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A commerce journey should make the offer, conditions, choices and next steps clear. This category connects discovery, comprehension, trust and conversion across mobile and desktop. Cart abandonment alone does not demonstrate an interface problem. Check the observed step, product availability, final cost and measurement events. Connect traces to a reproducible task rather than assigning intent to every missing conversion.
What to examine
Study search, comparison, basket, checkout and support as one journey.
Show price, availability, delivery and conditions before commitment.
Test errors, backtracking and accessibility needs at decisive steps.
Check that a variant URL actually selects the image, price, stock and offer added to cart.
Connect customer language, reliable attributes and filter states to clear results and controlled URLs.
Distinguish physical, sellable, reserved and incoming stock, then test concurrent purchases, cancellations and channel synchronisation.
Separate return approval, receipt, requested refunds and confirmed outcomes.
Explain verified-review labels and keep moderation fair from submission to structured data.
Reconcile displayed prices, orders, payments and refunds without mixing units.
Verify what changes after a stop request, immediately or at a planned period boundary.
Useful questions
Where does a customer lose context or trust?
Which information arrives too late?
Can someone complete the task with keyboard or zoom?
Does the email confirmation reflect an order actually accepted?
Does an unavailable variant still appear purchasable on another channel?
Are units and values coherent?
Is an on-hand unit always sellable?
Can a refund be announced when a return is approved?
Should a negative review be removed?
Do all currencies use two decimals?
Does cancellation mean a refund?
Illustrative decision example
Situation
Fictional example: these inputs describe no customer or observed result. Someone filters a list, opens a product page and returns to find the selection and position lost.
Check
Replay with multiple filters on mobile and keyboard. Check URL, visible state, result count and empty-list communication.
Act
Preserve useful context and provide an understandable route out of no-match results. The presence of a filter does not establish usability.
Missing confirmation can conceal a successful payment. Reconcile provider state, order and fulfilment before asking users to retry; test repeated notifications and interrupted returns.
Does disconnection after payment result in one order and a retrievable state?
Explore the methods
Read data · verify · decide
Cart and refund: reconcile exact amounts
Page, order and payment need matching currency, discounts and states. Receiving a notification twice must not produce two effects.
Paid amount
€58.8759.97 − 6.00 + 4.90
Example refund
€17.9919.99 − 2.00
Balance after refund
€40.8858.87 − 17.99
Fictional teaching case — figures describe neither CIE nor a client.
Questions to support your decisions
Find answers and practical checks in the analyses in this category.
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Cookie configuration does not replace CSRF checks or server-side authorisation.
Session cookies: separate site, origin and host boundaries
Two HTTPS subdomains can be same-site while having different origins. SameSite uses a site boundary; CORS uses an origin boundary. Neither decision replaces server-side checks of the user’s permissions.
Teaching examples use the reserved example.org domain. Scope also depends on the registrable domain, scheme and browser policies. These examples create no requests or cookies.
Session cookies: separate site, origin and host boundaries
Attribute
Protection provided
Boundary to test
Secure
Restricts cookie transmission to secure connections, with browser-documented local exceptions.
Does not prevent scripts reading a cookie when HttpOnly is absent.
HttpOnly
Prevents cookie access through JavaScript APIs such as document.cookie.
A script-triggered request can still include the cookie; XSS remains dangerous.
SameSite=Lax
Restricts cross-site sending, with an exception notably for some top-level navigations using a safe method.
Never perform a state-changing action using GET. Also test same-site subdomains.
SameSite=None; Secure
Allows cross-site sending subject to the browser’s other rules and policies.
Does not override third-party-cookie restrictions or remove the need for CSRF protection.
__Host-
In browsers enforcing this prefix: Secure, Path=/ and no Domain attribute.
Restricts scope to the host. Does not isolate ports or establish action authorisation.
Three situations to examine
A neighbouring subdomain is compromised
https://blog.example.org and https://app.example.org have different origins but can be same-site. SameSite alone is therefore not a boundary against an untrusted subdomain. Check allowed origins and CSRF protection for sensitive operations.
An HttpOnly cookie cannot be read, but an action succeeds
This is consistent with HttpOnly: it prevents reading, not sending with a request. Check XSS defences, CSRF tokens and server-side authorisation separately.
A provider’s return journey loses the session
Compare top-level navigation versus iframe, HTTP method, origins and received attributes. Do not switch everything to SameSite=None to hide the issue; define this journey’s requirements and retain its CSRF protection.
E-commerce: distinguish authenticated and expected mail
Orders, receipts and promotions have different purposes. Validated domain identity establishes neither commercial relevance nor the recipient’s expectations.
Map transactional and promotional platforms separately.
Test alignment on each stream, including authorised payment or delivery providers.
Analyse technical refusals separately from unsubscribe and open metrics.
Separate exact conversion from payment confirmation
An interface can display the correct price while preparing an incorrect provider integer. Acceptance must reconcile the server amount with the operation contract, then check confirmed state without mistaking arithmetic for completed payment.
Test zero-, two- and three-decimal currencies.
Include a case where step cannot be inferred from decimals.
Retain an exact reference before localised formatting.