Nkuku approached WebDepend in early 2024 with concerns about the quality of their live Shopify site. The core problem was that when their agency rolled out updates to the site, bugs were regularly going undetected by both the agency and the Nkuku team. Instead, they were being discovered by customers experiencing problems on the site. This was not only damaging to the customer experience but also to Nkuku’s carefully cultivated brand image.
After discussing the options with WebDepend, Nkuku agreed that the best starting point was a thorough audit of the current live site. This is a systematic review to identify anything that could impact a visitor’s ability to browse or purchase from the site, or that detracted from the overall experience and brand image.
WebDepend carried out a five-day ecommerce audit of the live Nkuku Shopify site, drawing on our experience of conducting similar audits for ecommerce clients. The approach was exploratory in nature, covering all key areas of the site to assess functional behaviour, user experience, visual consistency, content accuracy, and cross-browser and device compatibility.
Compatibility testing covered the following browsers and devices:
All bugs identified during the audit were logged in WebDepend’s Testing Manager application, with direct access provided to the Nkuku team. A full audit report was also produced documenting everything covered during the engagement.
The audit uncovered 72 bugs in total across five categories.
Functional (25 bugs found): functional testing produced the largest number of issues and included two major bugs with a direct impact on customers. When the site currency was switched to Euros, prices displayed for frequently bought together product groups were showing incorrectly, a potentially trust-damaging issue for European customers. A second significant gap was the absence of any way for account holders to change their password through normal account settings, with the only available route being the ‘forgot my password’ facility.
User experience (20 bugs found): user experience testing identified areas where the site’s behaviour or design created unnecessary friction for visitors browsing products and completing purchases.
Mobile and browser compatibility (12 bugs found): compatibility testing across desktop browsers and mobile devices revealed issues affecting the site’s appearance and behaviour across different browsers and screen sizes.
Visual (8 bugs found): visual testing found inconsistencies in the site’s styling and presentation that had the potential to detract from the quality of the Nkuku brand experience.
Content (4 bugs found): content testing identified instances where copy, product information, or other on-page content was incorrect or missing.
The audit gave Nkuku a clear and comprehensive picture of the issues present on their live site, all of which had gone undetected through their existing process. With 72 bugs documented across functional, user experience, compatibility, visual, and content categories, delivered through both Testing Manager and a detailed audit report, Nkuku had everything needed to brief their agency and set about making improvements.
Nkuku were very happy with the audit findings and moved promptly to address the problems and make changes to their site. By identifying issues before they continued to affect customers, the audit helped protect both the quality of the shopping experience and the integrity of Nkuku’s brand - particularly important for a company whose reputation for quality and ethics is central to what it stands for.
