How to Perform Globalization Testing

Ever since the digital revolution, businesses have been aiming to take their products and services to a broader audience and generate higher revenues. However, establishing a truly globalized business presence is not an easy task. It requires significant effort to develop a website capable of serving customers in different parts of the world. Such a site demands thorough testing for its functionality when accessed from different geographies in the world.

Customers across the globe must find the website intuitive when they interact with it. The format for basic inputs like mobile number, currency, time, date, and address differs for specific geographies. Moreover, the language of the site or app must also be specific to the customer’s geographic region.

So how do you ensure the accuracy of website functionalities at a global level?

Simple. Perform Globalization Testing of Websites and Apps on Real Devices.

What is Globalization Testing?

Globalization testing refers to the process of validating whether a website or an app delivers a customized user experience to users across the globe. These tests include validating whether the website or app adopts the language, currency, and time correctly based on the location it is accessed from.

Before understanding how to perform globalization testing, let’s discuss an important point.

Difference between Globalization testing and Localization testing

There’s a thin line between localization testing and globalization testing.

• Localization testing is primarily performed to ensure that an application performs well for a specific geographic location or culture. The test efforts are restricted to a small group of users and it validates whether the application adapts UI changes correctly for a specific country.

• Globalization testing focuses on validating the application’s behavior for diverse geographic locations. It tests the different currency formats, mobile number formats, and address formats supported by the application. It is performed keeping into consideration a broader set of audiences across different countries and continents.

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How to Perform Globalization Testing on Real Browsers & Devices

To ensure that websites deliver a truly globalized experience, testers must perform geolocation testing of websites and apps on real devices and browsers.

BrowserStack’s real device cloud enables you to run these tests across 3000+ real devices and browsers. This includes thousands mobile and desktop devices along with multiple versions of major browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Opera, etc.).

Follow the steps below to get started with globalization testing of websites on BrowserStack:

1. Signup on BrowserStack Live or log in if you already have an account.
2. Once you log in, navigate to the Live Dashboard.
3. Select the OS-browser combination you wish to test on. (in this case, we choose Windows 11 and Chrome 97).
4. A new Live session begins once you choose the desired OS-Browser combination.
5. Once the Live session starts, select the Change Location option from the floating tool box.
6. Now enter the desired location from which you want to test your website. (For example, let’s consider Germany as the target location and BrowserStack as the website under test). Refer to the image below for clarity.

Note that the default location is set as None. Naturally, the results stay unaltered.

Once you navigate to a particular website or enter a search query after setting the location, the results will appear based on that specific location. For example, when you set the location as Germany, the search results start appearing as they would in Germany (as shown below).

This feature makes it easy for teams to evaluate their website’s performance in diverse geographies. Digital marketers too can leverage this feature to test the organic and paid ranking of their websites in different search engines.

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Similarly, BrowserStack also empowers teams to perform globalization testing on real mobile devices (Android and iOS). 

• Just choose the platform (Android or iOS), and select the desired handset to test on from the Live dashboard. In the following example, we select Android OS and Samsung Galaxy S21 as the handset.
• From the floating toolbar, select the Change location option and select the country of your choice.
• As illustrated earlier, once the location is defined, it generates results as per the location accordingly. The image below represents search results for Germany for the search query BrowserStack (Google search) on Samsung Galaxy S21 (Chrome).

A similar method can be used for globalization testing on mobile apps using App Live.

As mentioned initially, more businesses are expanding their services for global customers. Having said this, developing a truly globalized application that maintains an edge over the competitors becomes imperative. Needless to say, it requires thorough globalization testing. Doing this ensures that companies can successfully reach out to the target audience and deliver tailored content.

BrowserStack’s real device cloud makes it extremely convenient for teams to remotely test their apps and websites on the desired environments. Simply sign up, select the required device-browser-OS combination, and start testing websites from different countries for free.