Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales are right around the corner.
That means it’s time for shoppers everywhere to score the hottest deals on the planet.
The online shopping world has become a downright frenzy during these wild sales days.
Consumers spent a record $9.12 billion online during Black Friday 2022 alone, according to Adobe Analytics.
That’s a lot of potential sales for your e-commerce business!
By bringing artificial intelligence tools on board, retailers can get to know shoppers on a personal level.
Think custom deals, predicting what they want next, and taking care of tedious behind-the-scenes work.
You can use Pictory as part of a more efficient sales process powered by AI, and during the BFCM period you’ll also get 40% off all annual plans!
TL;DR
AI boosts e-commerce sales for businesses through automation, personalization, website optimization, and data analysis.
Sentiment analysis and chatbots provide customer insights.
AI optimizes campaign timing and targeting.
Recommendation engines enable personalized upsells and optimized pricing.
AI enhances shopping experiences.
Utilizing AI optimizes email marketing and customer retention.
AI uncovers post-campaign insights to inform future strategy.
AI-Powered Tools for Enhancing E-Commerce Sales
With more folks opting to do their holiday shopping from the comfort of their home, e-commerce businesses have a prime opportunity to score major sales this Black Friday and Cyber Monday season.
But you need the right tools in your arsenal if you want to stand out from the noise and convince shoppers to hit that buy button.
Artificial intelligence allows e-commerce retailers to work smarter, not harder.
It lends a hand with tedious tasks like cranking out online content and product descriptions.
Meanwhile, AI makes each shopper feel special with personalized deals and recommendations.
Retailers can also use AI to optimize their e-commerce websites and get their marketing A-game on.
And get this – AI can study historical data to figure out what your customers want to buy before they even know it!
With capabilities like these, AI gives your online business a leg up on the competition.
Let’s explore some real-world examples of AI platforms that can seriously boost your Black Friday and Cyber Monday promos:
Pictory
Pictory’s AI software takes the friction out of video editing so anyone can make professional promos.
Our Edit Video with Text feature is as simple as it sounds, and is the perfect solution for creating product videos with your own footage of your software or product.
AI automatically generates a transcript of your video, and you can edit that transcript, add text graphics, and create your video promo in just a few clicks.
Use Pictory to make social post videos that grab attention this season.
You can also create videos from text, thanks to our library or free-to-use clips and images.
So if you have a great email script, or a webpage with copy that converts, it’s easy to multiply those sales with video content.
Simply enter your text, and a video will be generated for you in minutes.
Lumen5
Videos are hands-down the best way to highlight your hottest products, but quality production takes a lot of money and time.
Get your resources back with Lumen5!
This clever tool uses AI to effortlessly whip up engaging videos from simple text, images, and audio.
Perfect for promoting all your Cyber Monday steals on social media!
Adobe Sensei
Adobe Sensei brings the brains of AI to delight potential customers and step up marketing.
Integrated into Adobe’s hallmark products (like Photoshop, Lightroom, etc.), it relies on smart analytics to study how visitors interact with your experiences.
Generate customer insights to customize content for each shopper.
Adobe Sensei also has “not-quite-AI” features like automated captions for videos and background removal for images, saving you even more time in the content creation process.
Clarifai
Clarifai uses a cutting-edge branch of AI called computer vision.
It can use your videos, text, and images to create a multichannel customer experience.
For instance, it allows customers to find the products they’re looking for by searching with an image instead of keywords.
It can also help in visual search and image recognition, making it easier for customers to find what they want and boosting sales.
Renderforest
Renderforest has pre-made video templates to produce on-brand promo clips quickly and without hassle.
Just add your logo, images, and message to the AI-powered templates tailored for the e-commerce industry.
Deepart
Deepart uses AI to transform regular photos into unique artworks that look like famous paintings.
Use it to create artsy banners and social posts that stand out against the Black Friday/Cyber Monday noise.
What’s nice is you can export to other software to refine your creations and use them on all e-commerce platforms.
Leveraging AI for Customer Insights and Sentiment Analysis
To connect with shoppers this holiday season, you need to really understand what makes your customers tick.
Their preferences, opinions, and behaviors hold the key.
While old-school surveys and focus groups could provide some intel, artificial intelligence now enables brands to gain game-changing customer intelligence.
Sentiment analysis tools like IBM Watson use machine learning to mine data from product reviews, social media, forums, and other sources.
And natural language processing focuses on the words, phrases, and context to determine if a review or comment is positive, negative, or neutral.
It reveals how customers truly feel about your company.
AI chatbots like Flow XO engage website visitors in real-time convos.
They gather customer feedback by chatting with visitors as they browse.
With natural language processing, bots can detect the nuances in our messages.
Other bots let you survey customers about their Black Friday and Cyber Monday, so you know how you can improve next year.
Standout benefits
With these tricks up your sleeve, you can:
Detect Pain Points: Improve customer service, shopping experience, and product issues with machine learning.
You want to address inefficiencies before the sales kick-off.Monitor Your Brand: Keep tabs on brand perception and track changes in sentiment.
Dissect Reviews: Figure out your most praised and criticized products to optimize deals and promos.
Refine Strategy: Use machine learning algorithms to see which products, deals, and content hit home with your audience.
Update Buyer Profiles: Create detailed buyer personas based on demographics, values, interests, and behaviors.
Forecast Demand: Predict demand surges for trending products to have enough inventory.
Smart Campaigns and Customer Interactions Using AI
Launching rockstar omni-channel promotions for Black Friday through Cyber Monday takes lots of time and resources.
The uncertainty around timing and targeting makes it tricky.
Machine learning eliminates guesswork from campaigns by predicting the best timing and audiences.
Of course, you can use the king of search engines, Google Analytics‘ Predictive Engine, to uncover this season’s trends and customer behavior.
With deep learning models, analytics platforms can predict customer behavior and e-commerce sales patterns.
That allows you to make smart, data-backed decisions on budgets, platforms, creatives, and timing.
Intelligent ad platforms like AdRoll tap real-time customer data to serve up dynamic ads personalized to each shopper.
AI technology matches your products and deals with individual interests for higher engagement.
No more wasted ad spends!
For email marketing, AI platforms like Mailchimp suggest the perfect send times for each subscriber group.
The AI platform also knows which content different users want to see, so you can optimize your newsletter.
With machine learning taking over the busy work, your team is freed up to focus on creative messaging and strategy.
AI in Upselling, Cross-Selling, and Inventory Management
Upselling and cross-selling are key for pushing up order values.
But guessing which add-ons each customer might like is an uphill battle.
AI-powered recommendation engines fix this through data-backed personalization.
Salesforce Einstein studies individual purchase histories and patterns to serve up relevant upsell offers.
This context-aware approach increases order values and conversion rates.
E-commerce giants like Amazon tap into millions of customer interactions to uncover complementary purchases.
The “Frequently Bought Together” suggestions come from this collected intelligence.
Another touchy subject is pricing.
You want to follow the BFCM spirit and offer incredible deals.
But you must also turn a profit.
Competera‘s AI-driven dynamic pricing adjusts costs based on demand, inventory, and competitor data.
This optimizes pricing to drive sales.
Shoppers feel they’re getting personalized deals.
Standout benefits
In short, artificial intelligence can help you with:
Next-Item Recommendations: Propose upgraded models or higher tiers of items customers are browsing.
Complementary Products: Prompt shoppers to add products typically purchased together, like cameras and memory cards.
Replenishment Reminders: Notify customers to restock consumables like skin care.
Dynamic Pricing: Adjust pricing on complementary products like phone cases when someone purchases a smartphone.
Preference Mapping: Spot categories and products to promote based on purchase history. Recommend phone accessories to past smartphone buyers.
Real-time Nudges: Urge purchase of items lingering in carts and wish lists.
Enhancing Online Shopping Experiences with AI
AI takes shopping to the next level by understanding what users want and making it easy to find relevant products.
Platforms like Algolia enable hyper-relevant search and recommendations through AI optimization.
Adobe Experience Manager builds shopper profiles with AI and displays personalized content.
Shoppers feel special when sites serve up content tailored just for them.
Take a look at how DICK’s sporting goods delivered personalized content to 150 million users with it!
For you, AI means superior inventory management.
Blue Yonder uses AI to forecast customer requests, monitor stock, and gain insights to align supply with dynamic requirements.
Standout benefits
Here are some clever ways AI enriches the customer experience:
Personalized Recommendations: Serve up suggestions based on individual shoppers’ history and activity.
Advanced Search: Use AI technology to improve product findability through conversational queries and visual search.
Virtual Assistants: Guide shoppers with chatbots that answer questions.
Virtual assistants can also recommend products.
They are also a lot less expensive than live support agents.Predictive Inventory: Forecast demand surges and inventory needs at a granular level to meet availability requirements.
Logistics Optimization: AI enables dynamic shipment routing and mode selection to accelerate deliveries.
Fraud Prevention: Detect fraudulent transactions by evaluating location, access patterns, and more to reduce friction.
AI-Driven Email Marketing and Customer Retention
Email is still one of the highest ROI digital channels.
That makes it very useful for driving conversions during the sales holidays.
With AI’s help, you can optimize emails to engage existing customers and boost sales.
For instance, HubSpot’s AI creates hyper-personalized segments based on engagement metrics, interests, and behaviors.
Send tailored emails to each group for higher open and click rates.
And Persado analyzes emotions and writing to generate emails with maximum impact.
Need proof? Take a look at how Charles Schwab achieved a 6x increase in engagement using Adobe’s Marketo.
Standout benefits
By tapping customer data like email history, purchases, site activity, and more, AI engines can:
Predict Churn: Spot subscribers most likely to unsubscribe and woo them back.
Customer Segmentation: Divide subscribers into specific groups based on behaviors, interests, and attributes to personalize messaging.
Generate Content: Craft targeted subject lines, pre-headers, and copy tailored to each group.
Determine Send Times: Analyze open and engagement rates by the subscriber to pick ideal send times.
Recommend Products: Suggest relevant offers for each contact based on purchase models.
Measure Performance: Provide campaign insights to refine strategy.
Trigger Journeys: Orchestrate multi-touch email series to re-engage and convert customers post-purchase.
Preparing for Future Black Friday/Cyber Monday Sales with AI
While Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales are short, the work doesn’t end once they wrap up.
With granular data, you can continually fine-tune strategy for future wins.
Tableau’s data visualization surfaces hidden trends and patterns from campaign performance data.
The AI-generated insights derived inform planning for next year.
Also, by integrating AI into CRM platforms like Zoho and Salesforce, you enrich customer profiles over time.
This expanding databank powers hyper-personalization to retain and reward customer loyalty.
Finally, FuturMaster uses AI models to forecast demand, brand sentiment, and market dynamics.
These insights optimize inventory, marketing budgets, merchandising, and more for upcoming BFCM campaigns.
The more prepared online retailers are, the bigger the payout!
Conclusion: Adopt AI to Boost BFCM Wins
The time is now for e-commerce businesses to harness AI’s potential to excel this Black Friday through Cyber Monday.
The examples here show how AI can optimize marketing, sales, and operations to attract and delight deal-crazy shoppers!
Even basic AI chatbots make a big impact thanks to their 24/7 availability.
Investing in AI-driven tech will future-proof your e-commerce business with data-fueled insights and automation.
Decision-making can shift from guesswork to predictive analytics.
Ready to get started with AI?
Sign up or upgrade your Pictory account today to gain instant access to our tools.
FAQs
How does AI enhance the BFCM shopping experience?
AI allows retailers to deliver personalized product recommendations, streamlined checkout, and tailored promotions for each individual shopper.
This results in more enjoyable shopping that builds loyalty.
Is Natural Language Processing useful in creating promotional content for BFCM?
Absolutely! AI tools can generate product descriptions, email campaigns, social media posts, and video ads tailored to your brand voice and audience.
This automates repetitive tasks while optimizing engagement.
How can e-commerce businesses prepare for future BFCM sales using AI?
AI analyzes past customer behavior, historical sales data, and market dynamics to predict future demand across products.
With these data-driven insights, e-commerce businesses can optimize inventory management, marketing strategies, partnerships, and overall readiness for future BFCM wins.
