E-Com Checkout Auditor

Catch a broken Add to Cart or checkout page before your customers do.

This Apify Actor walks a real browser through your Shopify storefront — homepage or collection → product → cart → optional coupon → checkout page — then stops before payment. You get exactly one dataset report: pass/fail, which phase broke, human-readable errors, console/network/HTTP counts, timing, and an optional failure screenshot.

Built for first-party / authorized stores only. Never submits payment, never fills card data, never places an order.

Who it's for

• Shopify merchants and agencies after a theme or app deploy
• Ops folks validating a coupon before a campaign goes live
• Staging / password-gated storefronts that need a smoke before launch
• Teams checking geo-specific storefront behavior (proxy + country)
• Anyone watching checkout performance for regressions

What it checks

Phase	What success looks like
Discover product	Finds a buyable product from homepage, collection, or your product URL
Add to cart	Add to Cart / Buy Now works and cart updates
Cart	Line item persists; cart is reachable
Coupon (optional)	Code applies or a clear rejection is recorded
Checkout	Checkout page loads; audit stops before payment

Prefer Shopify Online Store. Non-Shopify themes often break selectors (see "Shopify vs other platforms").

Quick start

1. Open the Actor (or pick a Task below — fastest path).
2. Set Store URL (target_url) — homepage, collection, or product page.
3. Leave proxy off for public stores. Add coupon / store password only when needed.
4. Run → open the Dataset tab → read the single report row.

Demo-friendly default: Hydrogen demo product URL in the input form.

Ready-made Tasks (recommended)

Use Tasks on the Actor page instead of blank input:

Task	When to use
Quick smoke	Public store, no coupon, no proxy
Coupon check	You have a real promo code to validate
Password / staging	Shopify password page
Post-deploy regression	After theme/app deploy; screenshots on
Geo check	Proxy on; pick country (US, GB, …)

How the Actor owner publishes Tasks: Apify Console → your Actor → Tasks → Create task → name + description → paste the fixed input from TASKS.md → Save. Optionally set the Task as a Store "Try" shortcut. Users then click Run with almost nothing to edit.

Input (what to fill)

Field	Required	Notes
target_url	Yes	Store homepage, collection, or product URL
coupon_code	No	Only for coupon QA; leave empty for smoke
store_password	No	Shopify storefront password
timeout_seconds	No	Default 30
use_proxy	No	Default off. Turn on for geo tests or if the store blocks datacenter IPs
proxy_country	No	e.g. US, GB when proxy is on
proxy_groups	No	Prefer RESIDENTIAL for geo
retry_without_proxy	No	Default on — one retry without proxy if proxy path fails early
take_screenshot_on_failure	No	Default on for post-deploy Tasks
headless	No	Leave on unless debugging

Proxy tip: Public demos and most live stores → use_proxy: false. Enable proxy for country checks or bot walls.

How to read a failed run

Every run pushes exactly one dataset item.

1. Open Dataset → the single row.
2. Check status: success or failed.
3. If failed, read phase_failed and errors[] first (human strings).
4. Optional: open Key-value store key in screenshot_key (and HTML / selector keys if present).

phase_failed → meaning

phase_failed	Plain English
discover_product	Couldn't find a buyable product from the start URL
add_to_cart	Add to Cart / Buy Now missing, blocked, or didn't update cart
cart	Cart empty, unreachable, or item didn't stick
coupon	Coupon UI missing or code didn't apply as expected
checkout	Never reached a usable checkout page (or page errors blocked it)
null	Success (or failure classified only via errors)

Also skim: console_errors_count, critical_network_errors_count, http_error_count, response_time_ms.

Success example

{
  "status": "success",
  "target_url": "https://your-store.com",
  "product_url": "https://your-store.com/products/example",
  "checkout_url": "https://your-store.com/checkouts/...",
  "phase_failed": null,
  "response_time_ms": 2450,
  "console_errors_count": 0,
  "page_errors_count": 0,
  "failed_requests_count": 0,
  "http_error_count": 0,
  "coupon_code": null,
  "coupon_applied": null,
  "screenshot_key": null,
  "errors": [],
  "timestamp": "2026-10-02T12:00:00Z"
}

Failure example

{
  "status": "failed",
  "phase_failed": "add_to_cart",
  "response_time_ms": null,
  "checkout_url": null,
  "screenshot_key": "failure-screenshot-….png",
  "errors": ["Add to Cart button was not found or not clickable."]
}

Shopify vs other platforms

• Shopify Online Store: supported path (themes vary; custom ATC still can break selectors).
• Headless Shopify / Hydrogen: often works when product + cart URLs behave like Shopify.
• Non-Shopify (Woo, custom, Magento, etc.): may fail at discover / ATC / checkout — treat as unsupported this version.
• Shop Pay / accelerated wallets: ignored; we never complete payment.

Legal & safety

Use only on stores you own or have written permission to test. Unauthorized checkout probing of third-party merchants can violate terms of service and law.

This Actor never submits payment, never fills real card data, and never places orders. It stops on the checkout page.

Cost

Runs are typically light (one browser journey). Apify's free monthly credits cover many smoke runs; schedule daily smokes on Starter when you outgrow free credits. See Apify pricing.

Tips

• Schedule a Quick smoke daily after theme updates.
• Run Coupon check before launching a promo.
• After deploy, use Post-deploy regression (screenshots on).
• For geo catalogs / localized checkout, use Geo check.