Shopping Bots
Holiday season is something we cherish every year. The holidays themselves hold a lot of meaning, and it’s fun to gather with family and friends, enjoying their company and exchanging gifts. We weren’t exactly able to do this last year with a major COVID-19 surge occurring right as holiday season arrived, but things are back this year, and with an interesting twist.
It’s a known fact that a lot of gift items are low in supply, along with almost everything else in our lives. To combat this, people are turning to shopping bots, which go around retail websites to find when items will be stocked and place orders for them. Let’s be realistic, a robot that is specifically designed to shop will outpace a human shopping online 9 times out of 10, making this effective. This trend has seen a rise since the pandemic started, forcing users to shop online, and bot developers are heavily profiting from this.
People argue that this is killing online shopping, inflating numbers, and creating huge markup prices. This becomes true especially on days like Black Friday, where items are discounted. Bots would devour these items for their users, leaving no items for the rest. In 2019, lawmakers introduced a bill to ban these, but it never came to life. The other side argues that these bots are available to everyone if you pay the subscription, and companies have continued to assert in their earnings reports that they have stocked enough for the holidays. What’s your opinion on bot shopping?
I am not a financial advisor and my comments should never be taken as financial advice. Investments come with risk, so always do your research and analysis beforehand.
