As the 2025 holiday shopping season hits full swing, 90% of adults in the U.S. emphasize the importance of knowing they're transacting with real humans when making purchases.
Picture this: The perfect gift sits in your online cart. You've been refreshing the page for twenty minutes, waiting for the restock notification. The moment arrives, you click "purchase," and then... sold out. In milliseconds. To a bot. Welcome to holiday shopping in 2025, where the Grinch wears silicon instead of fur.
The real human cost of automated shopping
This scenario plays out millions of times each holiday season. A new survey of 2,000 respondents, commissioned by World, confirms what frustrated shoppers already suspect: nearly two-thirds feel that bots are actively stealing the joy from holiday shopping. This sentiment runs deeper than mere frustration with technology. It reflects a fundamental shift in how we experience seasonal traditions.
The numbers paint a picture of widespread digital fatigue. Two-thirds of respondents find themselves frequently battling bots for products online, with nearly 33% encountering these automated competitors "always" or "often." The emotional toll reads like a holiday anti-wishlist: 44% report feeling annoyed, another 44% experience frustration or anger, and 36% describe genuine stress from these encounters.
Perhaps most telling: over half of shoppers are now likely to brave Black Friday crowds rather than face the bot armies of Cyber Monday. When standing in a pre-dawn line outside a store feels more appealing than shopping from your couch, something fundamental has broken in our digital commerce ecosystem.
A problem six years in the making
This breakdown didn't happen overnight. According to the survey, people believe bots have plagued online shopping for an average of five years. Yet three-quarters expect the problem to worsen this holiday season compared to last year. This trajectory suggests we're not dealing with a temporary glitch in the system, but rather a steadily escalating race between human shoppers and automated purchasing programs.
The sophistication of these bots has evolved dramatically during this time. Where early versions might have simply automated the checkout process, today's bots can solve CAPTCHAs, maintain multiple sessions across different sites, and even use residential proxies to avoid detection.
Believing what you can see
The speed advantage bots enjoy creates ripple effects beyond just missed purchases. It breeds a deeper problem: the erosion of trust in online commerce. Only 18% of those surveyed feel "very confident" in their ability to distinguish legitimate products from fakes when shopping online. This uncertainty transforms every purchase into a gamble, every deal into a potential deception.
The survey reveals the lengths people now go to verify legitimacy: scouring reviews, checking multiple sites, investigating seller histories. Yet even these precautions offer limited protection in an environment where bots can generate fake reviews as easily as they can snatch up inventory. When 58% of people say they would demand refunds for fake items, and another 31% would post negative reviews, the reputational damage to online retail compounds with each compromised transaction.
Benefits of a human network
Given this crisis of trust, the survey's most revelatory finding might be its simplest: 90% of Americans emphasize the importance of being able to verify that they're making a purchase from an actual human being. This overwhelming consensus points toward a solution rooted not in better bot detection, but in better human confirmation.
This is where proof of human technology and human networks become essential infrastructure for the future of shopping. Unlike traditional security measures that focus on blocking bad actors, human networks create ecosystems where real people connect, transact, and build trust together. These networks use cryptographic technology to preserve privacy while ensuring every participant is genuinely human, addressing both the bot problem and growing concerns about data security.
For retailers, using proof of human technology and tapping into a human network such as World offers multiple benefits beyond bot prevention. It restores customer confidence, reduces fraud-related chargebacks, and creates fairer access to limited inventory. When customers know they're part of a network of real people rather than competing against machines, the shopping experience transforms from a technical arms race back into genuine commerce built on human relationships.
Reclaiming the joy of holiday shopping
These benefits aren't theoretical. The data suggests we're at an inflection point where action is essential. With 75% expecting the bot shopping problem to intensify this holiday season, and emotions running from annoyance to genuine stress, the status quo is unsustainable.
Fortunately, the solution is elegant and doesn't require revolutionary change. Human networks already exist, ready to integrate with existing e-commerce platforms. These systems can connect people instantly while preserving the speed consumers expect from online shopping. The difference is that every interaction happens within a trusted human ecosystem.
The survey respondents have spoken clearly: they want to shop with confidence, compete fairly for products, and know their transactions involve real people on both sides of the screen. They want technology to enhance holiday shopping.
The choice ahead
As another peak shopping season approaches, retailers have an opportunity to create a better experience for their customers. Rather than letting bots crowd the digital shelves, they can take steps to make shopping feel fair and fun again. By tapping into a human network, brands can ensure that holiday deals and excitement reach the people they’re intended for.
Shoppers know that online shopping isn’t perfect and they’re increasingly looking for experiences that feel more real and rewarding. The findings show that people are ready for a shift. They want online shopping to reflect authenticity, fairness, and joy once again.
Research methodology:
On behalf of World, Talker Research surveyed 2,000 general population Americans who have access to the internet; the survey was commissioned by World and administered and conducted online by Talker Research between Oct. 24 and Oct. 27, 2025.
To view the complete methodology as part of AAPOR’s Transparency Initiative, please visit the Talker Research Process and Methodology page.