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CHK-011Checkout · formsMedium

Optional fields marked as optional (not required by default)

Optional fields are explicitly marked as optional (not required by default).

Check my store for this rule →Cite this
Free · no card · runs all rules at once · judged on 39 stores · updated
13%of the audited stores we could judge fail this rule
34 pass0 partial5 failPublished audits · September 2026
Stores judged
39
of 40 published audits
Score weight
1.0pts
of the 100-point score
Page share
50%
of the score is the checkout

What earns each verdict

Same outcomes on every UXFix rule · how verdicts work
✓ Pass34

Optional fields labeled + required attribute matches.

~ Partial0

Some labeled, some not.

✕ Fail5

Fields marked required that shouldn't be (phone, company).

not assessable is recorded when the rule applied but the store could not be judged on it (bot protection, a region lock, a step we could not reach), and not applicable when the store has nothing for the rule to judge. Those stores are left out of every number on this page, never guessed. Why we do that
Why it matters

Optional fields on the checkout are not visibly labeled as optional. Shoppers assume everything is required.

Labeling only the required fields (with a *, say) means every unmarked field looks equally required. Buyers fill in fields they did not need to, or bail because they think they must supply a company name they do not have.

That sentence is the one a failing store sees in its own UXFix report.How rules are weighted and scored →
39 audited stores, one dot each
5 fail
PassPartialFail

Every published UXFix audit this rule could be judged on, as of 23 Sep 2026. A count of real stores, not a simulation of yours.

How we test it

Scripted walk, fresh signed-out browser · the full walk
  1. 1Fresh browserSigned out, cookies cleared, desktop and mobile viewports, the store's live theme.
  2. 2Open a productA real, in-stock product page, found the way a shopper finds one.
  3. 3Add to cartDefault variant, quantity one, then the cart page itself.
  4. 4Walk the checkoutFrom the cart to the payment step. Nothing is ever bought.
  5. 5Judge this ruleAgainst the standard above, on what a shopper can see.
  6. 6Record the verdictPass, partial or fail, saved with the screenshot it was judged on.
What the agent looks for
Optional fields are explicitly marked as optional (not required by default).
Confidence
The rulebook rates this check’s confidence High. When the agent is not sure, the rule is recorded as not assessable rather than guessed.
Not judged
1 of 40 published audits: the rule did not apply or could not be judged. Dropped, never guessed.

The numbers behind the rule

Published UXFix audits · more statistics
Published audits failing this rule
No pictures here yet: none of the audits above saved a marked area for this rule.
Where this rule sits among 103 UX rules
Most-failed rank
#54
Score weight rank
#41
Fail rate
13%

Score weight: a fail costs 1.0 pts of of the 100-point score; a partial costs half that. Most-failed rank is among the 79 rules with enough published audits to report a rate.

The fix

The same steps a failing store sees in its report

A pass means: Optional fields labeled + required attribute matches.

Severity
Medium
Score gain
+1.0pts
Page
Checkout

Score gain is roughly what a fail-to-pass change adds; rules that could not be judged are left out, which can move it a little. Re-run a free audit after the change ships to confirm the verdict moved.

Checklist for the pass
0 of 3

Tick each step as you ship it. The audit judges the live store, so re-run it once all of them are done.

Every store that fails this rule

The 5 audited stores that fail Optional fields marked as optional (not required by default), with each store's published score and the day it was audited.
#StoreScoreAuditedPublished audit
1Archeryworldarcheryworld.co.uk52Open audit
2Lavernelaverne.com60Open audit
3Benettonbenetton.com58Open audit
4Tomstoms.com52Open audit
5Ladounladoun.com41Open audit

What our auditors say about this rule

A field with no word optional beside it is a required field as far as the shopper is concerned.
Omar Dabbas, Co-founder, UXFix

Written by the person who audits this rule, and reviewed every quarter.

Keep going

All rules →
RuleCHK-001
Guest checkout offered as first-class option (no account wall)Checkout · Critical ›
RuleCHK-003
Clear step indicator showing progress through checkoutCheckout · Medium ›
RuleCHK-005
Ability to edit cart from within checkout without losing progressCheckout · Medium ›
RuleCHK-006
Account creation offered after order placement, not beforeCheckout · High ›
RuleCHK-007
Site logo/name does not link away from checkout (or warns first)Checkout · Medium ›
RuleCHK-008
Header/nav minimized during checkout to reduce exitsCheckout · Medium ›
RuleCHK-009
Total form fields 8 or fewer (industry average is 11.3)Checkout · High ›
RuleCHK-010
Single Full Name field (not first + last)Checkout · Medium ›
Cite this

«5 of 39 online stores audited by UXFix fail the rule "Optional fields marked as optional (not required by default)" (CHK-011) as of September 2026. UXFix, uxfix.ai/audits/rules/optional-checkout-fields»

Rule record · JSON
Dataset →
{
  "id": "CHK-011",
  "name": "Optional fields marked as optional (not required by default)",
  "area": "checkout",
  "severity": "medium",
  "weight": 0.99,
  "published_audits": {
    "judged": 39,
    "pass": 34,
    "partial": 0,
    "fail": 5
  },
  "updated": "2026-09-23"
}
Check your store

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One address, every rule, the verdicts with the screens they were judged on.

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