Navigating Black Friday in the Age of AI
Peter Jackson
Content Lead
Although Black Friday has been a thing in the US since the ‘50s, nobody here in the UK had heard much about it until 2010. As you might imagine, Amazon was the first eCommerce retailer to make Black Friday a big deal in Britain – and others have been scrambling to keep up with them ever since.
Black Friday gets more and more significant with each passing year; online spending in the UK reached an estimated £1.12bn in 2024, a 7.2% increase on the previous year. And we’re willing to bet that 2025’s statistics will tell a similar story.
But something is different this year. AI has gone from being a new, experimental tool to an established part of our everyday lives. It’s everywhere we look, from customer service chatbots to search engines and social posts. You could argue that this is the first Black Friday of the AI era.
In this guide, we’re going to explain what that means for eCommerce brands like yours. As well as covering how AI is transforming the way Black Friday and Cyber Monday work, we’ll offer some tips to help you take full advantage of its potential – and avoid any potential pitfalls. Let’s get started.
This Black Friday is the first true test of AI’s role in ecommerce. From smarter predictions and better customer service to faster, more personalised shopping journeys, AI is changing the game. But it’s not all plug-and-play. Our guide breaks down the tools, the benefits and the blind spots to watch out for.
Us marketers tend to live in a bubble. We use AI day in, day out, often not realising how much we’ve come to rely on it. In reality though, it’s made a massive impact on the way events like Black Friday are planned, managed and analysed.
When you understand how AI tools work, it’s easy to understand why they’re so good at making predictions. With bias and subjectivity removed from the equation, AI tools are able to analyse your previous sales data, current industry trends and survey data to bring you a well-rounded prediction of how your Black Friday is likely to unfold.
We’re not saying ChatGPT is a crystal ball in disguise – but it can make some well-educated guesses that can really help you refine your approach to Black Friday. And the more data you feed it – the more specific your prompts are – the more insightful the response is likely to be.
Black Friday has a reputation for being a little unhinged. Hordes of customers fighting over half-price TVs, or scalpers desperately trying to pick up deals on the latest tech so they can resell it on eBay straight afterwards – that’s the kind of image that often springs to mind.
With such a high volume of people looking for the right deal on the right product – all at the same time – it can be a nightmare for customer service agents to keep up. AI chatbots can help with this issue, acting as a personal shopper to help guide each and every customer to the right products.
A smooth, seamless experience is every bit as important on Black Friday as it is on every other day of the year. Low prices alone aren’t enough – because your competitors will be dropping their prices too. AI tools can not only save you time, but deliver an effortless, personalised experience for your customers, giving you a valuable edge over your eCom rivals.
AI isn’t just useful for strategising and managing Black Friday – it’s pretty good at analysing the data afterwards too.
Planning for next year’s Black Friday starts by analysing how this year’s has gone – and AI can make that process a whole lot easier. Feed your chosen tool plenty of data and ask it for insights, and you never know what it might pick up on. Even if it notices one thing you’d otherwise have missed, this piece of information could help you refine your strategy for the following year. All this stuff adds up.
So, now we’ve established just how instrumental AI can be to your success this Black Friday, let’s run through some tools you should consider using – and how they can benefit you.
We’ve all used them, so they don’t really need much of an introduction – but they can be the perfect sidekick on a hectic day like Black Friday. Need any last minute tweaks making to some content, or a little inspiration for a spur of the moment social post? Maybe even some kind of graphic or image for your website?
Whatever you need, AI can help. Even if you use an LLM just for ideas and pointers, it can still save you valuable time. And time is money, after all.
Klaviyo is so much more than just an email marketing tool – that’s why we always rave about it here at Brave. Its AI functionality makes segmenting audiences and crafting personalised emails so much easier, allowing you to make your marketing work harder before, during and after the big day.
AI functionality is built into the majority of CRM systems nowadays, so use it to your advantage. Not only can it help you streamline processes – keeping your company as agile as possible on key dates like Black Friday – this AI functionality can bring you vital insights into how your customers are interacting with your site as the day progresses. This gives you time to adapt your strategy in real time, shifting your approach to suit what your customers are looking for.
As we mentioned previously, keeping up with customers’ questions on Black Friday can be a huge challenge. AI-powered chatbots can help alleviate much of that pressure, saving you time and keeping your customers happy in the process. If that’s not a win-win, we don’t know what is.
Although AI is largely a force for good on Black Friday, it’s not without its limitations – and care should be taken to avoid relying on it or overusing it.
Unsure if you’re ready to make the most of AI this Black Friday? Want advice and guidance to help you take full advantage of every tool in your arsenal? That’s what we’re here to help with.
More than 25 years of eCom experience has taught us a lot about what works and what doesn’t on Black Friday – and we’ve been using the latest and greatest AI tools from the minute they hit the market. Speak to us today to find out more about how we could help your brand thrive this Black Friday.
