido
Key features
Valido is an intelligent test automation tool that is focused on the needs of ecommerce businesses. It has two solutions in one platform:
- Valido Testing:
Real-time testing of your online store’s visual UI and UX that allows you to catch bugs in the user experience. Valido Testing allows you to generate real user interactions for the entire user checkout process. It also provides monitoring and alerting tools so that teams can detect web errors quickly and take immediate action to resolve them. - Valido Web Score:
Comprehensive testing and monitoring app that evaluates critical metrics for your online business that relates to performance and user experience, such as Web Vitals and Lighthouse scores. It also provides benchmarking features and AI-powered recommendations.
Benefits
- User-friendly and no coding or scripting is required to customize tests
- Ecommerce-centric testing across multiple devices, resolutions, locations and user actions
- Advanced functionalities at low-cost
Summary
Valido’s solutions offer automatic test creations, programming and executions, JIRA integration for issue tracking, as well as interactive dashboards for analytics and insights monitoring. It is perfect for online stores not only looking to transition from manual UX testing to test automation, but also for hybrid use. Valido user-friendly interface enables any team regardless of technical ability to test the end-to-end user experience.
Pricing
Free trial available to test all features. Paid plans from $19 / month.
Browserstack
Key features
Categorized as a browser testing tool, Browserstack gives you access to a lab of 3000+ real devices and browsers for testing.
Benefits
- Extensive device and browser coverage
- Local Testing feature allows you to test development and internal websites
- Flexibility to support both manual and automated testing
Summary
Browserstack offers a comprehensive cross-browser testing platform that addresses the needs of developers and testers aiming to ensure the performance of their ecommerce platform. However it might present challenges for first-time users due to its complexity, especially for those seeking a straightforward and user-friendly testing experience.
Pricing
Demo available upon request. Paid plans from $29 / month.
LambdaTest
Key features
LambdaTest is a test automation solution that lets you perform mobile apps and cross-browser testing across 3,000+ real mobile and desktop browsers, and multiple operating systems (Mac, Windows, Linux, iOS, Android).
Benefits
- Integrations with major testing frameworks and CI/CD tools.
- AI-powered test analytics and smart TV testing.
- 24/7 Support
Summary
Due to its steep learning curve and some knowledge of scripting is required, LambdaTest is targeted mainly for developers and those who are already familiar with testing frameworks. In terms of UX testing, it is mainly focused on single-page test automation rather than testing the complete user journey. Users have also noted that test configurations are manual and time consuming.
Pricing
Free trial available. Paid plans from $15 / month.
Applitools
Key features
Applitools offers cutting-edge automated testing capabilities that streamline the testing lifecycle, from test creation to execution and maintenance. This platform is particularly valuable for frontend teams as it harnesses the artificial intelligence to enhance test automation.
Benefits
- Efficient test management/maintenance with minimal human intervention
- Integration with major test automation frameworks
- A wide variety of features
Summary
Applitools boasts advanced capabilities and integrations. One of the standout features of Applitools is its intelligent categorization of bugs using Visual AI. However, its learning curve and complexity might be challenging for newcomers as some knowledge of scripting/coding is required. Also, while possible to perform ecommerce user test cases, it is heavily focused on visual testing for frontend teams.
Pricing
Free account available with limited features. Pricing available upon request.
Opkey
Key features
Opkey is a scriptless test automation platform that allows users to perform continuous testing. It has intuitive drag-and-drop test builders so that users can easily create and automate tests without the need for coding. It also has an AI-powered Test Recorder that documents browser sessions and creates reusable test scripts.
Benefits
- Effortless test creation
- Reduced test automation time
- Expanded test coverage
Summary
Opkey has over 30,000 pre-built test cases to choose from and has integrations with various 3rd party platforms such as Jira, Jenkins and Bitbucket. While aimed at empowering all users across the board to contribute to the testing process, new testers might find navigating the tool challenging. It is also noted that there are insufficient tutorials for tool usage.
Pricing
Free trial available. Pricing available upon request.
Conclusion
Efficient and reliable automated UX testing is crucial not only to ensure seamless user experiences, but also to optimize costs, resources and productivity. While our exploration of the best tools has highlighted user experience and automation features, it’s important to carefully consider the specific testing requirements of your online business.
Each test automation tool above has excellent benefits, but it’s crucial to acknowledge the areas where they may not align with your team needs. With thoughtful consideration of ease-of-use, integrations, customization, and pricing, you are equipped to choose the solution that fits your ecommerce vision.
Want to learn more about the best ecommerce testing tools? Get in touch with us.
Digital UX, writing about the latest ecommerce trends.