Audiogeräte-Hersteller: Bots zwingen Toniebox-Firma beim Online-Verkauf in die Knie
Wer kleine Kinder hat, der könnte erwischt werden vom Hype um die bunten Tonie-Figuren. Das sind Audiodateien zum Anfassen, von denen nun neue Weihnachtsexemplare herauskommen. Doch es gibt Probleme.
Unsavoury sellers have torpedoed the online sales of the Tonie figure maker, according to the company. On Wednesday, Tonies launched its sale of Christmas figures on its website, but many customers were left empty-handed and order attempts failed. Some customers expressed their frustration on social media. Suddenly, their previously filled shopping cart was empty again, an Instagram user wrote.
"I feel really duped." The Toniebox, designed for children and sold since 2016, allows children to play with figures placed on a cube-shaped speaker box to listen to stories, music, or record their own voices. The company apologized for the sales problems, saying it was "truly sorry that it's not going so smoothly right now." The firm was aware that resellers repeatedly tried to secure larger quantities of their products using automated computer programs, known as bots, as previously reported by the German public broadcaster WDR.
Despite increasing server capacities and measures against bots, they managed to "bring our website to a standstill" this time with their sheer volume of requests, Tonies stated. The online demand from people was high on Wednesday. Additionally, massive, automated bot requests simultaneously hit their website. The company denied the suspicion of artificial scarcity, or artificially limiting the supply to increase the purchase incentive, and claimed they had significantly increased production amounts.
Written by urgent.news from Handelsblatt's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
