“The testing from Zoonou ensured that our website went live with minimal issues which means a great experience for customers & no revenue impact for us as a business.”
Founded in 1992 as a small concession in a clothing store on London’s iconic Oxford Street, Dune London has grown to become a global leader and specialist in luxury footwear and accessories. With a passion for quality products and an obsession with the customer experience (CX), the brand has experienced exceptional growth over the past 30 years.
In 2020, Dune London decided to update its tech stack and replatform its five eCommerce websites to Salesforce Commerce Cloud. With goals to optimise their front-end CX and future proof their back-end technology, they wanted to ensure the new websites were thoroughly tested before launch.
Elaine Smith, Head of Digital Product at Dune London, comments, “We knew that we needed comprehensive pre-launch testing to maximise our investment. We don’t have in-house resource and did consider hiring a contract QA manager but decided this wouldn’t give us the coverage we required.” Elaine adds, “We also wanted to have the new sites accessibility and load tested, so we decided to look for an external partner.”
Dune London needed a QA partner with proven experience in testing enterprise retail eCommerce software to define a comprehensive test strategy and deliver the test execution. The partner needed to be able to:
Following a successful consultation, Dune London selected Zoonou as their partner for the project. Elaine explains, “We were looking for a UK-based QA company with proven experience in testing retail websites. They needed to be a good team fit with us and our Systems Integrator. In comparison to the other test providers we spoke to, Zoonou’s approach resonated best with us!”
eCommerce websites need to provide a seamless experience to avoid disrupting the user journey. For that reason, Zoonou deployed end-to-end functional testing on the flagship site and locale testing across the additional 4 sites. Testing simulated real user journeys that covered core functionality, including:
During the rounds of functional testing, Zoonou’s testers performed real device compatibility testing. The testers checked how the websites render and operate in real user conditions across multiple browser-device-OS combinations.
Elaine comments on the functional testing, “We are really pleased with how everything went, there was good communication throughout the process, and it felt quite seamless in terms of bugs being raised, being sent for retest and reporting.”
A key goal for Dune London was to meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 AA standard. Zoonou’s Accessibility team conducted a technical audit on the website assessing the pages against the WCAG success criteria. Additionally, key user journeys were tested using assistive technologies to identify usability issues impacting disabled users.
“We knew the replatform would step us forward but having an accessibility audit really showed us how much work is required to really meet the guidelines. The issues raised were clearly laid out, and the report explains things in simple business terms.”
To mitigate the business risks associated with a slow or unresponsive website, Dune London wanted reassurance that the sites were fast, responsive, and scalable. To that end, Zoonou’s Performance Test Analysts ran a series of load, stress, and soak tests to evaluate the websites’ performance under expected and extreme user levels. Testing allowed Dune London to identify and resolve any bottlenecks that could have been a blocker for sales during peak traffic times.
With Zoonou as the strategic QA partner for the project, Dune London launched the websites with confidence knowing that high-priority issues had been identified and fixed. Subsequently, Dune London was named as a finalist at the eCommerce Awards 2021 for Best Fashion eCommerce.
Elaine concludes, “It’s absolutely imperative to get a good testing agency onboard to ensure your project goes live with minimal issues. Zoonou played a big part in that for us, particularly as we had five sites all going live at once! The testing from Zoonou ensured a great experience for customers and no revenue impact for us as a business.”
"It’s absolutely imperative to get a good testing agency onboard to ensure your project goes live with minimal issues. Zoonou played a big part in that for us, particularly as we had five sites all going live at once! The testing from Zoonou ensured a great experience for customers and no revenue impact for us as a business."