CouponBirds

CouponBirds uses Cloudflare to secure and speed up their shopping platform

Founded in 2015, CouponBirds is an online platform dedicated to providing high-value discount information. Through strategic partnerships with leading brands and support for small and medium-sized businesses, CouponBirds helps consumers save on shopping costs while driving revenue for merchants. With a vast array of over 30,000 merchants, CouponBirds serves millions of users each month.

Challenge: Ensuring stable and secure access for a rapidly-growing user base

According to TikTok for Business’s latest "2024 Global Consumer Trends White Paper," ecommerce habits in the US are well-established, with more Americans shopping online. In 2023, 255 million Americans shopped online, accounting for about 75% of the population. The US market, which represents a quarter of the global consumer market, continues to grow steadily.

Amid this online shopping trend, CouponBirds has provided over 10 million high-quality discount codes since their inception in 2015, significantly reducing online shopping costs for millions of users monthly, over half of whom are in the US. The introduction of a browser extension in 2020 further expanded their reach, now boasting over 800,000 users across browsers like Chrome, Safari, Edge, and Firefox.

As their user base grew, CouponBirds faced frequent and destructive bot attacks and cyber threats, exceeding 20 million every month, which were becoming increasingly difficult and costly to manage with their existing self-built infrastructure. Additionally, the growing demand emphasizes the need for a faster and more stable access. CouponBirds urgently needed a high-performing and secure solution to help thwart malicious attacks and ensure users could enjoy a fast and stable shopping experience.

Solution: Cloudflare CDN and Argo Smart Routing help cut costs and accelerate platform performance

To improve user experience, reduce costs, and provide stable access during peak and off-peak shopping periods, CouponBirds switched from third-party cloud services to Cloudflare in 2021.

“The customization and comprehensiveness of Cloudflare's features are particularly crucial for meeting our specific needs." explains Barry Bai, CTO of CouponBirds. "The synergy between Cloudflare’s acceleration and security services has markedly improved our platform’s user experience."

Cloudflare's CDN operates through a global network of 320+ data centers worldwide, optimizing both static and dynamic content based on the shopper's device, browser, and bandwidth needs. Combined with Argo Smart Routing, which detects and circumvents real-time network congestion, this ensures stable access speeds even during traffic spikes, such as Black Friday sales.

"Using Cloudflare CDN and Argo Smart Routing, our page response speed increased by 30%," Barry adds. "Our internal metrics, such as key user indicators PVs/UVs (Page Views/Unique Visitors), improved by 10%, and user bounce rates decreased by 15%."

The enhancements in speed were further confirmed through Google PageSpeed Insights, particularly in the core web metrics that gauge user experience: First Contentful Paint (FCP) and Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), both of which displayed significant enhancements.

Barry remarks, "Previously, we encountered challenges in achieving favorable ratings in FCP and LCP on Google PageSpeed. However, following the implementation of Cloudflare, all metrics reached exceptional levels."

The faster loading times not only enhanced user satisfaction, but also drew in more users, particularly in the UK, where user numbers surged by 15%. From a cost perspective, the Cloudflare CDN and Argo Smart Routing reduced content requests to the origin server, thereby cutting down on bandwidth usage and expenses.

"We managed to save approximately 20% on bandwidth, 50% on static resource traffic, and 10% on dynamic page request traffic," notes Barry.

Solution: Cloudflare blocks attacks while reducing operational costs

In the past, CouponBirds implemented a custom-built protection system to defend against malicious bots and cyber attacks directed at their platform. However, during the development phase, they struggled with the substantial resource requirements, high costs, and complex ongoing maintenance that these in-house systems require. Following a comprehensive assessment, CouponBirds made the decision to implement Cloudflare's security solutions, including Bot Management and Web Application Firewall (WAF).

With Cloudflare, CouponBirds successfully intercepts nine million malicious bot attempts per month. Cloudflare’s Bot Management uses machine learning to process a carefully selected subset of hundreds of billions of daily requests to generate accurate bot scores for each incoming request. Meanwhile, WAF complements Bot Management by adding an additional layer of security, filtering and monitoring traffic to block potential threats.

Barry says, "Cloudflare's products are easy to deploy and provide robust protection. They respond quickly and effectively to malicious attacks."

This strategic shift resulted in CouponBirds saving nearly 50% on security system development and operational expenses, while safeguarding valuable customer data and preventing attacks from interrupting their end-user experience.

Looking forward, CouponBirds aims to integrate additional Cloudflare products into their technology stack to further boost efficiency, streamline workflows, and deliver an exceptional coupon usage experience for online shoppers worldwide.

Barry remarks, "Cloudflare stands out as a global leader in network performance and security services, making our website and app super fast and secure."