In my previous blog, I provided a detailed explanation of the Suspected Bot Activity Report in Sitecore CDP. You can read about it here. This is the continuation of the same.
Cart Bots Reports
The Cart Bots Report section in the Suspected Bot Activity Report displays various graphs that can be used to further investigate the sessions that are suspected as cart bots (shopping bots). Cart bots are the sessions that have repetitive additions of multiple items to the card but never complete the purchases. This type of activity is usually performed to scrape the data such as prices, availability, and additional information like shipping and taxes. Less commonly, card bots are used for credential stuffing (data breach) or for deliberately targeting limited available items and preventing their sale to legitimate buyers. These types of bot activities are potentially harmful to retailers and fast-paced e-commerce websites, where the inventory is reserved for a visitor as long as the item is in their cart.
Sessions that meet all of the criteria mentioned below are considered suspected cart bots by Sitecore CDP:
1. Guest type must be “Visitor”.
2. The session type must be “Abandoned”.
3. Have only one session for this guest’s ref ID.
4. Over 20 items were added to the cart during the session.
Cart Bots
This graph displays the number of estimated cart bots for each of the past 6 months. This allows the business users or marketers to quickly recognize the rise in bots for a given month. Also, note that in a month where there are generally more cart events, there is probably also a rise in the number of suspected cart bots.
Operating Systems Comparison
This section includes two graphs that display the distribution of the operating system used during the sessions. One graph named “Overall – Operating Systems” includes the sessions of all the guests. Another graph named “Cart Bots – Operating Systems” includes the sessions of guests who are suspected of being cart bots. Sometimes the cart bot’s sessions have minimal identification. Suspected cart bots have a much higher rate of “unknown” operating systems which further confirms that they are bots.
Browser Comparison
This section includes two graphs that display the distribution of the user agents used during the sessions. One graph named “Overall – Browser” includes the sessions of all the guests. Another graph named “Cart Bots – Browser” includes the sessions of guests who are suspected of being cart bots. Sometimes the cart bot’s sessions have minimal identification. Suspected cart bots have a much higher rate of “other” user agents which further confirms that they are bots.
Cart Bots Deep Dive
This table displays the individual guest sessions that are suspected as cart bots and also specifies the number of “Add” events.
1. Search the guest's ref ID in the “Guest” tab to view the information about the guest.
2. Click on the column heading in the table to sort the results by that column. For example, it can be useful to sort the results by the count of the “Add” event.
High Event Bots Report
The High Event Bots Report section in the Suspected Bot Activity Report displays various graphs that can be used to further investigate the sessions that are suspected of being high event bots. High event bots are the sessions that have a large number of events per session and the duration of each event is short, as the bot quickly moves through the website pages to scrape information. This type of activity is usually performed to scrape the website data. These types of bot activities are potentially harmful to websites, where there may be a risk of intellectual property or copyright infringement.
Sessions that meet all of the criteria mentioned below are considered suspected high event bots by Sitecore CDP:
1. Guest type must be “Visitor”.
2. There must be more than one session per guest.
3. There must be more than or equal to 15 events per session.
4. The duration of each event is less than 20 seconds.
High Event Bots Trend
This graph displays the number of estimated high event bots for each of the past 6 months. This allows business users and marketers to quickly recognize the rise in high event bots for a given month.
Duration between Events
This graph displays the average event duration in the sessions that were identified as high event bots for each of the past 6 months.
Operating Systems Comparison
This section includes two graphs that display the distribution of the operating system used during the sessions. One graph named “Overall – Operating Systems” includes the sessions of all the guests. Another graph named “High Event Bots – Operating Systems” includes the sessions of guests who are suspected of being high event bots. Sometimes the high event bot’s sessions have minimal identification. Suspected high event bots have a much higher rate of “unknown” operating systems which further confirms that they are bots.
Browser Comparison
This section includes two graphs that display the distribution of the user agents used during the sessions. One graph named “Overall – Browser” includes the sessions of all the guests. Another graph named “High Event Bots – Browser” includes the sessions of guests who are suspected of being high event bots. Sometimes the high event bot’s sessions have minimal identification. Suspected high event bots have a much higher rate of “other” user agents which further confirms that they are bots.
High Event Bots
This table displays the individual guest sessions that are suspected as high event bots and also specifies other details that allow the business users or marketers to go into the details of each suspected high event bot activity.
1. Search the guest's ref ID in the “Guest” tab to view the information about the guest.
2. Click on the column heading in the table to sort the results by that column. For example, it can be useful to sort the results by the session count.
The table includes the following columns:
i. Guest Reference ID
ii. Operating System (OS)
iii. Browser
iv. Session Count
v. Event Count
vi. Average time between Events
vii. Event per Session – High event bots usually have a relatively long session but a short duration for each event. (A higher value indicates a higher chance of a high event bot).
viii. Duration per Sessions - High event bots usually have a relatively long session but a short duration for each event. (A lower value indicates a higher chance of a high event bot).
Bounce Bots Report
The Bounce Bots Report section in the Suspected Bot Activity Report displays various graphs that can be used to further investigate the sessions that are suspected as bounce bots. Bounce bots are the sessions that have only one page visit per session, and their session duration is very short.
Sessions that meet all of the criteria mentioned below are considered suspected bounce bots by Sitecore CDP:
1. More than one session for this guest’s ref ID.
2. Only one page visit per session.
3. Very short session duration.
Bounce – Past 6 Months Trend
This graph displays the number of estimated bounce bots for each of the past 6 months. This allows business users and marketers to quickly recognize the rise in bounce bots for a given month.
Average Session Duration
This graph displays the average session duration that was identified as bounce bots for each of the past 6 months.
Operating Systems Comparison
This section includes two graphs that display the distribution of the operating system used during the sessions. One graph named “Overall – Operating Systems” includes the sessions of all the guests. Another graph named “Bounce Bots – Operating Systems” includes the sessions of guests who are suspected of being bounce bots. Sometimes the bounce bot’s sessions have minimal identification. Suspected bounce bots have a much higher rate of “unknown” operating systems which further confirms that they are bots.
Browser Comparison
This section includes two graphs that display the distribution of the user agents used during the sessions. One graph named “Overall – Browser” includes the sessions of all the guests. Another graph named “Bounce Bots – Browser” includes the sessions of guests who are suspected of being bounce bots. Sometimes the bounce bot’s sessions have minimal identification. Suspected bounce bots have a much higher rate of “other” user agents which further confirms that they are bots.
Bounce Bots
This table displays the individual guest sessions that are suspected of being bounce bots and also specifies other details that allow the business users or marketers to go into the details of each suspected bounce bot activity.
1. Search the guest's ref ID in the “Guest” tab to view the information about the guest.
2. Click on the column heading in the table to sort the results by that column. For example, it can be useful to sort the results by the session count.
The table includes the following columns:
i. Guest Reference ID
ii. Operating System (OS)
iii. Browser
iv. Session Count
v. Duration per Sessions - Bounce bots usually have a relatively shorter session. (A lower value indicates a higher chance of bounce bot).
Along with all these graph views you also get options to update the Suspected Bot Activity Report based on the filters. You can also download the report as a ZIP file containing the CSV files.
References
Dashboards in Sitecore CDP - https://doc.sitecore.com/cdp/en/users/sitecore-cdp/dashboards-in-sitecore-cdp.html
Suspected Bot Activity Report in Sitecore CDP - https://doc.sitecore.com/cdp/en/users/sitecore-cdp/suspected-bot-activity-report.html
That’s All for Today,
Happy Coding
Coders for Life