Grinchbots Exacerbating Supply Chain Supply Shortages
By Alex Batty, MHI Content Marketing Program Manager | @mhi_alex
If you’ve tried to get a big ticket electronic item for this Christmas, you may have run into the same problem I have – Grinchbots.
Due to the chip shortage, electronics have been in high demand for much of the year, often selling out the minute restocks go live. My quest for a PS5 has been fruitless, and I have resigned myself to the wait (I’m too cheap to pay full retail for new games anyway).
The supply and demand problems this holiday season have been exacerbated by scalpers using bots, aptly nicknamed Grinchbots, to swoop in a buy up large swaths of merchandise from legitimate retailers and then reselling them at exorbitant markups. Grinchbots are affecting any popular item, and a bot can make it though the purchase process in about 3 seconds compared to an average time of 30 seconds for a human buyer.
Bot buying attacks are not currently illegal, but legislation has been introduced to try and curb the problem. Bot buying is not new, but recent supply chain issues have exacerbated the supply and demand issue, and these scammers are preying on people’s desperation to get the right gifts for the holiday season.
Retailers are having a hard time differentiating between real buyers and bots. However, they are making a concerted effort to detect and cancel bot orders, so if it goes on sale and is immediately sold out, refresh the page a few times. As the bot orders are cancelled, the items can come back in stock, helping you to get that hot holiday buy this season.
