Advance testing ensured smooth sailing for ShopNBC site relaunch

ShopNBC.com, the web site of TV/Internet direct marketer ValueVision Media’s Shop NBC, avoided opening-day glitches when relaunching its web site recently by thoroughly testing load capacity and site performance first with Empirix’s e-Test tools, according to the technology provider, one factor in what ShopNBC says is sales that exceeded expectations by a factor of 20 to 30 on the relaunch date. The retailer used Empirix’s e-Test Suite to test customers’ ability to browse and use a new Quick Buy feature, shopper log-in and log-out and purchases from new customers.

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During the tests, the testing tool identified several issues with the new site that would have caused delays and downtime for consumers if left uncorrected. For example, the tests caught a flaw in how ShopNBC.com used resources and performed data caching. In one instance, a load test on a caching mechanism showed performance was below standard. A test with the Empirix product revealed an error in software use; fixing it improved performance significantly, the company says. ShopNBC.com also used the testing suite to determine the number of site visitors that could be supported by its new bank of servers and saved the cost of additional investment when testing showed the current system would support the new site’s bandwidth needs.

As ShopNBC.com receives several thousand orders daily, delays or downtime, especially during a traffic-spiking promotion, would have had a negative impact on the bottom line, according to Steve Craig, vice president of interactive at ShopNBC. “You need to be proactive with testing,” he says. “It’s too late if you catch site performance issues after they happen.”