How our shopper behaves

Every Agent Test, re-check and Agent Watch check starts with a booking by someone who confirmed they run the store, or have the owner’s permission to test it. For our public research, the Agent Shopping Index, it visits public pages only, never adds anything to a cart, and stops testing any store that asks.

• It never pays, and never types into a card or password field. Every trip ends the moment it reaches the checkout.
• It never signs in and never creates an account.
• It never types a name, email address or phone number, and never sends a form, signs up for emails or confirms a booking.
• It never gets around a bot check, CAPTCHA or block. If it is turned away, it stops and we report that.
• It never leaves the store for other websites.
• It never places an order, so nothing is shipped and no stock is held.

It takes one step at a time, pauses after every action, and stops each task after 40 steps or 4 minutes. A full test is ten tasks, each run twice, spread over 30 to 60 minutes. That is about the load of a handful of careful customers.

Its browser says who it is. The user agent ends in ShopperZero/0.1, followed by a contact address. It uses the browser’s normal user agent otherwise, so it sees your store the way a customer’s assistant would.

We keep a screenshot of each step, the page address and what the shopper did. Screenshots can show anything your public pages show. We delete them 90 days after each report.

Email hello@shopperzero.com with your store’s address. We’ll tell you why it visited, delete what it recorded, and make sure it doesn’t visit again.