Hot Topic Achieves 92.5% Cut in Test Execution Time and Doubles Adoption Speed

Industry: Retail & Consumer Packaged Goods | Services: CloudTestr, Digital Engineering Services

Client Overview

Hot Topic is a leading retail brand focused on music—and pop culture–inspired fashion, accessories, and collectibles. Its business operates across e-commerce and physical retail, with a diverse user base and a need for reliable, fast innovation deliver

The Challenge

Manual, Slow Test Cycles Hindering Speed and Quality

Hot Topic’s legacy testing process was manual, slow, and fragmented. Their challenge was to ensure eCommerce compatibility across operating systems and devices, enhance test coverage, and develop a maintainable test automation suite. 

Testing capacity limited rapid feature development with difficulties in maintaining coverage and communication with virtual teams. They also needed to automate test data handling and efficiently manage testing across multiple releases.

Sutherland Solution

CloudTestr + Automation to Enable Continuous Quality

Sutherland introduced its CloudTestr continuous testing platform, which is complemented by automated test data management and robust dashboards. Starting with a script cleanup and onboarding phase (70% faster setup compared to scripted tools), the solution ran regression suites across OS/browser/device dimensions, tracked all tests, coverage, defects, and built executive dashboards for result validation. The platform also enabled end-to-end business process validation and real-time insight for stakeholders.

The Outcome

Dramatic Performance Gains, Quality Assurance, and Speed to Market

By adopting CloudTestr and automation, Hot Topic slashed test execution time by 92.5%, collapsing a 120-hour cycle to just 8 hours. The company achieved 100% test coverage and consistently delivered defect-free releases. Moreover, new feature adoption doubled, and patch release validation times dropped below 3 hours—collectively boosting operational agility, quality, and time-to-market.