What is Friction Observatory?

Friction Observatory is synthetic checkout monitoring for Shopify. A real browser walks your storefront the way a shopper would — product → cart → checkout — on the markets and devices you choose. When something breaks, you get a health score, plain-language findings, session video, and screenshots you can share with your theme partner.

It is not uptime monitoring (your site can return 200 while checkout is broken). It is not CRO or A/B testing. Runs stop at checkout presentation — no real payments, no card details, no orders placed.

We monitor US, CA, GB, FR, DE, AE, ZA, and AU. Pro and Agency watch up to 5 of these at a time, with one baseline country.

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What we test / what we don't

Runs stop at checkout presentation — no real payments, no card details, no orders placed.

What we test

• Product → cart → checkout presentation on the markets and devices you choose
• Optional paths: collection, Buy Now, homepage, and search (Pro / Agency)
• Shipping and payment method presentation as a buyer in that market would see them
• Theme and app regressions vs a pinned healthy baseline

What we don't

• Real payment capture or placing an order
• Logged-in / customer-account-only flows (roadmap)
• B2B catalogs, discount codes, or subscriptions as custom paths (roadmap)
• Uptime-only pings — we walk the buyer path, not just HTTP 200

How a buyer in Australia (or any market) is simulated

Every run sets the browser to that market's locale, timezone, geolocation, and Accept-Language. That is enough for language and some theme behavior.

Shopify usually picks currency, market, and geo redirects from the client IP, not from those headers. Findings that need a real market IP (currency not localized, market redirect, some shipping/payment presentation) are only recorded when traffic actually originates there: a region-pinned proxy (PROXY_URL_AU for Australia, and the same pattern for other ISO codes) or when the market is our monitor home region. Otherwise those IP-derived checks are skipped and logged — we do not invent an Australia result from locale headers alone.

Filter our traffic in analytics

Audits identify themselves with a stable User-Agent token: FrictionObservatoryBot/1.0. Residential proxy IPs rotate, so we cannot publish a fixed IP allowlist. Filter or exclude sessions whose User-Agent contains that token.

• GA4 — Admin → Data filters, or an explore/segment where Device → Browser / User agent contains FrictionObservatoryBot/1.0.
• Shopify analytics — sessions from that User-Agent are bots, not buyers; do not treat them as conversion.
• WAF / bot allowlist — allow FrictionObservatoryBot/1.0 if you challenge unknown automation; blocking us shows as a monitor issue (BOT_BLOCK), not a store fault.

Who it is for

• Merchants selling in more than one market — see whether checkout works in the US baseline but fails in GB, DE, AU, and so on.
• Teams shipping theme or app changes — pin a healthy baseline, publish, then compare.
• Agencies — link client shops, watch a portfolio, and send white-label client PDFs.

Plans at a glance

Billing runs through Shopify Billing. Start on Trial, then upgrade to Pro or Agency from Plan and billing in the app. Cancel anytime to return to Trial.

Install from Shopify

You only need read_products — we never place orders or collect shopper card data. After install you land in the embedded app on Monitoring.

Option A — Shopify App Store

Recommended. Friction Observatory is live on the Shopify App Store.

1. Open the listing: apps.shopify.com/friction-observatory (or Shopify Admin → Apps → Shopify App Store → search Friction Observatory).
2. Click Install / Add app, then approve access (read_products only).
3. Shopify opens the app inside Admin — you should see Monitoring.

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Option B — Website install

Same OAuth flow if you prefer starting from our site instead of the App Store.

1. Open frictionobservatory.com and click Install on Shopify, or go directly to app.frictionobservatory.com/install.
2. Enter your .myshopify.com domain (for example your-shop.myshopify.com).
3. Continue to Shopify, approve read_products, then open the app from Apps → Friction Observatory if you are not redirected automatically.

Already installed?

Shopify Admin → Apps → Friction Observatory. No need to install again.

Install troubleshooting

• redirect_uri not whitelisted — always use the production install URL (https://app.frictionobservatory.com/install), not localhost.
• Blank iframe / app won’t open — reopen from Admin → Apps. Hard-refresh the Admin tab if needed.
• Permissions declined — uninstall from Settings → Apps and sales channels, then install again and approve read_products.

Quick start (about two minutes)

1. Install the app from the Shopify App Store (or website install).
2. Approve access in Shopify Admin. You land on Monitoring.
3. If you have no product URL yet, use Generate checkout tests (also available in Settings).
4. Follow the Setup checklist on Monitoring (product, markets, run, report). Wait for the first run to finish, then open the report — video, health score, and findings. The checklist hides after that first report exists.
5. Optional: open Settings to refine the product URL, markets (Pro+), schedule, and storefront password.

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Monitoring

Monitoring is the day-to-day home: run a checkout test, watch progress, open the latest report, compare against a theme baseline, and review Market Health, health trend, and healing history.

Run checkout test

Uses the saved product URLs and markets from Settings. The page shows a Testing: line so you can confirm which URL will run before you click.

• Free Trial: button disables when the five lifetime tests are used up — upgrade to Pro or Agency.
• Shopify 14-day billing trial (after you approve Pro/Agency): 30 tests total, not per day. Unlimited runs start when Shopify begins charging.
• Each run consumes one test per market × device × product URL × journey.
• Progress survives refresh; when complete, use Open report.

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Settings

Everything that configures what we test lives under Settings. Save each section before you rely on a Monitoring run.

Product to test

1. Use a published, in-stock product page URL from this shop.
2. Format: https://your-shop.myshopify.com/products/… (or your allowed custom domain).
3. Trial: 1 URL. Pro / Agency: up to 5.
4. Or clear the field and use Generate checkout tests / Clear.

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Markets & devices

• Trial: United States only (multi-market is the paid differentiator).
• Pro / Agency: up to 5 markets; set a baseline market (usually your primary country).
• Device: mobile, desktop, or both.

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Schedule automatic tests

On the free Trial plan: once per day while free tests remain, then the schedule pauses. On Pro/Agency it stays locked during Shopify’s 14-day billing trial (30 tests total, manual only). After Shopify starts charging: hourly and slower on Pro; Agency also unlocks 15-minute cadence. After you save, Monitoring shows the next run time.

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Paths to checkout (Pro / Agency)

Beyond the default product → cart → checkout path, enable collection, search, homepage, or buy it now journeys. Trial always uses the standard product path.

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Storefront password & staging

If Online Store is password-protected, save the storefront password (and optional staging URL) so tests can enter the shop.

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Sales inputs

Monthly visitors and average order value feed revenue-at-risk estimates on reports. Defaults work; replace them with your numbers when you can.

Reports & evidence

Every completed run produces a report: health score, what happened, fix next steps, session video, and (on failure) a screenshot. Share a link or download a PDF for owners and theme partners.

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Market Health

After multi-market runs (Pro / Agency), Market Health compares your baseline market to other countries. A healthy baseline with failures elsewhere usually means localization, shipping, or payment configuration — not “the whole site is down.”

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Theme baseline (before / after)

1. Run a healthy checkout test.
2. On Monitoring, click Save as baseline.
3. Publish your theme or app change.
4. Run again, then Compare to baseline to see regressions.

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Alerts

Open the Alerts page in the app sidebar. Configure Slack Incoming Webhook and/or an alert email, save, then send a test. Free Trial can use confirmed Slack/email alerts; the weekly digest unlocks on Pro / Agency.

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Agency

Agency seat (Agency plan)

1. Settings → Agency portal — copy the connection code; optional agency Slack webhook.
2. Open Client stores / portfolio to see linked shops, pass rates, recent alerts, peer benchmarks.
3. Use Send client report for a white-label PDF.

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Client shop (Trial or Pro)

1. Settings → Agency connection — paste the agency code → Link store.
2. Connected agencies lists the link; Disconnect removes it.
3. Each shop keeps its own plan billing; portfolio shows the client’s Trial/Pro label.

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Healing history

When selectors change after a theme update, self-healing may adapt. Monitoring → Healing history shows recent heuristic / LLM adaptations so maintenance is visible, not silent.

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Billing

1. Open Plan and billing in the app.
2. Choose Pro or Agency → approve the charge in Shopify Admin.
3. Shopify’s 14-day trial is 30 tests total (not per day) and does not include automatic schedules. Unlimited runs and scheduling start when Shopify begins charging.
4. Cancel from the same page to stop paid billing without uninstalling.

To remove the app entirely: Shopify Admin → Settings → Apps and sales channels → Friction Observatory → Uninstall.

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How to read results

• Verified / healthy — trustworthy successful run; open the report if you want evidence.
• Needs confirmation / flaky — first store-side critical signal; alerts and estimated loss stay off until a matching retest.
• Confirmed issue — same store-side code again on the same product URL, market, and device among recent tests; alerts may fire.
• Monitor issue — our infrastructure (proxy, bot block, rate limit). Not a claim that your store is broken.

Common journey failure codes

• PRODUCT_NOT_FOUND — bad or unpublished product URL.
• CHECKOUT_UNREACHABLE — never reached checkout (sold out, empty cart, theme).
• BOT_BLOCK / RATE_LIMIT / PROXY_ERROR — monitor-side; we do not treat these as store guilt.

Common market codes

• SHIPPING_RATES_UNAVAILABLE / PAYMENT_METHODS_MISSING — buyers in that market cannot complete checkout.
• REGION_NOT_SELLABLE — country missing from checkout.

Troubleshooting

Cannot install / OAuth error

Use app.frictionobservatory.com/install (not localhost). Full steps: Install from Shopify.

Run still uses an old product URL

Confirm Settings shows the URL you want, click Save, then on Monitoring check the Testing: line before you run. Monitoring always uses the server-saved URL.

Free tests used up

The free Trial plan includes five lifetime manual tests. Upgrade to Pro or Agency for more markets, then use the 14-day Shopify trial (30 tests total) until billing starts.

Shopify trial tests used up

After you approve Pro or Agency, Shopify’s 14-day billing trial includes 30 tests total — not 30 per day. Unlimited runs and automatic schedules start when Shopify begins charging this shop. Reduce markets, devices, or product URLs if one run would exceed what you have left.

Password page blocks the bot

Save the storefront password under Settings → Storefront access, then re-run.

Video or screenshot missing

Refresh once; signed media links can expire. Re-run the test to capture new evidence.

Cannot add markets on Trial

Expected — Trial is US-only. Upgrade to Pro or Agency for multi-market Market Health.

Support

Email support@frictionobservatory.com. Include your .myshopify.com domain, plan, product URL, market / device, and the report link if you have one.

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