Testing the System 

Testing of the system needs to be done once the system is developed. Based on the system’s size, this process can become lengthy and challenging.

Testing is needed irrespective of whether it is built in-house or it is outsourced.

A complex e-commerce website will have number of routes through the website, each of this should be documented and after that tested. 

It is important to note that testing is generally under-budgeted. Testing and rebuilding can consume around 50 % of your budget allocated for e-commerce website. 

In unit testing website’s different modules are tested one at a time. In system testing, website is tested in a same way that a normal user would at the time of using system. 

In acceptance testing, company’s key personnel and managers in production, marketing, sales and general management uses the system as deployed on testing server. Acceptance testing confirms that the system satisfies the business objectives. 

Split testing is another type of testing in which two different versions of website is shown to different users to check which one performs better. 

This testing is also known as A/B testing. In template testing, same content is tested across different design or layouts. 

The flow through a sequence of pages is compared in funnel testing to check which results in conversion in higher percentage.   

In multivariate testing specific element on web page is identified and different version of every element is created. After that unique combination of every element and version is created to test. 

It helps in identifying most optimal color, format, layout and content. 

Implementation and Maintenance 

Majority of people think that once the system deployment is done, the process is over. Where as only the starting phase of process is completed, the operational phase of the system has just started.

There are various reasons for system breaking down and many of these reasons are unknown. Hence the system needs periodic testing, checking and repair. 

Maintenance of system after deployment is very important but is neglected few times. A very large e-commerce website costing around  1 lac will likely need around 5 lac to 7 lac budget for maintenance. 

As e-commerce websites are kind of site which always in process of upgradation, correction and enhancement, the cost of maintenance of such site are higher. It is found in maintenance of traditional system that 205 of time is given to responding to emergency situations and debugging the code. 

Another 20% is dedicated to changes in reports, data files and update in links to the databases. The remaining 60% of time is provided to making change and enhancement of system and general administration. 

E-commerce websites are never completed, there is always something going on in development. 

The long-term success of an e-commerce website relies on a dedicated employee referred to as web team, whose only responsibility is to monitor and as per market situation adapt the website. 

This web team needs to be multi-skilled, so this team will have designer, programmer and business managers taken from production, marketing and sale support.     

One of the initial job of the web team is to check customer’s feedback on the website and reply to that feedback as required.

Another job is to build a systematic testing and monitoring plan which is to be followed on weekly basis to make sure everything is working properly, prices are correct and pages are updated. 

A larger business might have number of web pages, most of them linked, which need systematic monitoring. 

The web being very competitive market, maintenance is one of the important factor, as you may lose on customers due to dysfunctional website.