Despite these risks, Keysight’s report Human versus Machine: The State of POS Testing has revealed that 63% of North American retailers are failing to meet all POS testing requirements before a release.
Whether customers are looking to shop in-store or online, having a modern point-of-sale system (POS) is critical and so is POS Testing. POS systems are no longer about acting as a simple cash register, instead they enable multiple applications, devices, and systems to be integrated. They act as a central hub, are critical for day-to-day operations, and bridge the gap between in-store and digital purchases making POS testing important.
With Forrester predicting in-store retail sales to hit $4.2 trillion in the US by 2028 and the volume of US click-and-collect sales to double by 2028 exceeding $200 billion in sales, creating a successful omnichannel experience is vital. This means performing rigorous end-to-end POS testing.
Without testing, retailers risk releasing poor software leading to glitchy performance, inaccurate stock management, and long lines at the checkout – all of which ultimately hinder sales. Despite these risks, Keysight’s report Human versus Machine: The State of POS Testing has revealed that 63% of North American retailers are failing to meet all POS testing requirements before a release.
The study highlighted that 72% of North American retailers are still using manual testing and it’s holding them back from success. The challenge is that manual testing is unable to combine speed with quality causing a critical dilemma.
Retailers want to be able to respond quickly in order to meet customer demands and gain a competitive edge, but as new services continue to evolve, and the retail space innovates this is only creating more complexity and bottlenecks in the manual testing processes. In fact, 81% of retailers experience release delays or cancellations every year.
Vital system integrations and peripheral devices complicate the manual testing process, leading to poor coverage, lengthy testing times, and delayed or canceled releases.? As a result, retailers with more integrations and services tend to suffer more because it adds an additional layer of complexity and time to the testing process.
Gareth Smith, General Manager at Keysight commented, “Meeting testing requirements does not have to be a complex and time-consuming process. Advances in AI-augmented software can deliver speed and quality while improving test coverage across the POS architecture. Automation removes the constraints of manual testing, allowing retailers to test more with greater accuracy that results in more robust, reliable and fault free deployments.”
Teams using automation were not only able to double the number of releases on average, but 19% of teams cited being able to deploy four times more releases per year when compared to manual testing.
AI-driven automated POS testing runs 24 / 7 / 365, testing every release and scaling to any capacity. Teams can perform more regression tests, increase release frequency, and optimize test coverage across multiple systems and devices.?
Other key findings from the Human versus Machine: The State of POS Testing report uncovered:
- Manual testers are at the breaking point – The study showed that retailers invest 34 hours of testing per release. Despite this time investment, retailers are still struggling to meet all the requirements before a release. As a result, many retailers opt for speed over quality. The lack of time for testing new features hampers the ability to keep pace with required releases, resulting in 69% of manual testing teams only managing to release five times or fewer each year. In an environment where test requirements frequently change, this is an area for concern with retailers putting customer experience on the line.
- Test automation delivers both quality and speed – With 81% of respondents wanting faster deployments and 56% wanting fewer defects, automation is the way forward. While manual testing teams are feeling the strain, 73% of respondents using automation are highly satisfied with their ability to meet test requirements, contributing to POS system stability and minimal disruptions at the checkout.
- The future dilemma – Retailers are under immense pressure to increase the release cadence, despite manual testing failing to release fast enough, identify critical defects, and meet test requirements. As a result, 47% of retailers said they will need to optimize testing methods in order to meet the new requirements.
Without transitioning to an automated approach retailers won’t be able to satisfy customers in the future. Download the Human versus Machine: The State of POS Testing study today to find out more.
NRF SmartBrief conducted research on behalf of Keysight. Software testing decision makers at North American retailers were surveyed to understand how their current POS testing approach impacts their capabilities of delivering high-quality software quickly.
