Massive visits from Chinese bots

Shopify Discussion

Topic summary

Massive spike of automated traffic (“bots”) from China since September is overwhelming multiple Shopify stores. Reported effects include corrupted advertising pixels (tracking code), inflated/garbled analytics, apps not functioning properly, and some site performance/checkout resolution issues. Frustration is rising.

Positions and references:

  • Platform vs. internet-wide: Several participants frame this as a broader internet problem rather than a Shopify-specific one and point to prior threads; others urge Shopify to take platform-level action.
  • Confirmation from other regions: A Greek merchant reports the same surge for about a month despite basic bot/human filters.

Mitigations suggested:

  • Shopify marketplace “blocker” apps to restrict traffic by country/area (proposed as a temporary measure).
  • Counterpoint: These apps don’t stop much; setting up a free Cloudflare account with country/continent firewall rules is reported to work better (e.g., mitigated Singapore spam), though heavy bot traffic persists and not all bots are detected.

Status and next steps:

  • No definitive solution or Shopify resolution shared. One reply expresses confidence Shopify is working on broader fixes. Discussion remains open with key question unresolved: what platform-level measures, if any, Shopify will implement.
Summarized with AI on November 25. AI used: gpt-5.
1

Our Shopify store, and many others, have been targeted by massive traffic from Chinese bots since September. Our advertising pixels are now completely messed up and no app works properly anymore!

Shopify, what are you doing?? You need to provide a solution quickly because frustration is rising!

3 Likes
2

Nothing new under the sun

3

In general this is an internet problem not an platform-Y problem.

Searching first is the the thing to do https://community.shopify.com/search?q=bots%20order%3Alatest
why ignore the guidelines , why not use existing efforts, why go it alone.

4

Good morning! My eshop is in Greece and i have also massive visitors from china now and 1 month. Everyday about 20-40 I have filtered -Human- Bot but nothing…… Chinese invasion is there which is really frustrating…

5

Hi there @twistero so sorry about the nuisance you’re experiencing right now. As someone mentioned in the replies already, it’s now a platform issue but rather something the whole internet is battling with bots invasions all over the place. I’m confident that the Shopify team are working and will continue to work on more cures to this problem. For the time being, I suggest that you download apps that can help serve as blockers from traffic from designated areas and countries.

6

the blocker apps on Shopify don’t stop anything. The Cloudflare route of creating a free account and adding country or continent blocking rules works much better. However, the bots don’t get picked up and the website traffic is getting smushed. The checkout cart doesn’t resolve on the screen. The “add” works, but you have to refresh to see it. That’s how much bot traffic there is right now.

There is a particular spot in China that I can see on the world map that is very tall, so I know the bots are coming from there. The Singapore slam gets fixed by Cloudflare as above.