Williams-Sonoma: E-Commerce Test Automation & Payment Testing

The Challenge

When you're testing checkout and payment flows for a $5+ billion e-commerce company, there's no room for "we'll catch it in production." Every bug that reaches customers doesn't just frustrate users - it loses money. Every. Single. Transaction.

Williams-Sonoma operates multiple premium retail brands, and their digital platforms handle millions of transactions. The testing team needed to scale automation while maintaining the highest standards for payment processing, cart functionality, and user experience.

What I Built

I developed automated test suites using Java, Selenium, TestNG, Maven, and Jenkins that covered the critical paths customers take - from browsing products to completing checkout.

Key focus areas included:

• Payment processing validation - Credit cards, gift cards, promotional codes
• Cart functionality - Add, remove, quantity changes, persistence across sessions
• Checkout flows - Guest checkout, registered users, address validation
• Cross-browser compatibility - Ensuring consistent experience across browsers

The BDD Approach

I implemented Behavior-Driven Development (BDD) test suites using Cucumber, creating business-readable test scenarios that both technical and non-technical stakeholders could understand. This bridged the gap between development, QA, and business teams.

Impact & Results

• 120+ critical defects identified and fixed before reaching production
• 40% increase in regression test coverage
• 25% reduction in defect leakage to production
• 30% faster test execution through framework optimization

Key Takeaway

E-commerce testing taught me that test automation isn't about coverage metrics - it's about protecting revenue. When money is on the line, every test case needs to answer: "What happens if this breaks during Black Friday?"

Duration: July 2016 – June 2018
Location: San Francisco Bay Area
Role: Quality Assurance Automation Engineer