Quick answers

What is bot traffic on an ecommerce site?

Automated, non-human requests: scrapers copying catalog and pricing, inventory bots buying limited stock, and fake-engagement bots polluting analytics and ad audiences.

How much bot traffic is normal for an online store?

Public reports put automated traffic near half of web requests overall, but store-level shares vary widely by product type. Measure your own with detection at the edge or in analytics.

Do bots affect Google Analytics and ad performance?

Yes. Bot sessions inflate traffic, depress measured conversion rate, poison retargeting audiences, and can burn ad budget through fake clicks.

How do you block bot traffic on a storefront?

Behavioral detection at the network edge is the effective layer: score sessions on signals bots cannot cheaply fake, and block before requests reach the store. Rate limits and CAPTCHAs alone are not enough.

Is all bot traffic bad for ecommerce?

No. Search crawlers and AI answer engines can drive discovery. The task is distinguishing beneficial automation from harmful automation - and now, deciding your policy on AI crawlers explicitly.