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TRX-001Buy

Guest checkout available

Checks whether your checkout entry lets a shopper, or an agent acting for one, buy without creating an account or signing in.

What we check

We look at your cart and checkout entry pages for a way to buy without an account (a guest link, guest wording such as "Continue as guest" in English and several other European languages, or a checkout form with no password field), and for the opposite: a login redirect, an "account required" statement, or a bare login form.

Why it matters

An AI shopping agent buying for someone usually has no account and no password to type. If your checkout insists on signing in, the agent stops there. A guest option that is only described, with nothing to click, is almost as bad.

How we check

We read the cart and checkout pages from the crawl, or request each once; our cart is always empty. PASS when a guest control links or posts to a guest path, when guest wording sits beside something clickable or a checkout form, or when the checkout asks for address or payment fields without a password. On Shopify and BigCommerce, where optional accounts are the documented default, we also PASS when nothing contradicts it, and say so. WARN when guest checkout is mentioned but nothing can be clicked. FAIL when the checkout redirects to a login path, says an account is required, or is a login form. We SKIP when the checkout was refused, bot-blocked, walled (consent, age or geo) or returned an error; when neither page has 80 characters of readable text; or when no checkout entry was reached with an empty cart.

How to fix it

  1. Turn on guest checkout. On Shopify, make customer accounts optional (Shopify's help page, linked below, has the current setting). On WooCommerce, allow orders without an account under Accounts & Privacy. On a custom build, let checkout start with an email address and no password.
  2. Put a visible link or button such as "Continue as guest" on the checkout entry page, not only a login form.
  3. Keep that control in the server-rendered HTML so an agent that does not run JavaScript can find it.

What good looks like

<!-- checkout entry page, server-rendered -->
<h1>Checkout</h1>
<section>
  <h2>Returning customer</h2>
  <a href="/account/login?return=/checkout">Sign in</a>
</section>
<section>
  <h2>New here?</h2>
  <a href="/checkout/guest">Continue as guest</a>
  <p>No account required.</p>
</section>

Sources