In order to create the illusion of brand value and FOMO (fear of missing out) there is a model of scarcity that has ran through the luxury sector for sometime.

Short production of a product combined with a 'celebrity influencer' wearing or using said product drives the 'must have it' crowd into a frenzy.

I came across this story in the link below that talks about how a few social and digitally savvy people are using bots to get their hands on those 'exclusive' and hard to find items to secure them. 

At the same time driving enough false traffic to have taken down one particular luxury brands website.

The bot secures the purchase and the social and commercially savvy digital hijacker instantly resells them for triple the price on various social networks.

Telfar, which has gained a cult following and prides itself on its attainable luxury positioning, shut down its online store and posted the message “Telfar is for the people. Not the bots” on Instagram. A week later, and the shop is still down, but designer Telfar Clemens and creative director Babak Radboy said via a joint email statement that the majority of the orders were from real consumers, the impact of the bots was exaggerated and that the high demand led to the site crash.

These bots exist in every vertical where there is a profit to be made: a 2019 report by Imperva found that 18 per cent of e-commerce sales were made by a bot. 

Some bots exist as open-source, software or code that anyone with an internet connection can use; other purchasing bots can cost potential resellers hundreds of dollars.

So, can you detect a bot and stop it buying up merchandise that's meant for all your customers - do you even want to?