For retailers, there are always new online threats and challenges to be aware of, but two issues that haven’t changed over the last few years are agentic commerce and automated fraud. These are the key forces shaping e-commerce behavior today, affecting both revenue and customer experience. 

Agentic Commerce

For those unaware, agentic commerce refers to interactions with your platform that are driven by automated systems rather than humans. This can include legitimate tools like price comparison engines, but it also encompasses malicious bots that buy up inventory, scrape pricing data, or exploit promotions.

Automated Fraud

Automated fraud, on the other hand, involves scripts or networks designed to commit financial or operational abuse, from fake account creation and credential stuffing to bulk purchases for resale.

The Problem for Retailers

Together, these phenomena have been working to undermine business operations, distorting not just the analytics of companies worldwide, but the entire e-commerce ecosystem, from inventory management to customer experience. Understanding and mitigating them, then, is no longer optional, it’s an essential part of running a successful retail operation and maintaining a competitive advantage in 2026.

The Solution for Retailers

Thankfully, the solution is far simpler than understanding the technical mannerisms behind these bots and why they’re exploiting your e-commerce platform in the first place. What you need is a comprehensive bot protection platform that can not only detect bots, but analyze behavior and respond appropriately, and that includes both automated and manual mitigation options. 

One of the most efficient platforms for this is DataDome – a leading solution used by a range of prestigious online retailers including Etsy and Intersport. As for why it’s so effective, it’s mainly due to the multiple layers the platform leverages to carry out effective bot detection. This includes server-side detection – analyzing data available at the infrastructure level – and client-side detection – running JavaScript in the visitor’s browser to collect richer signals. 

Once signals are collected from both layers, the detection engine then scores each request against a combination of rules and machine learning models, determining whether the score is low, medium, or high. In other words, this is not a yes-or-no check – which is fallible against bots designed to mimic human behavior – it’s a dynamic evaluation that adapts to evolving patterns and bot tactics. 

What’s more, the platform also works to mitigate any bot traffic after it’s been detected, whether that’s through a block or redirect, rate limit, a challenge with proof of work, or letting ‘good bots’ – search crawlers, uptime monitors, or legitimate AI crawlers – access to your site without any disruption.

Other Things Retailers Need To Know This Year

There are numerous reasons why utilizing DataDome is the right call, but perhaps the most important is that the cyberthreat landscape is never fully settled. That is to say, even if you feel like you’ve got a good handle on your security, and you’re already implementing some of the best cybersecurity practices, the nature of online threats never stays the same. 

Automation, specifically, is a problem that most traditional cybersecurity measures can’t adequately address. Techniques like CAPTCHA and IP blocking were originally designed to stop simple, predictable attacks, but due to the advances in automation, modern bots are now perfectly capable of mimicking human behavior and rotating IPs, ensuring that blocks and restrictions are easily circumvented. 

Not to mention, many malicious actors now utilize the power of machine learning, creating bot farms that quickly adapt to detection mechanisms and evade most traditional defences. It’s also worth mentioning that, because of this sophistication, bots can target multiple channels simultaneously – websites, mobile apps, APIS, and even email links – which makes it particularly hard to track and stop malicious activity in any kind of consistent manner. 

By combining real-time detection, then, along with advanced monitoring techniques like behavioral analysis and device fingerprinting, a platform like DataDome allows retailers to stay ahead of these evolving threats, working to protect and manage everything from order fulfillment to inventory accuracy, while still allowing the customer experience to be smooth and virtually untouched.

Conclusion

According to a recent study, as much as 69% of retailers experienced agentic fraud in the past year, with 57% of small businesses reporting agentic commerce directly impacting their sales. The thing that’s particularly worrying here is that only 3% of respondents felt that they were well prepared to address these threats, and with some industry analysts warning of a 450% rise in agentic traffic this year, that’s a lot of ill-prepared companies that are being left to the devices of attackers. 

As a retailer, it’s your job to sit outside of these statistics, ensuring that your inventory is secure and your revenue is protected. The consequences of not doing so, of course, can be disastrous. 

Say, for instance, a high-demand release is targeted by scalper bots. These automated agents can buy out inventory within seconds, leaving legitimate customers unable to purchase the products they want, so not only would this directly impact your sales and revenue, but it would also frustrate genuine customers, leading them to potentially abandon your site altogether and turn to competitors. 

It might even damage brand trust, and this is the last thing you want if you’re trying to build customer loyalty and maintain a strong reputation. By dealing with and mitigating malicious traffic effectively, you’re ensuring that all of your demand is met by real people, with accurate, non-skewed data that can help your company grow and keep the shopping experience seamless for everyone.