Testers

Once all the product, shipping, payment, and order confirmation information has been set up in WooCommerce, it is important to test the online store. Testing can either be done by an individual or by a group of individuals. It is a good practice to use a group of individuals for testing as opposed to an individual. A group of individuals can discover issues that might be otherwise missed by an individual. Remember the saying, “Two sets of eyes are better than one”? It definitely applies to this situation. When choosing a group of individuals, it is good to select individuals who do not have a technical background because they can model how potential visitors would use the online store, which will provide additional insight. Family and friends can make good testers. Other testers can be found for a fee by using third-party websites such as www.usertesting.com , www.userlytics.com , and www.enroll.com .

Product Images

What good is a product or service if consumers cannot visualize it? With online stores, the ability to physically touch and see it are not available, so every effort must be made to duplicate it. Consumers want and need an idea of what they are potentially buying. When testing the online store, make sure that all product images are properly displayed. It is also good to make sure that the images are of good size and quality. When adding product images, it is a best practice to make sure that images are not too large in size, which can slow down the page load time speed and potentially hurt a store’s search engine optimization (SEO) efforts on sites such as Google. For example, as of July 9, 2018, Google’s Speed Update algorithm has been incorporated into mobile search results as a search ranking factor.¹ No specifics were given as to how Google determines which websites are considered fast or slow or the percentage of websites that will be affected.

For products and services, verify that the full product or service image along with the small thumbnail image displays correctly. WooCommerce recommends a minimum width of 800 pixels and a height of 800 pixels for product (or service) images because they will display well for the main/featured image, catalog image, and thumbnail image.² It also recommends larger-sized images for items that contain great detail, but keep in mind the larger the file size, the longer page load speed that affects search engine rankings. When adding products or services, these images can easily be omitted so it is always a good idea to verify that every product or service that needs an image has one associated with it. It is also a good practice to use white or light backgrounds for product or service images along with square or portrait orientation to make it easier for buyers to see products’ details. Likewise, it is a good idea to verify any copyrights associated with any images used for the online store.

Product Descriptions

In the same manner that product images are reviewed, products and services descriptions should be reviewed. Each sellable item should have a short and long description. Not only should the descriptions exist, but they should also be free from spelling and grammatical errors. Spelling and grammatical errors can make an online store appear unprofessional and sloppy. Like it or not, people tend to judge a website by the quality of its content. Misspelled words can convey a lack of attention to detail, which could cause concern for potential customers. To avoid this, product descriptions can be checked by either manually viewing them or copying them into a word processing program such as Microsoft Word and spell checking them.

Product Categories

To help consumers easily find the products that they want, categories should be used. When reviewing online store categories, make sure that they are descriptive and describe the products or services that are assigned to them. Consumers do not like to guess what products make up a category, so make it as simple as possible to locate products. Lastly, the product categories should be free from spelling errors.

SSL Implemented

Even if customers place items in their shopping cart, it does not mean that they will buy them. If they do not see signs that an SSL certificate has been implemented, some might not trust an online store with their personal and credit card information, particularly if a store is relatively new. Most modern web browsers such as Google Chrome will label websites without SSL for the entire website as nonsecure, which could affect potential customers’ perception of an online store. To help ease potential customers’ fears, it is still a good practice to check that SSL is implemented by adding items to the shopping cart and proceeding to the checkout (Figure 8-1).

The address bar should either show “https” or display green. Likewise, a lock icon should be displayed either at the bottom of the browser window or in the address bar. Even though setting up SSL certificates was explained in Chapter 8, it is still good to test it for your business’s peace of mind and that of your potential customers. To force SSL at checkout, make sure that the Force secure checkout option is checked on the Advanced Tab of the WooCommerce ➤ Settings menu (Figure 8-2).

Testing Payment Methods

One of the most important aspects of testing an online store is the ability to accept payments. No one opens a business to not receive payments. Whether PayPal, Stripe, or another payment method is used to process credit cards, they should be thoroughly tested. The payment methods might be disabled, but to properly test them, they need to be enabled. In the WooCommerce ➤ Settings ➤ Payments Tab, the payment methods that will be used can be enabled or disabled (Figure 8-3). When changes are made to the payment methods such as enabling or disabling, the Save Changes button must be clicked. Otherwise, changes will not be saved.

Emails

Once orders are placed, the necessary personnel need to be notified so that orders can be fulfilled. On the WooCommerce ➤ Settings ➤ Email Tab, the emails of the order fulfillment team need to be placed here (Figure 8-14).