Black Friday, the frenzied post-Thanksgiving shopping holiday known for long lines and retail chaos, is undergoing a transformation thanks to AI. In 2022, shoppers spent a record $9.12 billion online in the U.S. on Black Friday, with AI-powered tools playing a significant role. As the year’s biggest shopping event approaches, retailers are deploying AI tools to enhance customer experiences and make the most of this critical sales event.
Consumer advocates worry that retailers will use AI to push overconsumption, urging shoppers to buy more than they need. Rather than use manipulative tactics and aggressive marketing in their embrace of AI, retailers can use technology to enhance service, remove friction in shopping and delight customers, ensuring a positive and responsible approach to AI-powered sales.
AI Provides A Personalized Shopping Experience
On the consumer side, AI offers a new level of convenience and personalization, making Black Friday shopping more enjoyable and efficient.
Shopping assistants like Honey and Capital One’s browser extension use predictive analytics to alert customers to early Black Friday promotions tailored to their preferences, with a click-through rate 30% higher than average email campaigns. Voice assistants like Amazon Alexa and Google Home let shoppers add items to digital carts and make purchases through conversational commands, reducing friction and simplifying the shopping process. On retailer websites, chatbots can speed up research and transactions, significantly reducing the time investment required to find the perfect deal.
AI Boosts Retail Operations
AI optimizes critical operations like demand forecasting, dynamic inventory management and targeted marketing strategies for retailers, leading to increased sales and reduced costs.
With the insights unlocked by AI algorithms, retailers can better predict purchasing volumes store-by-store, aligning stock levels in anticipation of hot items selling out and maximizing sales while minimizing waste. The granular data collected around Black Friday weekends also offers intelligence to help retailers refine their strategies for future holiday shopping rushes.
In stores, AI enhances experiences on the retail floor, making in-person shopping more efficient and rewarding. Apps like ShopSavvy allow customers to scan product barcodes and compare prices across retailers in real-time, effortlessly finding the best deal, saving them time and money. Visual search apps can identify items by pointing a smartphone camera, instantly delivering purchasing options and product information. AI-powered image recognition surpasses human abilities when quickly matching products to promotional offers, helping customers find relevant deals. Autonomous checkout kiosks speed up purchasing using computer vision to tally items without human assistance, reducing queues and improving customer satisfaction.
AI Optimizes Online Operations
For online retailers, AI powers recommendation engines that suggest complementary or new items based on browsing history, similar to how Netflix recommends shows. This personalized marketing helps retailers promote products each shopper will most likely purchase, leading to a more tailored and satisfying shopping experience. On the logistics side, AI optimizes fulfillment and delivery routes, getting online orders to the right location faster. This efficiency increases the changes that customers will receive their Black Friday purchases promptly, enhancing their overall satisfaction.
Privacy Concerns Around AI
The AI takeover of Black Friday brings obvious conveniences but also raises valid data privacy concerns around how retailers gather and leverage consumer data to power their AI systems. Shoppers should understand how their information is collected and used, and consent to data use should be unambiguous. Retailers that are transparent about their practices and prioritize data security stand to build greater trust and loyalty.
Regulations around AI ethics and data privacy are still emerging. Groups like the AI Now Institute advocate for policies that protect consumers from harmful uses of AI. Shoppers must also be aware of how their data fuels AI and make purchasing decisions accordingly. As AI plays an increasingly significant role in Black Friday shopping, it is crucial to ensure that it is used responsibly and ethically, balancing innovation with consumer protection.