According to a study by LSA/HiPay, 69% of consumers are ready to turn away from a retailer that does not offer an omnichannel experience*. But the quality of this experience must be up to par. And that's where test automation comes in.
It is no longer a secret: in recent years, the retail sector has undergone a major evolution thanks to digital transformation. A transformation that the containment and health crisis has accelerated, to meet the needs of consumers who are increasingly demanding and volatile. Their behaviors are changing and their expectations are increasing in parallel. Today, they are no longer content to browse a website, they are on all channels and devices: computers, tablets, phones, social networks, etc. And as a result, they expect a superior omnichannel experience.
But offering a satisfying omnichannel experience also means ensuring that it is fluid and frictionless. It's important to know that all it takes is a bug to scare a customer away and make him go look for the product on another site. And to avoid this, there is no better solution than to test, test and test again. This allows you to verify that all the functionalities of your site, your mobile application, your marketplace and other channels behave as expected, that there are no performance or security issues, etc.
So you could set up manual tests on each channel individually. But that would be a huge waste of time, efficiency and most importantly, quality. To begin with, it's not the channel that should be at the center of your testing, but the customer. And that means removing the barriers between channels and stop treating them independently, creating an immersive experience no matter where your consumers are. And that's where manual testing finds its limit and where test automation comes in.
Test automation: faster and more reliable!
When a customer arrives on your website or mobile application, they go through different interactions and steps that constitute a journey. But each user does not necessarily follow the same path. They can click directly on the category they are interested in or type the name of the product in the search bar, they can add a product to their cart and go directly to the checkout, or they can continue browsing, they can log in to their account at the beginning, or after adding to the cart, or even go through the guest mode.
However, there are some customer journey types that are fairly simple to define and therefore test, but they can quickly become numerous. Testing them manually is not only time-consuming, but it is also tedious and can lead to human error during the testing process. By automating these user journeys, you can speed up the process and reduce the risk of errors on critical journeys. What's more, it allows bugs to be quickly identified and corrected, regardless of the channel, ensuring a smooth omnichannel user experience.
Test automation for omnichannel: greater coverage
It's hard to predict user behavior today because they are all different. They have different buying habits, different reactions, different interactions, different expectations. But on the other hand, they all agree on one thing: they own several devices and they consume on each one. Some will start looking at your products on their phone, go to their computer to find out more about it, check if it's right for them in the store, then go back to their phone or computer to order. But if a user places an order on their computer, they also want to be able to access it on their phone at any time .
And while this type of omnichannel journey is becoming increasingly commonplace, it's actually quite complex to test manually given the different devices, operating systems, browsers, networks, operators, etc. It's not impossible, but again, it's very time consuming. Time that could be used for more value-added tasks.
With test automation, there's no need for headaches. You can run your tests easily and quickly on any channel: terminal, browser, device, operating system, etc. You can run tests on your website, your mobile app, your marketplace, your SMS communication, your in-store ordering software, etc. And while you're at it, you can use the time to think about and develop new features that will further enhance your consumers' omnichannel experience.
A small example to give us, René?
Let's imagine an omnichannel journey. Your customer is a woman. In two months, her best friend's wedding is coming up. She's on the bus, scrolling through your Instagram account via her smartphone, when she comes across THE pair of shoes that would go perfectly with the dress she bought. She clicks on them and ends up on your website, checks that they are her size, adds them to her cart and chooses the click and collect option, so she can pick them up and try them on in your store, to exchange them if needed. The order is validated and she waits to receive an SMS informing her that her shoes are ready and that she just has to go and pick them up.
But the text message didn't arrive. She goes to the store anyway, with the order confirmation email and there, it's the drama: her size is not in stock anymore. There was obviously a bug with the stock management system (among others). Result: she leaves without her pair of shoes, extremely disappointed, feeling like she wasted time for nothing. She is unlikely to try your brand again in the future. And it is quite possible that she will leave a negative review, affecting your image.
In this example, there were many different touch points, between social networks, smartphone, email, SMS, physical store, CRM, etc. Test automation could have avoided this problem by detecting the non-receipt of the SMS.
And this is just one customer, with one smartphone model, one carrier, one network, one operating system. Think about all the other possible options, other channels and touch points. It would be impossible to cover everything with manual testing. With test automation, you can dramatically increase test coverage, allowing you to identify potential broken links between channels that are detrimental to the omnichannel experience.
Omnichannelity, yes, but not without quality
As a retailer, if you want to stand out from the competition and satisfy your customers, you need to offer an omnichannel experience and multiply your touch points. But it's not enough to be present everywhere your customers are. You need to connect everything and, most importantly, make sure everything works together to deliver a quality experience. Because yes, without a doubt, it's the quality of your user journey that will really make the difference.
