Black Friday AI: Black Friday shoppers have a growing interest in generative AI.

In a recent survey, four-in-10 (38%) shoppers said they have already used or plan to use generative AI when shopping on Black Friday. Among younger consumers, 46% of millennials and 52% of Gen Z respondents already use or plan to use generative AI to help them find the best deals, research products, and compare items. (The 2024 Black Friday survey by Boston Consulting Group, polled 10,000 consumers across U.S. and Australia, Canada, Germany, France, Spain, Switzerland, Poland and the U.K.)

Perplexity Purchases

You can now shop with Perplexity Pro. I gave it a try, just type what you want. “I want to give a charity supporting tee as a gift.” Some of the responses were good, like Be Kind to your Mind T-shirt (10% of profits go to mental health organizations). Some responses were not good, like a Walmart shirt that only talks about charity in its description, and some were confusing, a link to creating a Custom Ink Fundraising account.

1-800-Flowers.com

1-800-Flowers.com recently introduced a new online feature called “1-800-Flowers.com MomVerse.” This AI creates original, one-of-a-kind verses, including personalized poems and songs. Customers select the type of verse (haiku, song, or limerick) and who the poem or song is for (mom, grandma, wife). Next they input unique attributes about the recipient.

Wendy’s

Wendy’s added “Wendy’s FreshAI.” The chain will utilize generative AI to have conversations with customers, understand made-to-order requests, and generate responses to frequently asked questions AT THE DRIVE-THRU! 

What about Apparel??

Levi Strauss & Co

Levi Strauss & Co. uses AI to show diverse models on its website (AI replacing humans, not good Levi). They also used AI to enhance their loyalty program by offering personalized benefits to members. They are using this consumer data to fill stores with local consumers’ unique interests and open new stores where they have the greatest demand (and close stores with low demand). Furthermore, the AI analyzes Levi stock to determine which products will benefit from being on sale at this year’s Black Friday sales.

Amazon Fashion

Amazon debuted AI-powered assistant Rufus earlier this year in the U.S.. After its Prime Day sales event in July, the company noted that Rufus helped “millions” of customers find the right items. The Amazon algorithm anonymously clusters customers with similar size and fit preferences. Then the algorithm learns from millions of product details, such as style, customer reviews, billions of customer purchases, and makes recommendations. The algorithm continuously learns and adapts to changes in customers’ size needs. For example, if you bought child pants in a particular size this month, you might need a bigger size soon. So if I buy cookies multiple months, do the recommendations size up??

How to use Gen AI in a small shop for Black Friday

• Optimizing pricing strategies and implementing dynamic pricing
• Creating personalized advertisements and optimizing for conversion
• Generating website content, including product descriptions
• Automating social media posts to promote Black Friday deals
• Managing inventory in real-time based on predicted demand

Use the links above to learn more about the topics from °F AI episodes on The Ink Kitchen YouTube. Automating Black Friday social media posts would be a great place to start. As always, I recommend starting with low hanging fruit and jobs that will make life easier, not replace an employee.

What is coming in the future?

Microsoft Copilot + GPT4o Audio creates custom Concierge product recommendations instantly: