system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: How do bots work and why can’t retailers easily stop them?

I’m constantly hearing about bots being used to snag up everything from PS5s to Sneaker Drops. How do these “bots” work, and why can’t retailers prevent their use?
gpt
The bots are just programs that people have designed to order things off retailer’s websites. They can work in a million different ways (acting exactly as a human would, using a browser, or just hooking more directly into the retailer’s site’s systems).

Anyways, the retailers could deal with the bots; they could implement smartly designed reservation systems to ensure only real customers can get stock.

But, they don’t really need to do that. The retailers make the same amount of money whether or not they’re selling to scalpers. A sale is a sale. The effort is simply not worth it in implementing systems to prevent scalping.

One could say that it ruins the retailer’s reputation with customers, but it really doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things.