Nov 29 : AI-powered shopping tools helped drive a surge in U.S. online spending on Black Friday, as shoppers bypassed crowded stores and turned to chatbots to compare prices and secure discounts amid concerns about tariff-driven price hikes.
U.S. shoppers spent a record $11.8 billion online, up 9.1 per cent from 2024 on the year’s biggest shopping day, according to Adobe Analytics, which tracks 1 trillion visits that shoppers make to online retail websites.
The holiday shopping season arrives amid tighter budgets, unemployment nearing a four-year high, U.S. consumer confidence sagging to a seven-month low and price tags that have shoppers watching every dollar.
Online shopping demand increased as consumers showed savviness in the holiday season, according to Mastercard SpendingPulse, which noted a 10.4 per cent growth in e-commerce sales on Black Friday, compared to an in-store sales growth of 1.7 per cent in 2024.
The AI-driven traffic to U.S. retail sites soared 805 per cent compared to last year, Adobe said, when artificial intelligence tools such as Walmart’s Sparky or Amazon’s Rufus had not yet been launched.
“Consumers are using new tools to get to what they need faster,” said Suzy Davidkhanian, an analyst at eMarketer. “Gift giving can be stressful, and LLMs (large language models) make the discovery process feel quicker and more guided.”
Hot sellers on Black Friday included LEGO sets, Pokemon cards, gaming consoles like the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 5, and products ranging from Apple AirPods to KitchenAid mixers.
AI AGENTS INFLUENCED $14.2 BILLION IN ONLINE SALES GLOBALLY
Globally, AI and agents influenced $14.2 billion in online sales on Black Friday, of which $3 billion came from the U.S. alone, according to software firm Salesforce.
Salesforce, whose data includes non-discretionary items like groceries, reported that U.S. consumers had spent $18 billion online on Black Friday purchases, up 3 per cent from a year ago, with luxury apparel and accessories among the most popular categories.
Although U.S. consumers spent more this Black Friday compared to last year, price increases hampered online demand, according to Salesforce, with shoppers purchasing fewer items at checkout compared to last year.
Discount rates also remained flat when compared to 2024, with AI helping shoppers discover the best deals, and an increase in the price tags made deeper discounts difficult for retailers.
Promotions and discounts may not feel as sharp as last year due to higher product costs driven by inflation and tariffs, according to Davidkhanian, and the final price doesn’t feel as compelling to shoppers.
The combination of higher prices and flat discounts means the real value of Black Friday bargains has slipped for consumers, according to Michael Ashley Schulman, the Chief Investment Officer at Running Point.
Order volumes fell 1 per cent as average selling prices rose 7 per cent. Consumers also purchased fewer items at checkout, with units per transaction falling 2 per cent on a year-over-year basis, Salesforce said.
“There are two things driving up the average selling price in the United States,” said Caila Schwartz, director of consumer insights at Salesforce.
“The first is absolutely the impact of tariffs, especially on those discretionary categories where we’ve seen a lot of growth in selling price. The other is the fact that we’re seeing a much stronger higher-income earner than average-income earner, evidenced by the strength in the luxury category,” she added.
The spending surge sets the stage for an even bigger Cyber Monday, projected to drive $14.2 billion in sales, up 6.3 per cent on a year-over-year basis and the largest online shopping day of the year, Adobe said. Electronics are expected to see the deepest discounts on Cyber Monday, reaching 30 per cent off list prices, along with strong deals on apparel and computers, Adobe said.
At physical stores, however, the bargain-chasing was relatively subdued on Black Friday, with some shoppers saying they feared overspending amid persistent inflation, trade-driven uncertainty, and a soft labor market.
