Stall library · Buy
A cookie banner covers the page until it is answered
This finding means your cookie banner covered the page, not just a strip of it, so an AI agent could not shop until it answered the banner. Ottom refused the cookies, or closed the banner where there was nothing to refuse, and the purchase went on, which is why this is not a stall. An agent buying for someone may not accept tracking on their behalf, so one that cannot find the refuse control stops at your banner.
Why the agent stops
A cookie banner is your store asking a fair question, and a banner that sits along the bottom of the page leaves the rest of it usable. A banner drawn as a layer over the whole page, or as a box over the middle of it with the page dimmed behind, has to be answered before anything else on the page responds.
An agent that will not accept on a shopper’s behalf has to find the refuse control. When Reject all sits behind a settings or preferences screen, or the banner only offers Accept and a close icon with no name, that takes judgement some agents do not have.
How often we see this
Not stated here. A frequency means nothing without the cohort it was counted over, and this page is about one stall rather than one category. Where a category has enough stores measured at every stage, the share of them showing this stall is published on its benchmark page, with the methodology beside it.
See it for yourself
- Open your store in a private window, so no earlier answer is remembered.
- Without answering the banner, try to click a product or the add to cart button.
- If nothing responds until the banner is answered, check that Reject all is on its first screen, beside Accept.
What to change
- Show the banner as a bar along the bottom or top of the page that leaves the page usable, not as a layer over it.
- Put Reject all on the banner’s first screen, beside Accept, with the same weight.
- Give every control on the banner a name a screen reader would announce, including the close icon.
What Ottom looks at
Before it measures anything, the journey agent answers any cookie banner the way a careful person would: it refuses, or closes the banner when there is nothing to refuse, and it never accepts. This is raised when the banner it answered covered the middle of the page, or stood in the way of a step, once a walk.
Questions
Do I have to remove my cookie banner?
No. A consent banner is your store asking a question the law often requires, and a banner that leaves the page usable is never reported. What this finding asks is that the banner does not cover the page, and that refusing is as easy as accepting.
Does a cookie banner over the page lower my score?
No. It is rated low and reported beside a pass. Checkout is scored by how far the walk got, and a banner the agent could answer did not stop it.