When we deploy updates for a client, something has to confirm it all still works. Every form, every journey, every edge case.
For years, that something has been a person. A QA tester working through a checklist, clicking through flows, checking outputs. It works. But it is slow, it scales poorly, and it relies on the tester knowing exactly what to look for.
There is a better way to handle the repetitive, high-stakes part of that process - and more of our clients are starting to invest in it.
What Automated Testing Actually Is
Automated testing uses scripts to run predefined checks against your platform - simulating real user journeys and validating that everything behaves as expected.
Rather than a person clicking through your checkout or completing your questionnaire before every release, a script does it. In minutes. Every time. With the same checks, in the same order, producing a clear pass or fail.
It does not replace human judgement. Manual testing still has a role - particularly for exploratory work, new features, and anything that genuinely needs a human eye. But for the journeys that matter most and change least, automation handles the burden.
The Part of Manual Testing Nobody Talks About
The hidden cost of manual testing is not the time it takes. It is what happens when time runs out.
When a release is due and the testing window is tight, something gets skipped. Usually it is the edge cases - the returning customer flow, the rejection path, the journey that works nine times out of ten but fails on the tenth. Those are exactly the scenarios that cause production incidents.
There is also a less obvious risk. A backend change can break a frontend journey in ways that are not immediately obvious. The system works, the data saves correctly, but what the user sees is wrong. A manual tester following a standard checklist may not catch it. An automated test written to validate that specific journey will.
What We Automate and Why
Not everything needs to be automated. The value is in identifying the journeys that are business-critical, run frequently, and are most at risk from regressions.
Typically that means:
- Core customer journeys - the end-to-end flows your customers rely on, tested in full before every deployment
- Happy path and rejection paths - confirming the system responds correctly whether a user succeeds or does not qualify
- Returning user recognition - validating that existing customers are identified correctly and not pushed through a new registration flow
- Form and logic validation - conditional fields, required inputs, submission behaviour, and error handling
- Integration touchpoints - confirming data passes correctly between your platform and any connected systems
Manual testing does not disappear. It shifts. Instead of a tester working through a long checklist before every release, manual effort focuses on new functionality, exploratory testing, and quick smoke tests after deployment to confirm the live environment is healthy.
Deployments That Block Themselves When Something Breaks
One of the most practical benefits of automated testing is what it does to your deployment process.
Once tests are integrated into your deployment pipeline, they become a condition of release - not an afterthought. If a test fails, the deployment stops. A broken journey cannot reach production because the system blocks it automatically.
This means issues are caught in a staging environment, where they are quick and cheap to fix. By the time a change goes live, it has already been validated against every critical journey. After deployment, a targeted smoke test runs to confirm the production environment is working as expected.
The result is releases that carry less risk, move faster, and rely less on the availability of a tester at the right moment.
The Upfront Investment and What It Buys You
Automated tests cost more to set up than a manual testing session. That is the honest answer, and it is worth being clear about it.
Writing a reliable test suite takes time. The scripts need to be built, validated, and connected to your deployment pipeline. For a platform with several critical journeys, that is typically a week to two weeks of development effort upfront.
What that investment buys is a suite that then runs for free, indefinitely, on every deployment. Maintenance is low - tests only need updating when journeys genuinely change, which typically amounts to a few hours per quarter.
The comparison is not "automated testing vs. no testing." It is "automated testing vs. the ongoing cost of manual regression testing before every release, plus the cost of incidents that manual testing misses."
For most platforms with complex logic, frequent deployments, or compliance-sensitive features, the numbers favour automation quickly.
Is It Right for Your Platform?
Automated testing makes the most sense when:
- Your platform has well-defined customer journeys that run repeatedly
- You deploy updates regularly and manual testing slows you down
- A production incident -broken checkout, failed form, incorrect data - carries real commercial or reputational cost
- You have compliance or regulatory requirements that demand consistent, documented validation
It is less critical for platforms that change rarely, have simple flows, or where the cost of a regression is low.
If you are not sure where you sit, that is usually where the conversation starts.
What This Looks Like in Practice
We recently worked with a client running a complex online medical questionnaire. Every deployment required a full manual test of multiple customer journeys before go-live - new customers, returning customers, approval flows, rejection flows. It was time-consuming and carried real risk if something was missed.
We built an automated regression suite covering all critical scenarios, integrated into their deployment pipeline. Now those journeys are validated automatically before every release. Manual effort is reserved for new features and a quick post-deployment smoke test.
The upfront investment was a week of development. The ongoing overhead is minimal. The risk profile of every deployment changed immediately.
Work with Velstar
If you are looking for an eCommerce agency that delivers results, we would love to hear from you. Contact us and one of our specialists will be in touch.