Discover how you can elevate your customer experiences amid the bustling Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales by harnessing AI-powered personalization and recommendations.
As the leaves turn and the chill sets in, heralding the seasonal parade of pumpkin spice lattes and endless pictures of them on Instagram, the retail world gears up for its grandest hustle of the year. Black Friday and Cyber Monday stand like twin colossi at the gates of the holiday season, ushering in a time-honored tradition of rabid shopping frenzies that have long outgrown the confines of brick-and-mortar establishments.
The battleground of discounts and deals has shifted, with AI emerging as the new Santa’s little helper. No longer is it about merely slashing prices and stacking promotions, instead, AI-powered personalization brings pinpoint accuracy to the holiday chaos, letting us cut through the noise until we find the exact bread maker your relative will either never use or just flog down at Cash Converters.
Ill-informed gift choices aside, the point of this article is to explore how we can harness AI-powered personalization and recommendations to increase our sales and improve the shopping experience for our customers. So, without delay, let’s start by jumping into some stats to give our waffling some validation.
Customer expect exceptional shopping experiences
Building on the anticipation of the festive rush, consider this: in a 2022 Statista report, 62% of consumers said a brand would lose their loyalty if it delivered a non-personalized experience. This insight not only bridges the gap between consumer expectations and shopping experiences, but also highlights a pivotal shift as we head into the high-octane sales of Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Yep, personalization is no longer a ‘nice-to-have’—it’s become a critical element that shoppers now seek out, and its absence is felt in the bottom line. The tide is turning, and consumers are expecting shopping experiences that recognize us as individuals, complete with our own unique preferences and questionable purchase histories.
Leveraging personalized recommendations
As the holiday shopping rush gains momentum, AI-driven personalized product recommendations are emerging as the linchpin for eCommerce revenue during Black Friday and Cyber Monday. AI’s ability to analyze extensive data, such as past purchases, browsing habits and demographic details, has refined the concept of product suggestions to an art form, offering an unparalleled degree of personalization. This sophisticated data analysis and AI synergy are reshaping the way consumers experience shopping, propelling us into an era of individualized customer engagement.
Picture this: a bleary-eyed shopper – driven into action by their kids screaming at the top of their tiny lungs for a smartphone they definitely don’t need – lands on your digital doorstep this Black Friday. The moment they click into your online emporium, AI swings into action. It rifles through their digital historypast indulgences, wishful bookmarking, the latest digital craze—and, voila. It serves up a smorgasbord of recommendations with uncanny accuracy.
This an AI-powered recommendation engine hard at work, turning the casual browser into the empowered buyer. Your customer doesn’t just stumble upon what they want, they’re presented with a tailored menu of “you might also like” that feels like you’ve read their mind. It’s shopping made less about the endless scroll and more about the “how did they know?” moment.
And just like that, you’ve not only lightened their wallets, but also won their loyalty, one personalized recommendation at a time. The result? Sales numbers ticking on upwards.
Also, consider that a whopping 55% of shoppers these days are cutting out the digital middleman – like Google and Bing – and beeline directly to retailer sites to snag their goods. What’s the big deal, then? Well, in the wild world of click-to-cart shopping, it’s on you to craft an online experience so smooth, so intuitive, that it feels like their second home. After all, if you’re not rolling out all the bells and whistles, your customers are just a click away from cheating on you with a competitor.
Personalization beyond products
AI’s role isn’t confined to playing the savvy salesperson, pointing out urns and mosaics based on a conversation you had down the pub about ancient Greece. Turns out it’s the mastermind that’s one-upping the old ‘customer knows best’ adage.
Thing is, we live in a reality where a staggering 71% of consumers have a hankering for personalization so acute, they might as well be saying, “Anticipate my next move or I’m out.” And heaven forbid businesses don’t deliver on this craving for digital clairvoyancy, because in the same report by McKinsey & Company, it’s stated that 76% of shoppers will get frustrated when this doesn’t happen. It’s all about curating an entire shopping saga that feels like it’s been handcrafted just for you. The take-home is fairly clear, then, stark as it is: personalize or perish.
But what are the exact steps we can take as business owners to deliver this personalization?
Real-time experiences with AI
Retailers are stepping up their game, delivering personalized experiences that hit the mark every time. Take brands like RE-IN – they’re riding the AI wave to provide highly individualized experiences by crafting personalized landing pages and tailoring content and to each customer’s unique preferences. These touches go beyond the basics, creating a shopping experience that’s not just efficient but genuinely resonates with the person behind the screen. And the perks of integrating AI into your online shop don’t stop there.
AI is your personal shopping assistant that doesn’t just boost your sales, but practically anticipates your customers’ needs. Imagine someone types in “coffee,” and instead of bombarding them with every coffee-related knick-knack under the sun, your savvy AI knows they’re likely after the beans, not a table to inevitably spill them on. Or when “laptops” is the query, AI understands that you’re hunting down the latest tech and not the latest tack.
It means customers don’t have to wade through a digital swamp of irrelevance, and that’s because your online shop – with a little machine learning muscle – just gets it. It’s about the smarts of your site matching the smarts of your shoppers.
Personalized shopping experiences
For this bit, we’ll never not recommend Guided Selling. It’s a powerful tool for any business, subtly transforming your online store into a personal shopper. Picture this: a customer arrives, confused by all the choices. Then, the Guided Selling feature kicks in, asking just the right questions to narrow down the bewildering array of options. It’s like a conversational GPS for shopping, leading customers through a series of choices to that “aha” moment when they find exactly what they’re looking for. It’s efficient, it’s slick and it doesn’t beat around the bush. With each question and click, the AI refines its suggestions, ensuring that what your customer sees is what they’re likely to buy. No fuss, no faff – just a straight path to the checkout.
And no article is complete without going on about mobile
The mobile shopping arena is booming, with figures hitting a staggering $431 billion in 2022. And as Black Friday and Cyber Monday loom on the horizon, AI is stealing the spotlight, turning our smartphones into pocket-sized personal shoppers.
Think about it: the majority of us are now glued to our mobile screens, hunting for deals. In fact, a hefty 73% of purchases during the last Black Friday extravaganza were made via mobile, according to Shopify. So, what happens when a customer’s search for the perfect buy becomes a digital wild goose chase? They’ll bounce faster than you can type “artisanal toilet seat,” and potentially to a savvy competitor who’s bet their chips on AI to streamline the shopping spree. The message is loud and clear—if your eCommerce isn’t smart enough to lead the way, you’re playing a losing game.
Not to sound like a broken record, but harnessing one-to-one personalization is exactly how you avoid this outcome. It’s your not-so-secret search ingredient for peeking into the consumer’s mind, predicting their next move and crafting a shopping experience that feels like it’s been stitched together just for them. Brands that nail this personalized approach are looking at a Black Friday season with brisk sales and a fresh batch of loyal followers. But best of all, customers that just won’t quit.
And because we think it’s clever to reference the name of the article, you could say that AI personalization is completely changing the game for digital Black Friday sales.
With that in mind, if you’d like to learn more about how you can increase conversions this holiday season with AI-powered product discovery, then please get in touch. It’s what we do.
