strange activity in the store

[GemstoneStories]

Something strange is going on in my shop. Statistics unexpectedly show that the store was suddenly visited by 300 people more than usual. Each of these "visitors" opens one Listing, (I have 300 Listings in the store) studies it, maybe copies it, and then closes this Listings and leaves the store.
This has happened twice in the last week.
Friends, does anyone know what this could mean and how it threatens the store?

[SweetSophiaDesigns]

Same thing happened to me for the past two Thursdays. Last Thursday was over 500 direct visits (not from Etsy search) and this Thursday was a little over 300 direct visits at 3am. Glitch or bots. 

[ThePurplePuppy]

How can one know a listing has been opened and perhaps copied??  I had no idea there were tools that would do this.

that said--I have had a larger than normal amount of visits with less than normal purchases (I usually have a purchase for about each 100 visits).  I think it is probably bots--even tho I would like to think people are window shopping for Christmas!

[BagmakerSupply]

@GemstoneStories: Many "false" visits are going to be legitimate bots - Google search, etc. There are also going to be the coupon scrapping bots working overtime with the upcoming cyber week sales. At some point Etsy was deleting bot visits from statistics but anecdotal evidence in this forum seems to indicate they are not doing so at this time.

[ThePurplePuppy]

@BagmakerSupply 

I think they must be deleting some bots as every single day  my visists DECREASE late in the day--what else could account for a "decrease". So i think the bot removal  must be  continuing at least somewhat.

[BagmakerSupply]

@ThePurplePuppy: That is good to know. We rarely use Etsy stats and rely on Google analytics.

[bradgoodell]

Bots makes the most sense.  There are numerous harmless bots out there that crawl the web looking for specific data.  

[AAANativeArts · Accepted solution]

Either bots are visiting  your site for the purpose of indexing, or a scraper is stealing your listings for nefarious purposes of their own. Since you don't have control of the domain to block them, there is nothing you can do about it. If they are indexing your site for search engines, you want them to.

[Lovedarose]

Wow! That is happening to one of my items, not anything you would expect such traffic, and all from very strange locations.

[HeatherJordanJewelry]

I just got 2,000 visits out of the blue in my shop today so I figure we're dealing with a case of "Holiday Bot Infestation". Not much you can do but ignore it and go on with the rest of your work day.  

[GemstoneStories]

I thank you all friends for your response. It lessened my panic.
I will monitor the situation and share with you if there is a continuation of incomprehensible activity.
Thank you all for your support.

[LindseySilberman]

This has been happening to me as well. Not sure what is going on.

[Lovedarose]

I'm glad I decided to check here and know mine is not an unusual case.

[4theloveofoils]

same