Case Study: UI Automation for Automatic Order Placement in Zhuanzhuan App

UI automation is widely used in regression testing, compatibility testing, online monitoring, and smoke testing, but its benefits extend beyond testing scenarios. This case study from the Zhuanzhuan team demonstrates how UI automation can also help business operations reduce labor costs and improve efficiency.

Background : Operators had to manually place orders in the Zhuanzhuan app for phones sold on other live‑stream platforms because the platform could not generate orders automatically. As order volume grew, manual processing became costly, prompting the exploration of UI automation for automatic order placement.

Initial Process Investigation :

Operators exported order data from the management backend to an Excel sheet.

Using product brand, model, color, condition, and buyer shipping information, they manually entered orders in the app.

After shipping, logistics information was manually synced back to the backend.

UI Automation Workflow Design :

Parse the Excel sheet to obtain product and buyer details.

Use UI automation to search for the product in the app, filter results, and place the order with the buyer’s shipping information.

Record order numbers, payment amounts, and other details back into the Excel sheet for later logistics tracking.

Implement strict validation and logging at each step to prevent errors.

Capture failure reasons for retry and troubleshooting.

Implementation Details :

1. Excel Data Processing – Extract product brand, model, channel, specifications (color, memory, condition) and other required parameters from the spreadsheet.

2. UI Automation Order Placement – Simulate user actions (search, filter, select, fill address, pay) using the extracted data.

3. Logistics Information Query – After a successful order, invoke a custom API to retrieve logistics details and write them back to the spreadsheet, eliminating repeated manual checks.

The results include both successful and failed orders. Successful entries contain product details, row count, order number, actual payment, and linked logistics tracking numbers. Failed entries record the product and the reason for failure.

Problems & Solutions :

Intermittent UI errors caused execution failures; added timeout detection and retry logic to mitigate.

Incomplete product cards at the end of lists caused accidental clicks; limited processing to cards with fewer than three elements and skipped them.

Effectiveness : Manual order entry took about three minutes per order, handling over 60 orders daily. After automation, the team saved roughly three hours of labor each day.

Conclusion : UI automation can go beyond testing to streamline business processes, reduce costs, and improve efficiency. The Zhuanzhuan case shows that similar automation can be applied to various business scenarios, provided it is used responsibly and compliantly.