If you run an eCommerce store, you already know how much work goes into keeping everything running. But one issue slips under the radar most. It is bot traffic. These are not helpful search engine bots. We are discussing preventing bad bot traffic that can compromise analytics, slow websites, and even steal data or buy products in seconds.
The problem is that many store owners do not realize it until it happens to them.
In this article, we will discuss what bot traffic is, how to spot it, and, most importantly, how to avoid it. With inputs from eCommerce experts, we will help you know how to prevent bot traffic. Further, why it is key to keep your business safe and your customers happy.
What is Bot Traffic in eCommerce?
Bot traffic in eCommerce means non-human, automated software visiting online stores. This accounts for a massive, and many times malicious, portion of website traffic. While some bots are benign (e.g., search crawlers), malicious bots skew analytics, steal data, drain ad budgets through click fraud, and disrupt inventory.
The main problem is that these bad bots are designed to mimic real users. They visit your website, scan your pages, and perform actions automatically. But they are not there to shop. They might be trying to scrape your prices, steal inventory, test stolen credit cards, or even slow down your website.
In short, they are fake traffic that causes real problems.
For example, you may notice spikes in website visits with no sales. Or your inventory might sell out in seconds, only to find it sitting in abandoned carts. That is likely bot traffic. Let’s see how they impact eCommerce sites in detail.
9 Critical Impacts of Malicious Bot Traffic on eCommerce Growth
Bot traffic might seem harmless at first. But for eCommerce businesses, it can quietly cause real damage. The effects manifest as issues for customer trust and website performance.
Let’s see the impact in detail:
1. Skewed Analytics
When automated bots target your website, they artificially increase your traffic metrics. This makes it difficult to analyze actual user activity on the site. Bounce rate, conversion rate, and other important metrics like your advertising performance can be skewed.
Extracting reliable data from these figures can be challenging going forward. This makes bot traffic prevention in eCommerce necessary.
2. Checkout Abuse and Inventory Hoarding
Some bots are designed to snatch up limited-stock items the moment they drop. These bots can clear your inventory and frustrate genuine customers. In some cases, bots add products to carts and abandon them, making it look like you are selling out when you are not. There is a lot of information about Shopify bot traffic that you can review to avoid it.
3. Slower Website Performance
Too many bot requests can slow down your site. And in eCommerce, speed matters. Even a few seconds of delay can lead to lost sales. Bots overload servers with constant scraping, which affects the experience for real buyers. How can you avoid that? We will discuss that later.
4. Fraud Risks
Some fraudsters use bots to test stolen credit cards on eCommerce sites. They will run small transactions through your checkout to see which card numbers work. It can lead to costly chargebacks. Your store can even get flagged as high-risk by payment processors, which can increase your fees. You need the best eCommerce bot protection for this.
5. Wasted Ad Spend
When you are running ads, people click them. But these might not be real customers. You are paying for fake visits that will never make a purchase. Before you know it, your entire ad budget gets wasted on bots instead of reaching the actual target audience. The priority for eCommerce bot prevention increases in these cases.
6. Negative User Experience
To avoid fake traffic on your website, you might think to deploy better user experience. Right? No, it is not the right way to stop bot traffic. Bot traffic in eCommerce (which now accounts for over 50% of all web traffic) creates a big negative user experience by degrading site performance and causing security friction.
7. Content Scraping
Content scraping in eCommerce is the practice of malicious bots. It systematically extracts product data, pricing, images, and reviews to undercut competitors, divert traffic, or facilitate phishing.
This accounts for a major portion of bad bot traffic. These automated tools drain the server, skew analytics, and erode competitive advantage. A lot of efforts are needed to prevent bot traffic in this area.
8. Fake Accounts
Fake accounts driven by bot traffic dominate eCommerce, accounting for over 50% of total site traffic in 2024 and mimicking human behavior to evade detection. These bots create thousands of fake profiles to exploit sign-up bonuses, hoard inventory, leave fake reviews, and steal user credentials.
9. Gift Card Abuse
Malicious bots automating card detail filling, account takeovers (ATO), and balance theft, costing retailers millions in stolen value, chargebacks, and brand damage. Bots, such as those used in “GiftGhostBot” attacks, rapidly enumerate gift card numbers. This is to identify active balances, which are then drained or sold on the dark web.
In short, bot traffic doesn’t just mess with your numbers. It directly impacts your revenue, security, and customer trust. Prevention is more than a technical task. It’s a business priority. To prevent it, proactively detect it by hiring eCommerce experts. But how do they go about checking the bot traffic, and how can you DIY?
How to Detect Bot Traffic in eCommerce?
Spotting bot traffic isn’t always easy, especially when bots are made to look like real users. But there are some clear signs you can watch for. The key is knowing what’s normal for your site and being alert when things don’t add up.
1. Unusual Traffic Spikes in Analytics
Sudden traffic spikes are among the most common signs of bot activity. If your store sees a traffic surge that doesn’t match any email campaign, sale, or ad run, chances are something is not right. Bots can flood your website in seconds, hitting multiple pages, skipping checkout, and vanishing.
How to Detect:
- Monitor daily traffic trends and flag sudden spikes.
- Cross-check spikes against live campaigns.
- Look for a drop in conversion rate during the spike.
- Check whether the visits occurred at odd hours (e.g., 2–4 AM).
- See if many hits came from one region or IP block.
After detection, stopping bot traffic becomes really easy.
2. High Bounce Rates with No Sales
In most cases, bots land on your pages and leave immediately. This results in higher-than-average bounce rates, especially when they land on product or landing pages. When this happens repeatedly, and no purchases follow, it is a red flag.
How to Detect:
- Compare bounce rate vs. historical averages.
- Look for a mismatch between traffic and sales.
- Monitor abandoned sessions with 0 engagement.
- Filter sessions under 5 seconds (likely bots).
- Watch for identical behavior across hundreds of sessions.
A normal visitor might browse around, add items to the cart, or check reviews. Bots do not do that. They just visit and disappear.
3. Strange User Behavior
Bots do not behave like humans. They click rapidly, scroll erratically, or skip important steps, such as viewing products or adding items to the cart. You can also see pages getting hit that real users do not usually visit, like admin routes or hidden URLs.
How to Detect:
- Use session recording tools (like Hotjar or Microsoft Clarity).
- Check for visits with ultra-fast clicks and navigation.
- Track hits on rarely visited URLs.
- Flag users who visit dozens of pages in under a minute.
- Look for recurring patterns across different user IDs or IP addresses.
When activity feels too fast, too perfect, or too random, it is likely scripted. Reviewing user sessions mostly reveals this unnatural behavior.
4. Traffic from Unusual Locations
If your store primarily serves the U.S. and experiences a sudden spike in visits from other countries. This can be an indicator, especially for those you do not ship to. Many bots originate from foreign servers or are routed through data centers.
How to Detect:
- Review geolocation data in Google Analytics.
- Spot new countries in your traffic report.
- Track IPs from data center ranges (e.g., AWS, Azure).
- Watch for high traffic from VPNs or proxies.
- Set alerts for sudden shifts in top traffic countries.
Unless you are running a global campaign, there is little reason for high traffic from unfamiliar regions.
5. High Server Load or Slow Site Speed
Bots can strain your servers without you knowing. They may hit hundreds of pages per second, crawl your product listings, or overload search functions. This not only slows down your website for real customers but may also trigger crashes.
How to Detect:
- Monitor CPU and memory usage on your hosting dashboard.
- Track site response times across peak and off-peak hours.
- Use server logs to find patterns in high-frequency requests.
- Watch for crawl spikes in your robots.txt or sitemap.
- Analyze sudden drops in page speed with no user growth.
When server usage increases without a corresponding rise in sales or checkout activity, suspect bots.
6. CAPTCHA Triggers
If CAPTCHA starts popping up more for users or your team, it’ is likely your bot protection is trying to fight off a surge. This usually means bots are attempting to log in, check out, or submit forms at high volume.
How to Detect:
- Track increases in CAPTCHA completions or failures.
- Monitor form submission logs for rapid attempts.
- Look for spikes in login errors.
- Check whether CAPTCHA is triggered for known-good users.
- Review reCAPTCHA score reports if you’re using v3.
While CAPTCHA helps, too many challenges can ruin the user experience. It is a useful signal that something is happening behind the scenes.
Simply put, bot traffic can be sneaky, but it leaves clues. Watch out for sudden traffic spikes, high bounce rates, strange user behavior, or visits from unexpected countries. If your website slows down or CAPTCHA triggers more, bots might be the reason.
Useful Methods for Bot Traffic Prevention in eCommerce
Once you have spotted bot traffic, the next step is to stop it. Prevention is all about putting the right tools and settings in place to block bad bots without affecting real customers. You do not need to be a tech expert to do this, but you do need a solid plan.
1. Use a Web Application Firewall (WAF)
A WAF, or Web Application Firewall, acts as a protective barrier for websites. A WAF monitors each user before granting access to the website. If it detects suspicious activity, such as bot attempts, it immediately blocks those users. WAFs have the intelligence to distinguish between legitimate customers and malicious automated systems.
Many hosting platforms, including Shopify Plus, BigCommerce, and WordPress hosting providers, offer built-in WAF support. If not, you can easily add third-party tools like Cloudflare or Sucuri.
2. Set Up Bot Protection in Your CDN
Using a Content Delivery Network (CDN) provides additional security benefits. CDNs enhance access speed by maintaining copies of the website across multiple locations. Furthermore, most CDNs include automatic bot-detection and mitigation tools that require no activation.
3. Use CAPTCHA Wisely
CAPTCHA refers to the image comparison tests or the “I’m not a Robot” button, which is common on various websites. These tests prevent bots from completing online tasks because they have limited success overcoming these hurdles.
That said, you do not want to overuse CAPTCHA. Too many pop-ups can frustrate your real customers. Try using smart versions, such as Google reCAPTCHA v3, which runs in the background and only shows challenges when needed. It keeps your site secure without ruining the shopping experience.
4. Monitor Traffic Regularly
Use tools like Google Analytics, server logs, or even heatmaps to monitor what’s happening. Look at bounce rates, session lengths, and page activity. When something doesn’t feel right, it usually isn’t. Regular traffic checks can help you spot threats early and take action before they become a bigger issue.
5. Block or Rate Limit Suspicious IPs
Sometimes, bots keep coming from the same locations or IP addresses. If you notice the same IP hitting your site repeatedly and acting strangely, it’s a good idea to block it. Most platforms let you do this from your dashboard, and it only takes a minute.
If you don’t want to block users right away, you can also “rate limit” them. It is a great way to frustrate bots without affecting real people. Many hosting services and CDNs support this kind of control out of the box.
6. Protect APIs and Checkout Pages
APIs (which help apps or services talk to your store) and checkout pages are prime targets for bots. Bots often use these areas to test stolen credit cards or to flood your store with fake activity.
Implement security controls to protect these areas. Also, monitor them regularly to catch anything strange early. When bots cannot get past your checkout or APIs, they lose interest fast, and your customers stay safe.
In short, stopping bot traffic is not only about blocking but also about protecting your store without hurting real shoppers. Use tools such as WAFs, CAPTCHA, and CDNs to block malicious bots before they cause damage. Keep an eye on traffic, secure sensitive pages, and block anything that feels off.
If you want proactive bot prevention for your eStore and ensure the best results, consult with our eCommerce website development company. We will monitor your website consistently as part of our maintenance services.
11 Amazing eCommerce Bot Traffic Statistics
- How Bots Affect Ticketing in eCommerce – Imperva Report
- 89% of Headless Bot Traffic is Targeted to Financial Services and Commerce industries – Fastly Report
- Automated Detection of Automated Traffic – Usenix Research
- The Top 10 Considerations for Bot Management – Akamai eBook
- Distribution of Bot and Human Web Traffic Worldwide from 2013 to 2024 – Statista
- How Bots Affect eCommerce – Softprom x Imperva Report
- Detecting and Characterizing Web Bot Traffic in a Large E-commerce Marketplace – University of Delaware
- Detecting Bot Attacks and Breaking Down Bots – F5 Research
- 2025 E-Commerce Bot Threat Report – Radware Report
- E-Commerce Bot Traffic: In-Network Impact, Detection, and Mitigation – University of Oxford Paper
- The BAD BOT REPORT 2025: The Rapid Rise of Bots and the Unseen Risk for Business – Thales Group Report
Final Words on eCommerce Bot Traffic Prevention
Bot traffic is a real threat to performance, data integrity, and customer trust. While bots are getting smarter, the good news is that you do not need to be a security expert to protect your eCommerce site.
Start by understanding what’s normal for your traffic. Optimize the Robots.txt file at least, as it is the first step for prevention. Use smart tools such as WAFs, CDNs, and CAPTCHA to filter out bad actors. Monitor your site behavior, especially on checkout and login pages. A few small steps can make a big difference.
If you are facing issues with your eCommerce site, then our experts can help you. Connect with us today!
FAQs on Bot Traffic Prevention in eCommerce
Q1. Can bot traffic hurt my SEO rankings?
Yes, bot traffic can quietly harm your SEO if it goes unchecked. Search engines like Google look at things like bounce rate, page speed, and user engagement to decide how your site ranks. When bots flood your site and then leave, or overload your pages, they create patterns that appear suspicious to search engines.
Q2. Is all bot traffic bad?
Not all bots are harmful. In fact, some bots actually help your store. For example, Google’s bots crawl your pages to help them show up in search results. There are also bots from tools that track prices or help shoppers compare products. The real problem is with “bad bots,” the ones that steal data, spam your checkout, or scrape your entire catalog.
Q3. Do bots steal customer data?
Some bots are built for exactly that. They target login pages, try thousands of passwords, or test stolen credit card info to see what works. While most are automated and fast, the damage they can cause can be serious, including account takeovers and fraudulent orders. That’s why it’s critical to secure sensitive areas like login and checkout pages.
Q4. Will bot protection slow down my website?
When properly configured, effective bot protection won’t slow your site down. Tools like Cloudflare’s bot control or reCAPTCHA v3 run quietly in the background. They work by scanning behavioral patterns and only block suspicious traffic. Your real customers won’t notice a thing, and your pages will load just as fast.
Q5. Can small eCommerce stores get hit by bots too?
Yes, and it happens more often than people think. Bots do not care if you are a big brand or just starting out. They look for easy targets, sites without strong security or traffic monitoring. Small stores are often targeted by price scrapers, fake signups, or card-testing attacks. That’s why even a basic layer of protection can make a big difference, no matter the size of your business.
