adidas Protected High-Stakes Ecommerce from Bots

adidas operates a high-traffic global ecommerce platform that sells thousands of products daily. With seasonal promotions, exclusive releases, and hype-driven product drops, this industry leader sees massive traffic surges during events like Cyber Week, Black Friday, and limited-edition launches. But as product demand skyrocketed, so did bot challenges. adidas protected itself from increasingly sophisticated bot threats by leveraging Akamai's next-generation solutions.

adidas, already a longtime Akamai customer, partnered with Akamai to roll out a three-tiered bot mitigation strategy that integrated seamlessly with internal tools and processes.

adidas implemented Akamai Bot Manager as its frontline defense against malicious automation. By detecting, classifying, and challenging bot traffic in real time, Bot Manager delays or blocks harmful bots while preserving access for real customers. With Bot Manager, adidas was able to prevent scalping during high-demand product drops and to block automated abuse of promotions and discount codes. Plus, the company used bot traffic insights to enhance its internal fraud and analytics systems.

To combat the rise in ATO attacks, adidas deployed Akamai Account Protector, which leverages behavioral analysis to detect and stop fraudulent login attempts before damage occurs. This helped adidas reduce compromised accounts, fraudulent transactions, and customer support overhead tied to account recovery.

With competitors and unauthorized resellers scraping product data, Akamai Content Protector became an essential part of adidas’s bot mitigation stack. This solution blocks advanced scraping bots without disrupting legitimate users, keeping sensitive content secure while reducing back-end load.

“Before Content Protector, scrapers were draining our resources and harming our competitive edge. Now, we’ve significantly cut down on data theft without affecting real buyers,” said the Platform Engineer for adidas.

Since implementing the Akamai bot-mitigation suite, adidas has achieved major gains across their customer experience, operational efficiency, and security posture.

With scalping bots blocked, genuine customers now have a better chance of scoring high-demand items. This has translated into fewer complaints about unfair sales, fewer refund requests and chargebacks, and higher customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Bot Manager and Content Protector have significantly reduced infrastructure strain during major events by blocking malicious bots before they consume bandwidth, so adidas was able to reduce the number of servers needed to support its platform. Site uptime remains high, even under extreme load, and shoppers enjoy faster checkout times.

According to the Senior Director of Platform Engineering, “By eliminating bot-driven traffic, we’re not just improving security — we’re optimizing our entire ecommerce ecosystem.”

While Akamai’s solutions have given adidas a powerful edge against bots, the success isn’t just due to technology — it’s also due to the partnership. Akamai Professional Services plays a central role in adidas’s bot strategy, collaborating closely with adidas’s internal teams to refine rulesets, prepare for peak events, and adapt quickly to platform changes — like updated login flows or new APIs. As explained by the adidas Platform Engineer, “We constantly refine our dynamic, multilayered bot mitigation approach. And Akamai Professional Services delivers immense value in helping us keep pace with evolving attacks.”