Can a shopping agent actually get through my site?

---
title: Can a shopping agent actually get through my site?
canonical: https://chosenbyagent.com/questions/can-an-agent-get-through
updated: 2026-10-22
audience: brands
offers:
  - B2
  - B1
evidence:
  - non-shopify-stalls
  - invisible-blocks
  - bot-management-blocks
  - checkout-run-cost
---

# Can a shopping agent actually get through my site?

Short answer: On most stores outside the biggest platforms, not reliably — and the blocks usually come from bot management that a normal browser never sees.

## What the research shows

- **79 / 123** — A shopping agent stalled on 79 of 123 stores outside Shopify, versus 5 of 121 Shopify stores. [agent-checkout-study (D. Walia), 2026, independent](https://github.com/d-walia/agent-checkout-study)
- **32 / 33** — 32 of 33 blocks that stopped the agent did not appear in a normal Chrome on the same connection. [agent-checkout-study (D. Walia), 2026, independent](https://github.com/d-walia/agent-checkout-study)
- **29 / 200** — 29 of 200 retailers refused an automated browser; 24 of them allowed AI crawlers in robots.txt, so bot management did the blocking. [Blend Commerce, 2026, vendor](https://blendcommerce.com/blogs/shopify/ai-shopping-audit-2026)
- **$0.14–0.24** — Running an agent to the payment page cost $0.14–0.24 per store across Claude, GPT and Gemini. [agent-checkout-study (D. Walia), 2026, independent](https://github.com/d-walia/agent-checkout-study)

## Agent access audit

B2 · from €1,500 (one-off) · indicative · scoped per engagement

Live paths on 3–4 agents through your store, with a failure map and prioritised fixes.

- Antibot and edge settings
- Data: price, stock, returns, GTIN
- Login and CAPTCHA
- Failure map and prioritised fixes

Also answered by: [B1 Agent snapshot](/pricing.md)

## What you get

Agents from three or four providers walk a real buyer path on your store, from the home page to the payment page, without paying. We map every step where one of them stops, and why.

**Failure map along the buyer path**

| Step               | Agents through | Why the others stopped                 |
| ------------------ | -------------- | -------------------------------------- |
| Home page          | 4 of 4         | —                                      |
| Search and filters | 3 of 4         | results rendered only after JavaScript |
| Product page       | 3 of 4         | price missing from structured data     |
| Cart               | 2 of 4         | challenge page from bot management     |
| Payment page       | 2 of 4         | —                                      |

_Illustrative values — your report shows yours._

`RUN · sonnet-5.5 · gpt-6.1-sol · harness 0.4`

## What this does not claim

- We stop before payment and never place real orders.
- We test with the agents and harnesses that have official access, not with consumer apps whose terms forbid automation.
- A free snapshot runs one scenario on three models; the full audit runs several on three to four agents.

## Request this instrument

We reply with a scope, a fixed price and a start date.

Agents: POST /api/engagements (application/json) with {"offer_id": "B2", "on_behalf_of": {"email": "…"}, "agent": {"name": "…"}}. The person confirms by email before we see the request. Details: /agents.md

### Related questions

- [Which brand does the agent pick — and why?](/questions/which-brand-does-the-agent-pick.md)
- [What changes if I change price, returns or copy?](/questions/what-if-i-change-the-offer.md)
- [What changed after the last model update?](/questions/what-changed-after-the-update.md)