

Home Articles 20 Tasks in Ecommerce	Articles About KB

20 Tasks in Ecommerce

by Kristoffer Bohmann, June 23, 2000

Suggested tasks for testing of ecommerce sites such as compare product features for products A and B.

1. Order one product

Put one product in the shopping basket.
Complete the order.

2. Order several products

Put five different products in the shopping basket.
Move two products from the shopping basket to the wish list.
Close your browser and get back to the shopping basket.
Complete the order by buying the three products in the shopping basket.

3. Use search engine to find product and price information

Find [product] using the search engine and go to the product page.
What is the price for [product] according to search result list?

4. Use search engine to find product

Find [product] using the search engine and go to the product page.

5. Find related products

Go to this product page: [URL to product page].
Find two similar products using the search engine on the site.
Use the search engine to tell if the site sells [product].

6. Find add-ons

Go to this product page: [URL to product page].
Find at least two products that can be used with this product (for example, paper to a printer) by clicking links on the product page.
Find another two add-on products using the search engine.

7. Bookmark product page

Go to a product page.
Bookmark the page by using your browsers favorite or bookmark feature.
Close the browser.
Go back to the product page using your bookmark.

8. Email URL to a friend

Go to a product page.
Email the URL to a friend.

9. Finding new products

What new products have recently been added to the site? Name 3.

10. Find product with certain features

Find a product with [these features].

11. Subscribing to email notifications

Subscribe to product news via e-mail
Check your mailbox (or website) for an email that confirm your subscription.

12. Post product review

Post a brief opinion about [product] and rate the product.

13. Review product reviewers

Read user' product reviews for [product].
Rate how useful you found at least one review.

14. Decide what to buy

Imagine you want to buy [product].
How comfortable do you feel about buying this product from the site?

15. Find site using search engine

Find [site name] using your favorite search engine or directory. For instance, Google or Yahoo.
Repeat the task without using the site name.

16. Compare product prices

Determine which product is cheapest: [product A] or [product B]

17. Compare product features

Compare products [product A] and [product B]. Determine which product has the highest performance in terms of [key product performance dimension].

18. Comparison shopping

Compare prices for [product] with at least one price from competing sites such as [URL to competing site].

19. Login

20. Order history

(Login required.) View the order history of the user profile you are currently using. Name 2 products listed in the order history.

About the Author
Kristoffer Bohmann (biography) M.Sc. thinks and writes about high-quality user experiences. His philosophy: Users first. You can contact him at kristoffer@bohmann.dk.