The RealReal won’t let AI agents hog designer clothing

The RealReal, a secondhand luxury fashion consignment retailer, announced it is enhancing its bot defense system to impede AI agents from shopping on its platform. This update follows a report by The Verge that an AI agent could exploit the retailer's item reserve system, keeping items unavailable for other customers for extended periods.

When an item is placed in a user's cart, it goes "on hold" for 20 minutes, preventing other shoppers from purchasing it. The Verge's testing demonstrated how Meta's Muse could continuously re-add RealReal listings to a shopping cart as soon as the hold expired, effectively blocking other shoppers for hours. RealReal's chief technology officer confirmed the company had addressed this concern, stating that the bot defense configuration now makes it significantly harder for all agents to log in, add items to cart, and check out.

However, the company clarified that agents will still be able to display listings and direct Muse users to product pages. The RealReal intends to continue strengthening protections as AI-powered online shopping evolves. While Meta has embraced AI agents as personalized assistants, capable of scheduling tasks and making purchases, this development poses potential risks to the web's dynamics.

If humans rely more on chatbots for browsing the web, businesses may become detached from their customers, affecting advertisers and disrupting various online experiences. Shopping agents might also interfere with even basic features like the reserve system of clothing websites. Despite the potential challenges, AI agents are becoming increasingly popular, with Meta reporting that 10 million US users downloaded Muse in just 40 days, and purchases averaging over $200.