Belk’s e-commerce app and website are important parts of its business model and continue to grow at a rapid pace. For some time, the company had been encountering malicious bots that were attempting account takeover attacks (ATOs) and gift card abuse.
Belk’s in-house security team had been dealing with the ATOs previously, but as the attacks increased in sophistication, it was taking up too much of the team’s time. In addition, server workloads were being slowed due to the scale of attacks.
Site performance issues during holiday periods were of particular concern, as customer numbers rise dramatically at these times. Slow, frustrating buying experiences could damage reputation and impact conversions and sales.