Significance of Performance Testing in Assuring Holiday Readiness of Apps

It seems like the above statement is changing into an unexpected reality with time. Due to the current COVID-19 pandemic, companies across the world have begun shifting online. Though this sudden shift encouraged businesses to survive, it enhanced the level of competition among organizations. And now, with the holiday season 2021 quickly approaching, the competition among companies is expected to get more intense.

This year, the holiday shopping season, particularly Black Friday and Cyber Monday, is likely to be different and more significant than all previous years. Thus, for businesses to reap significant advantages from the holiday season 2021 and give a great shopping experience to customers, the holiday readiness of apps is important.

Common Challenges faced by Businesses During Holiday Sales 2020?

Undoubtedly, last year’s holiday season was a large success. According to Salesforce, global online sales through Cyber Week 2020 hit a new record with $270 billion, which was 36% higher as matched to the year 2019.

The major operator behind this unexpected rise was the variation in customers’ shopping behavior due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to the reduced in-store holiday hours, customers favored online shopping during the cyber week that advanced digital sales to new heights.

 

However, various challenges were encountered by businesses during the holiday sales 2020, which negatively altered their revenues, brand image, and customer shopping experience.

• Issues with mobile app performance, such as frequent app crashes, delayed response, server time-outs, etc.

• Failure to implement a high-performing and secure interface for online shoppers

• Slow app loading due to heavy user load

• Difficulty in managing responsiveness of eCommerce websites

• Challenges in assuring 24/7 uptime for POS applications

• Delay in processing payments

Role of Performance Testing for Holiday Readiness of Apps

Performance testing is a non-functional software testing type that assesses the performance of apps below different conditions, such as varying bandwidth, fluctuating networks, increased user load, etc. The main purpose of this test is to eliminate performance-related bottlenecks from apps. Therefore, by leveraging this non-functional software testing type, businesses can overcome the above-mentioned challenges and get the efficient performance of apps through peak load days such as the festive season and holiday season.

There are various advantages that companies can get by leveraging this non-functional software testing type.

Increases responsiveness of apps:

It is always favored that if the responsiveness of apps is good, it assures excellent user engagement. To assure the high responsiveness of apps, performance testing is crucial.

Improves loading time:

Slow-loading websites regularly irritate the customer, and they lose interest. Performance testing helps to enhance the loading time taken by applications or websites.

Provides higher stability:

Apps should not crash when the user load grows to assure a great user experience (UX). Therefore, load testing should be taken up to enhance the stability of the apps.

Major App Functionalities that require Effective Performance Testing

Critical user paths:

An eCommerce app has several critical user paths, such as registration, login, shopping cart, checkout, product page, etc., that must be tested to recognize and remove performance bottlenecks.

Payment gateway:

Delays in processing payments or failed payments hinder the CX. It is necessary to test the payment gateway to assure successful payment transactions during peak load days.

Back-end integrations:

For an eCommerce app to operate properly, its front-end and back-end systems must work in harmony. Back-end integration such as CRM and logistics must be load tested to assure proper functioning on peak user-load days.

Communication mediums:

Email, SMS, and other communication mediums perform an essential role in keeping the customer engaged and updated. Thus, it is necessary to load test these mediums for their seamless performance below raised user-loads.

8 Key Performance Testing Metrics for Business Apps

App installation time:

This provides the first impression of an app to the user. Thus, it is crucial to have a faster installation time for the app to create a great impression.

App launch time:

App launch time or app start time is another significant metric that must be verified in an application. Ideally, it should not take more than 1 to 2 seconds for the first screen to arrive.

App background processing:

It is crucial to assure that in-app performance remains unaffected when various apps run in parallel. When the app runs in the background and is recovered, no data loss should happen.

Memory usage:

An app should not use excess memory and must not heat the device, particularly when it runs in the background. Thus, it is required to verify an app’s CPU usage and memory during its execution.

Response time:

It is the amount of time exercised by an app to respond to a given input. Faster response time assures less wait time and high performance of the app.

Average load time:

Load time of app/website and page load time are both very important for users and businesses. Faster loading time or speed assures the better performance of the app/website.

Bandwidth and network compatibility:

Varying bandwidth and fluctuating networks influence the app loading time. Thus, to assure effective app performance, it is crucial to load test the app with minimal bandwidth and with various network types and connections such as 3G, 4G, and 5G.

User Geography:

An app should ideally operate seamlessly across geographies. Thus, it is required to conduct geo-load testing to assure effective apps performance across different regions.

Also Read: Performance Testing: What It Is, Common Issues, And Why It Matters?

Conclusion

This year 2021, the holiday season will be a more important event. Retailers and eCommerce businesses from all across the world will come together and will try to get the most out of the holiday sales. But, for businesses to get significant advantages from the upcoming holiday shopping season, efficient performance and holiday readiness of apps and business websites are required. Companies must leverage performance testing for high-performing, holiday-ready apps from a next-gen QA and independent software testing services provider.

TestUnity is a leading provider of performance and load testing services for companies across domains.TestUnity has experience with all industry-leading performance testing and monitoring tools, simultaneously with expertise in end-to-end application performance testing, including network, hardware, database, etc. With a highly skilled team of performance testers, TestUnity helps companies benchmark their application performance.

TestUnity

Testunity is a SaaS-based technology platform driven by a vast community of testers & QAs spread around the world, powered by technology & testing experts to create the dedicated testing hub. Which is capable of providing almost all kind of testing services for almost all the platforms exists in software word.