Hey, you're about to launch your Ecommerce website for the very first time and the last thing you want see happen is that you are getting tons of traffic but not getting any sales because you forgot to turn on your payment gateway to accept credit card payments.  We don't need fancy software when it comes to testing your website, just a plan.

I kept it simple by separating testing by the different pages on your website , what to test for each, from the homepage to what happens after checkout.

The general sales funnel of your Ecommerce website might look like this.

Preproduct page (like your home page or category page) → to your product page → cart page → checkout page → and finally, your order confirmation page

If you have a responsive theme, check your website on a mobile device such as a cell phone and tablet.  You should be able to navigate through your site easily and it should look different from what you see on your computer.  Everything should not be cramped into a little screen.

Check to make sure your Website compatible with multiple browsers; Chrome, Explorer, Firefox and Safaria - if you don’t have all these browsers on your computer, just do a search for “multiple browser testing”

Check that your navigation and menu items are working, you can see the different categories and click into them.

Search bar can show searched items.  If you type in your product name, your product should show up.  If you have suggestive search, that means, while you type, it will display your results and as you type more letters, it will quickly narrow down your search, similar to a Google search - make sure that works.

All your content pages are linked, ie About Us, Terms & Condition, Privacy Policy, Contact Us.  

If you have a image slider, make sure all the images and links to those images are working.

If you have certain widgets turned on, for example, new or featured items, it should display your products that fits those criteria.

Category page can filter and sort correctly.  Play with the different options and see if you can find a couple of specific products using the filters.

All category and subcategory has category images and that all product thumbnails are showing up.

Product pages are displaying correctly, check your product title and if you’re using your title as your URL, it is showing correctly.

All product variants are available and that you can select into (ie colors and sizes)

Images are optimized across web pages, meaning that if you product page only can display 2500 x 2500 pixel when enlarge, your image should not be 4000 x 4000 pixel and that your images are compressed.

Is your quantity discount calculating correctly (ie if you have a 10% discount when you order 5 products, is the cart showing 10% off when you have 5 products.

Adjust quantity of products to order. Can you order 1 or 100 items?  If you have a minimum set to 12, can users actually enter a value less than 12 for that particular product

If you have upsell or related to widget, are they showing additional products. Depending on your ecommerce platform, you might have to manually set the related or upsell products, on the other hand, some platforms have their own logic for selecting products into the widget.  Make sure it makes sense.

Other widgets such as shipping calculator.  See if it's calculating properly - you get different prices for different quantities.

Add to cart button can actually add a product into the cart.

Social share buttons on your product pages allows you to connect to the correct social media channel and allow you to share

Customer can add a review to the product

Can you remove a product and update quantity

Get a shipping quote by inputting your zip code

Go to your checkout page and see if your site is secured using your own SSL.

As a customer, add your billing and shipping information

Select different shipping options, eg if you have ground and 2 day, and that you can display different prices based on your selection

Use various payment methods if you have more than just credit card as a form of payment and complete several transactions. Use fake credit card information.

Confirm your Thank you page after your checkout.

As a customer, receive the order confirmation email

As the store owner, receive the order confirmation email and on your order page

If you have a form submit a message successfully

As an admin, see questions or comments submitted from the contact us page.

Your contact information is showing correctly, like your phone number and address.

Can a customer, create an account, login and log off and see status of order.

One thing I want you to keep in mind while testing, don’t be disappointed if something doesn’t work.  This will happen.  Fix the big issues that doesn’t allow you to launch first, the show stoppers like, not being able to accept cc payment or your SSL is not showing up on the checkout page.