By Kerry Coppinger, Senior Manager, Brand Marketing, at CHEQ

During the 2023 holiday season, consumers poured $222.1 billion into online shopping, providing a boost to ecommerce retailers amid economic uncertainties. However, this upswing also attracted unwanted attention: a surge in bots and fake users. A recent analysis of around 400 million website visits revealed a startling fact: 22% of retail website traffic was fake. This is a significant leap from the 9.2% seen in 2022, highlighting a growing threat from bad actors in the ecommerce sector. Let's examine the most common threats to retail businesses: Cart Stuffing & Denial of Inventory:

• Cart stuffing is a deceptive tactic where bots add numerous items to shopping carts without intention of purchasing. This is typically done by malicious users and competitors who want to create an illusion of product scarcity and drive shoppers elsewhere. This can lead to inflated demand forecasts and a frustrating shopping experience when genuine users are denied inventory.

Brute-Force Bot Attacks:

• While bot-driven traffic can temporarily boost website visits, it often results in a decline in conversion rates. Understanding the difference between genuine and bot-generated interactions maintains the integrity of analytics and significantly reduces misguided decision making.

Price & Data Scraping: 

• As other retailers look to stay competitive and drive the highest possible revenue for their business, they sometimes look toward harmful tactics like deploying scrapers and crawlers on sites similar to theirs. These tools can quickly and easily scrape pricing, product information, and inventory details - undermining and effectively stealing business from the competition.