Ever wondered how fast top deals online disappear when you shop?
Shopping online is very fun and easy until you see an item you would want to purchase and in the blink of an eye, it is gone. Grinch Bot is what steals these items.
They compete with humans for top deals online and make it impossible for them to purchase items they love.
Grinch as the name implies, “is a mean-spirited person who spoils the joy of others”. And that’s what this bot does, it steals our joy.
While shopping online, an amazing deal is exciting but then realizing it is out of stock in a short period of time steals our joy. Hence, the name “grinch” is slang given to this bot by humans.
What is a Grinch Bot?
A grinch bot is an automated software that is programmed to search for given items and purchase them, often cleaning out directories or reserves.
They can be seen as “ scalpers” mostly used by retailers to hoard hot deals online especially during holiday seasons thereby preventing individuals from buying those items.
Oftentimes when we go shopping for items online and they’re out of stock, then it is safe to say those items were purchased by a grinch bot. These “bot owners” do this so as to increase the price of those items and resell them. Items like electronics, sneakers, and toys, and more are what they often purchase.
How Grinch Bot Works
A bot which is a short form of “robot” is an advanced computer program manufactured to execute specific tasks quickly. Grinch bots are therefore automated hence they are faster than humans.
They replace human behavior and can perform any task assigned to them faster than humans.
There are different bots for different purposes. While some bots are programmed to monitor top deals like sneakers, others are programmed to source graphics cards, gaming consoles, and even hot tubs.
They are programmed in such a way that they monitor items that are high in demand but are limited in stock. When programming it, the owners input their personal details, shipping addresses and their credit card information including a password. This is to enable these bots to purchase items immediately.
This grinch after being programmed goes in search of online retailers selling a specific item. They do this by scanning thousands of websites around the world. When a top deal is found, they alert their owners who then fill their online purchase form in order to buy the item when it becomes available.
This makes them faster and more reliable in purchasing multiple items than humans. Sometimes they notify their owners when there is a hot deal then it is purchased manually.
Competing with humans for deals online makes it impossible for them to buy an item they love irrespective of how fast they can be.
For instance the PlayStation 5 which was out in November 2020 in large quantities was out of stock in no time. This is because these grinch bots identified it as a top deal and purchased it quickly before most individuals could. After purchase, their owners sold the PS5 double and some even triple the original price.
It is quite annoying that we can’t buy the best deals or items we like online because a bot has identified it before we could.
Are grinch bots illegal?
Grinch bots are automated by humans who are retailers. These retailers use these bots with the sole purpose of reselling these items higher than their original price to make more profit.
As annoying as it can be for humans not to purchase a hot deal online, grinch bots are NOT illegal.
Although some of them violate the terms and conditions of a site, a grinch bot for retail items is not unlawful. However, it is only illegal if used to purchase online concert tickets. There is no law that states that grinch bots are illegal.
In other words, manufacturers of these items who sell online should make sure they have enough security checks that permit only human input. This is to reduce the number of grinch bots that take over their website.
Are grinch bots beneficial to online brands?
Despite not being illegal, grinch bot has done more harm than good to brands who sell their goods online as well as their online customers.
First, they tarnish the image of these brands. For instance, a customer of a particular brand who wants to purchase an item online would think the brand doesn’t have their best interest at hand when they find out that a top deal is out of stock in little or no time.
Therefore brands who sell online should be very vigilant to limit these bots on their website and ensure that their true customers are as well able to partake in the selling of top deals.
In other words, these bots don’t just compete with humans for these deals, they also crash websites, increase support costs and threaten online business contracts.
How brands can limit grinch bots on their website
The best thing brands can do for their individual customers is to limit grinch bot from accessing their website. This way their real customers will be able to purchase hot deals online. Bots are not illegal but they can be limited. This can be done when brands monitor and identify grinch bots on their online websites.
Also, brands should take measures against suspicious traffic. They can do this by using common tests like Googles’ CAPTCHA to track down bots who disguise themselves as humans.
They can as well engage their brand in having an order review before purchases. Having a restriction on the number of items one can purchase can also help to reduce bots on their website and stop them from competing for online hot deals.
This way they can track down bots and block them and even limit these bots from making orders.
How to identify grinch bots
Here are a few ways one can identify a grinch bot that has taken over an online website. Online brands should also be able to identify these grinch bots. A bot has taken over a website when;
- There is congestion.
- There is a rapid increase in logging in on that website.
- A website crashes or there is a slowdown.
A brand that notices any of this on their website has identified a grinch bot and should do well to take necessary action.
Likewise, an individual who has identified a bot on a website should immediately stop trying to purchase from that site for that moment. This is to avoid funding a scalper bot and being scammed.
Conclusion
It is always fun to shop online especially during the holiday season. But it is unfortunate that most times we miss out on top deals because of this grinch who competes with us.
However, it is really not possible for us to stop these bots from ruining our online shopping but that doesn’t mean we should stop shopping online.
It is even more important that brand owners with online websites filter out these shopping bots.
