2021 Vision eCommerce Trends To Expect In The New Year

The dynamic world has made the eCommerce business both scary and exciting. Changes either help us to grow or face new challenges that we are not able to sustain.  This business is still expanding bigger and brighter than before. This content will give you a sneak peak of the eCommerce growth in 2020 and beyond.

#1. Global eCommerce Sales:

The market share of eCommerce business is 17.5% of the total global retail sales. Studies state that eCommerce sales will reach a new high by 2021. It is going to grow approximately up to 265%, from $1.3 trillion in 2014 to $4.9 trillion in 2021. eCommerce business has more opportunity for growth in future. This shows that traditional business should embrace online business trends along with their offline business.  

#2. Prevalence of Omni Channel:

Omni channel shopping means to know what, where, when, why, and how people are purchasing the products you sell on a particular channel. Multi channel shopping is on the works for instance, people search for the product online but then buy in-store directly. Knowing your customers taste and preferences will help you to promote your product. Make sure that you adapt click and collect strategy, where shoppers can purchase online and pick it up in a store close to them.

#3. Shopping through Social Media:

Instagram, twitter, Pinterest, Facebook and YouTube are the social media channels which provide shopping facilities just a button away. social media allows businesses to enable product tags in their posts. when people tap to view a product, they usually see the product image, product description, price and a link where they can purchase the product. Social media is a tool for hassle free communication.

#4. Cross Border Shopping:

Study shows that 57% of online shoppers have made online purchases from an overseas retailer in the last six months. Shoppers are looking for products online outside their home country. Growing eCommerce trend is going global. Make sure that you invest in infrastructure and technology which will help your eCommerce business to adapt to overseas buyers.

#5. B2B eCommerce:

B2B eCommerce is the online selling and marketing of products from one business to another. The target audience of b2b company is not a consumer, but another company. So these companies require a unique approach of marketing and branding their products. B2B buyers usually need to go through various steps including sales representative interaction, negotiations and approvals before they can make a successful purchase.

#6. Mobile Shopping:

With their mobile devices shoppers can now browse, research and purchase products whenever and whatever they want. more than 50% of all internet traffic is from mobile devices. google has also shifted its algorithm towards mobile users. The websites that perform best on the mobile will be ranked accordingly. websites which do not accommodate mobile users, will have low readability and slow page loading speeds. To optimize your site, Google provides you with few tools to check if your website accommodates mobile users.

#7. Voice Commerce:

Voice operating assistants like Alexa, Siri or Google voice console are going to be the buzz in the new year. A very recent trend to the eCommerce world is the rise of voice technology. It has led to new ways on how people interact with brands through voice activated online browsing. As soon as the device has input, it will detect the language in which the query has been asked. The keywords in the query will be captured and answered accordingly. Voice commerce are faster, easier and time saver.

#8. New Payment Modes:

Flexible payment  mode has become the priority of online business this year. Popular payment services such as Google pay, PayPal, Google wallet, PhonePe and more have significantly helped to increase the conversion ratio. This digital mode of payment allows the customer a frictionless shopping experience. In fact 70% of people expect that digital payments will overtake cash and cards by 2030. The more convenience you provide in payment, the more and better results you reap.

Conclusion:

The competition online is already stiff and it is only going to get tougher in the coming years. So arm your website with new trends for eCommerce to help you get ready with the changes of the coming years and elevate your eCommerce business in 2021 into a new height.

Test Automation

Getting Started with Test Automation

Test Automation

In the world of software there are two ways of testing – Manual and Automation. Generally, a lot of testing can be done manually. Some manual testing is like discovery testing, usability testing, regression testing, functional testing, and so on. However, when the testing has to be repeated multiple times, then manual testing is shifted to automation. Needless to say, automation testing saves time and efforts.

Test automation can be defined as the process of running the test automatically, managing test data, and utilizing results to improve the software quality. Testing is a quality assurance (QA) method. This ensures that the software data is tested regularly to achieve improved results every time. The entire software production team from business analysts to developers are involved in the process of software testing.

Each time an error occurs while testing, it is the duty of the developer to rectify the error and retest the software. This way every time a new version of the software is released.  To ensure that the newer version of the software does not hamper the original work features, continuous testing has to be carried out. Testing is a cyclic process meant to improvise software quality. In this continuous process, in order to not miss out on any bugs or errors automation testing is preferred over manual testing.

However, there are some critical points that one must keep in mind while transitioning from manual to automated testing. Here are some tips to get started with test automation.

Tips to get started with test automation

  1. Not all tests can be automated. Even the tests that can be tested automatically, need manual handling at times. This means test automation cannot be done 100%.
  2. Set realistic goals. Writing smaller test cases can provide better test coverage.
  3. Test cases must be labeled well so that teams have the clarity of what needs to be automated.
  4. Automation can help to explore newer areas of the application.
  5. The scope of automation can be decided during the ideation process.
  6. Select the right tools for automation. This depends on the nature of the software (for example, web-based or mobile-based), the experience of the programmer, and whether the available automation tools are open source or not.

While transitioning from manual to automated testing one must be able to answer two questions:

1. What to automate?

2. How to automate?

While answering the first question, one must figure out the type of testing ranging from regression tests, smoke tests, and so on; and whether the software has a technical or business objective. Next comes answering the second question. This includes factors like the testing process, understanding the pros and cons of manual and automation testing, and determining the end-user preferences using the power of analytics. Having the clarity of the above-mentioned aspects helps automation testing cover the right interfaces and optimizes the performance of the software on the right user platforms.

Automation testing is of great help for software developers. By moving to automation testing, the ever-reducing deadlines of software releases can be met. In order to achieve better quality software versions, one must be able to create a balance between automation testing and manual testing.