Bot Traffic Spikes Daily - No help from Etsy

[TheTshirtShack]

Anybody else experiencing large spikes in Bot Traffic in Views and Visits on a daily basis? Every single day for months now I receive at least one spike in "Direct Traffic" which is clearly from bots. This is essentially making my stats useless as it completely skews my conversion rates and makes genuine traffic difficult to monitor as per listing popularity.

I have contacted Etsy support on multiple occasions regarding this and they are no help whatsoever, claiming there is no issue, bot traffic is monitored but some are missed but support are always working to remove them.

Well this has been happening for months now and is not improving one bit

I have asked how I can raise a complaint against Etsy regarding this since I get no help internally, however this request is met with muted silence. Surely someone must regulate Etsy?

[TwiLdCapitHog]

Since around August I get 2 spikes a day, between 5- 7am and late in the evening. It's "direct and other" which makes up the majority of my traffic now. Although views and visits have increased, my sales are down.

[TheTshirtShack]

This sounds very similar to me also. I can't confirm I do believe this may be impacting sales as I have experienced much the same as you

[santashauntedboot]

I have had an unusual HIGH number of visits. But then my stats can't show me where they're coming from. Seems like bots to me. Especially because since they've changed the algorithm to bury people who don't offer shipping under $6, I'm barely getting any visits or sales. LAME-O.

[annhudecphotography]

Today, I've had over 2,000 views - normal range is 100-300 - I've had bot spikes before, but typically the # of views goes no higher than 600-700, if that. 

[wilshepherd]

4800 visit, 4800 views, all within an hour. Says a majority are from FB, which I rarely if ever post on. This happened last weekend as well. 

[pixiebell]

Same thing in my shop since July. Two large spikes every day, all direct traffic. My conversion rate used to be between 4 and 6%. Now it's 0.8%. The spikes are not filtered some time later, they remain. There is definitely a problem that they are missing. 

[WestgateJewels]

I have been having the same issue with 2 shops. The views are in excess of 3000 per day but my sales have dropped significantly since this started about 2 months ago. I contacted etsy support and they basically left me hanging and said that they remove most of the "bot traffic" in the back end, however my numbers are over inflated. I also filed a lengthy feedback on the stats page explaining the same situation. I had approx 3 days where my visits seemed to come back to normal and then re-spiked. My typical monthly traffic is about 25,000 and now reaches 90,000. My conversion rate has been decimated and I am unable to gage how my items are preforming and if I need to make any changes as Q4 is upon us. If anyone has any suggestions, as I feel I have tried just about everything I can think of doing, I would greatly appreciate the insight. Etsy support has been of no help.

[OneEyeCatStudio]

"Surely someone must regulate Etsy?"

Etsy has become "not particularly good at their job" in many capacities.
But I don't think being good at your job is something that is regulated.

Etsy openly lies about what is sold here and buyers have become aware of that and are shopping elsewhere. 
Sellers are not supported by Etsy and are leaving the site to sell elsewhere?

I suppose you could call that a sort of Darwinian regulation.

[TwoDreamsShop]

Same issue here. Conversion rate way sales. Sales are terrible. I sent a message to support but haven’t heard anything. This is so sad. 

[TheGlowZone]

I've just started noticing this as well 2am (UK time) every day I get a spike in visits and it's always the same product.  I've not long started with Etsy so it's small numbers, usually around 35 views.  That's out of, probably, 40 views across 30 products for the whole day.

It's a bit annoying.  I'm not sure if there is any other negative effect.

[TheButlersCorner]

I have just started experiencing this days ago, started on December 1st and has not let up. I am totally disgusted. This is the time of the year, I need to make money for Christmas and I have not made more than two sales that was on December 1st. Nothing since then. I have contacted Etsy several times and the same answer I get is your shop is doing fine, there's nothing we can do about it. We don't see an issue? What? How can you not see a problem when I explained to them that this is very unusual. I have been on Etsy for many many years so I can see the difference. I am totally stressed and disgusted. Has anybody come up with a solution? Does this eventually stop or is this going to go on forever? Why isn't the CEO Josh on top of this? Seniors why isn't anyone on top of this? This is ruining my business!

[TheButlersCorner]

@theTshietshack, I know this happened a few months ago but I'm experiencing the same thing and I'm wondering if there was ever a solution? Did this ever go away for you? These bots are ruining my business. I haven't made a sale in 4 days. I don't know what to do. I'm totally stressed

[JenMRamosHandmade]

This has been my situation for months too and I keep hoping to get to the bottom of this. Forums have been no help nor has etsy. For me it’s a shop called AphroditAus that sells bridal robes. That is, these fake accounts liking my items, fav’ing my shop, adding to cart all have that in common - most the items they have fav’ed are from that shop or another that also sells tens of thousands of bridal robes. So my guess is, to look legit and boost sales, they have to make these fake users looks real. A lot of their reviews are also fishy. 

What’s especially odd is these don’t show up as visits or views. They show up as activity so I can’t track what real-people activity is happening.