AI: a key ally for a brand to shine during Black Week and Christmas
Posted: Thu Dec 26, 2024 6:31 am
The holiday season is a key time for retailers and brands, with 40% of major companies generating more than 10% of their annual revenue from e-commerce. While consumers are increasingly tending to shop early, 71% plan to shop online during Black Friday, and 70% will actively seek out deals during Cyber Week. Google also reveals that 20% of holiday spending occurs in the 10 days leading up to Christmas.
Faced with this scenario, brands must ask themselves: how can I get buyers to choose my products in this highly competitive period?
If we look at Generation Z or millennials, we know that they prefer to do their Christmas shopping in physical stores. However, Generation X and baby boomers tend to opt for online shopping. In addition, 37% of consumers will combine purchases from both physical and online outlets. What is interesting is that 2 out of 5 people plan to use AI to locate the products they want.
Making it easier to discover new products and speeding up the search for the best deals are crucial aspects for consumers who will turn to AI in their purchasing decisions. Today, marketers are responsible for optimizing the increasingly complex customer journey, and AI can be a key tool in this process.
NP Digital's 'Putting the AI in retail 2024' study summarises consumer expectations during this season of maximum advertising pressure and shows us how to meet them, or even exceed them, with the best digital marketing strategy.
1. Omnichannel shopping
It is essential that our brand accompanies the consumer throughout their daily journey. 76% of online consumers use, on average, more than three channels throughout the day. Increasingly, the discovery, consideration and purchase phases take place on social networks, which makes it essential for us to be present in these environments to capture the attention of our potential customers.
2. Attractive offers
Last year, 2 out of 3 shoppers delayed their purchases until retailers offered discounts. In the United States, 66% of consumers consider competitive prices and promotions to be their main motivation when deciding on their Christmas purchases.
3. Shopping anytime, anywhere
Mobile is undoubtedly king this holiday season. It is estimated that during the holiday season, purchases made via mobile devices will outnumber those made on computers or laptops. In fact, mobile transactions are expected to account for 53.2% of online purchases this holiday season. And not all purchases will be gifts: 50% of holiday shoppers will also buy for themselves during this period.
4. Personalized experiences
Consumers increasingly value tailored offerings that fit their personal needs, preferences and tastes. 75% of shoppers are willing to pay more for personalized online shopping experiences that truly add value to them.
To meet or even exceed these expectations, AI becomes an essential ally, allowing brands to grow quickly, efficiently and accurately. But how can retailers make the most of this technology? Below are some of its key applications:
1. Prepare for the season
AI can provide demand forecasts by analyzing historical sales data, internet search trends, social media conversations, or external factors such as the weather. With this information, retailers can detect which products will be most in demand and dynamically adjust prices based on demand, competition, and inventory levels. In this way, retailers can stay competitive and maximize margins, as well as design more targeted marketing campaigns using customer profiles enriched by AI’s ability to synthesize data from multiple sources.
2. AI on the web
Incorporating AI functionalities into our websites can generate significant benefits:
Designing a more dynamic user experience (UX), further personalizing the interaction with users, which can multiply the return on marketing investment by 5 to 8 times and increase sales by more than 10%.
Increase conversions through programmatic conversion process optimization (CRO) .
Listen to users so they get the information they are looking for quickly , optimizing product descriptions based on the most common consumer comments.
Integrating technologies such as Augmented Reality or virtual try-ons, which allow buyers to view items in real life without leaving home. It is estimated that these technologies can increase sales by up to 30% and reduce returns by 20%.
3. AI in email marketing campaigns
Email marketing influences 59% of purchasing decisions. While the average open rate is 16.97% across all industries, AI can help improve these numbers. AI systems are revolutionizing email marketing by optimizing sending times and personalizing content to increase engagement and conversion rates, reducing cart abandonment. In addition, AI allows for generating and testing multiple variations of email subject lines and adapting to individual user preferences over time.
As if that weren't enough, AI is also essential for performing predictive analytics, automating A/B testing, and analyzing campaign performance.
4. AI in ads
According to an analysis by NP Digital, human-generated creatives outperformed AI-generated creatives in 68.3% of cases. However, AI was able to improve conversion rate by 75.7%. This analysis involved running different ad sets on Facebook for 28 businesses, taking the winning human-created variations and allowing AI to generate multiple versions of them. The AI-created variants won 75.7% of the time, proving that applying AI to ad creative significantly increases conversion.
5. AI in social media campaigns
Social media has become the new search engine. 80% of users discover new products on platforms like Instagram, TikTok and YouTube thanks to hashtags, influencer posts or videos. This Christmas, it is expected that 20% of consumers will buy gifts through social media. NP Digital recommends taking advantage of the AI tools that each platform offers.
On TikTok, for example, you can use the Symphony Creative Studio , which generates engaging videos highlighting products, with voiceovers in multiple languages.
For influencer marketing campaigns, AI helps find the most suitable partners, personalize content, predict campaign performance and optimize it in real time. Chatbots also play an important role, as conversations through platforms like Facebook Messenger generate 30% more return on investment (ROI) than retargeting ads.
6. AI in product discovery
For a brand to be mentioned by AI models like ChatGPT, NP Digital has identified six key factors: relevance, brand mentions, reviews, history, authority and recommendations. They also recommend focusing on image and voice searches, allowing users to interact with search engines more naturally, using spoken language and images rather than written text. 50% of consumers in the US use voice assistants on a daily basis, and Google Lens processes more than 10 billion visual searches per month.
To optimize voice search strategies, you can use colloquial keywords, focus albania whatsapp lead on local businesses (76% of voice searches are of this type), and adapt ad texts to be clear and direct, suitable to be read aloud by virtual assistants.
As for visual search, it is advisable to take advantage of dynamic ads, exploit tools such as Google's Performance Max and perform advanced segmentation based on previous use of technologies such as Lens or Pinterest.
Conclusions
Retailers and e-commerce face a highly competitive shopping season.
Being present on all channels is essential to capture attention and drive sales.
Adopting AI is critical to optimizing campaigns and achieving success.
About NP Digital:
Co-founded by Neil Patel, a New York Times bestselling author and one of the most influential marketing professionals in the world according to The Wall Street Journal and Forbes, NP Digital is a performance marketing agency focused on offering solutions to large and mid-sized companies with high growth objectives. Supported by its technology division and the Ubersuggest marketing platform, NP Digital has positioned itself as one of the fastest growing and internationally recognized agencies in the industry. Its approach to marketing is consultative and holistic, applying specialized solutions to cross-cutting business challenges, which makes them strategic partners for their clients, among others: Fortune 500 companies and leaders in their sectors and regions. NP Digital has a presence in 19 countries with more than 800 employees worldwide.
Faced with this scenario, brands must ask themselves: how can I get buyers to choose my products in this highly competitive period?
If we look at Generation Z or millennials, we know that they prefer to do their Christmas shopping in physical stores. However, Generation X and baby boomers tend to opt for online shopping. In addition, 37% of consumers will combine purchases from both physical and online outlets. What is interesting is that 2 out of 5 people plan to use AI to locate the products they want.
Making it easier to discover new products and speeding up the search for the best deals are crucial aspects for consumers who will turn to AI in their purchasing decisions. Today, marketers are responsible for optimizing the increasingly complex customer journey, and AI can be a key tool in this process.
NP Digital's 'Putting the AI in retail 2024' study summarises consumer expectations during this season of maximum advertising pressure and shows us how to meet them, or even exceed them, with the best digital marketing strategy.
1. Omnichannel shopping
It is essential that our brand accompanies the consumer throughout their daily journey. 76% of online consumers use, on average, more than three channels throughout the day. Increasingly, the discovery, consideration and purchase phases take place on social networks, which makes it essential for us to be present in these environments to capture the attention of our potential customers.
2. Attractive offers
Last year, 2 out of 3 shoppers delayed their purchases until retailers offered discounts. In the United States, 66% of consumers consider competitive prices and promotions to be their main motivation when deciding on their Christmas purchases.
3. Shopping anytime, anywhere
Mobile is undoubtedly king this holiday season. It is estimated that during the holiday season, purchases made via mobile devices will outnumber those made on computers or laptops. In fact, mobile transactions are expected to account for 53.2% of online purchases this holiday season. And not all purchases will be gifts: 50% of holiday shoppers will also buy for themselves during this period.
4. Personalized experiences
Consumers increasingly value tailored offerings that fit their personal needs, preferences and tastes. 75% of shoppers are willing to pay more for personalized online shopping experiences that truly add value to them.
To meet or even exceed these expectations, AI becomes an essential ally, allowing brands to grow quickly, efficiently and accurately. But how can retailers make the most of this technology? Below are some of its key applications:
1. Prepare for the season
AI can provide demand forecasts by analyzing historical sales data, internet search trends, social media conversations, or external factors such as the weather. With this information, retailers can detect which products will be most in demand and dynamically adjust prices based on demand, competition, and inventory levels. In this way, retailers can stay competitive and maximize margins, as well as design more targeted marketing campaigns using customer profiles enriched by AI’s ability to synthesize data from multiple sources.
2. AI on the web
Incorporating AI functionalities into our websites can generate significant benefits:
Designing a more dynamic user experience (UX), further personalizing the interaction with users, which can multiply the return on marketing investment by 5 to 8 times and increase sales by more than 10%.
Increase conversions through programmatic conversion process optimization (CRO) .
Listen to users so they get the information they are looking for quickly , optimizing product descriptions based on the most common consumer comments.
Integrating technologies such as Augmented Reality or virtual try-ons, which allow buyers to view items in real life without leaving home. It is estimated that these technologies can increase sales by up to 30% and reduce returns by 20%.
3. AI in email marketing campaigns
Email marketing influences 59% of purchasing decisions. While the average open rate is 16.97% across all industries, AI can help improve these numbers. AI systems are revolutionizing email marketing by optimizing sending times and personalizing content to increase engagement and conversion rates, reducing cart abandonment. In addition, AI allows for generating and testing multiple variations of email subject lines and adapting to individual user preferences over time.
As if that weren't enough, AI is also essential for performing predictive analytics, automating A/B testing, and analyzing campaign performance.
4. AI in ads
According to an analysis by NP Digital, human-generated creatives outperformed AI-generated creatives in 68.3% of cases. However, AI was able to improve conversion rate by 75.7%. This analysis involved running different ad sets on Facebook for 28 businesses, taking the winning human-created variations and allowing AI to generate multiple versions of them. The AI-created variants won 75.7% of the time, proving that applying AI to ad creative significantly increases conversion.
5. AI in social media campaigns
Social media has become the new search engine. 80% of users discover new products on platforms like Instagram, TikTok and YouTube thanks to hashtags, influencer posts or videos. This Christmas, it is expected that 20% of consumers will buy gifts through social media. NP Digital recommends taking advantage of the AI tools that each platform offers.
On TikTok, for example, you can use the Symphony Creative Studio , which generates engaging videos highlighting products, with voiceovers in multiple languages.
For influencer marketing campaigns, AI helps find the most suitable partners, personalize content, predict campaign performance and optimize it in real time. Chatbots also play an important role, as conversations through platforms like Facebook Messenger generate 30% more return on investment (ROI) than retargeting ads.
6. AI in product discovery
For a brand to be mentioned by AI models like ChatGPT, NP Digital has identified six key factors: relevance, brand mentions, reviews, history, authority and recommendations. They also recommend focusing on image and voice searches, allowing users to interact with search engines more naturally, using spoken language and images rather than written text. 50% of consumers in the US use voice assistants on a daily basis, and Google Lens processes more than 10 billion visual searches per month.
To optimize voice search strategies, you can use colloquial keywords, focus albania whatsapp lead on local businesses (76% of voice searches are of this type), and adapt ad texts to be clear and direct, suitable to be read aloud by virtual assistants.
As for visual search, it is advisable to take advantage of dynamic ads, exploit tools such as Google's Performance Max and perform advanced segmentation based on previous use of technologies such as Lens or Pinterest.
Conclusions
Retailers and e-commerce face a highly competitive shopping season.
Being present on all channels is essential to capture attention and drive sales.
Adopting AI is critical to optimizing campaigns and achieving success.
About NP Digital:
Co-founded by Neil Patel, a New York Times bestselling author and one of the most influential marketing professionals in the world according to The Wall Street Journal and Forbes, NP Digital is a performance marketing agency focused on offering solutions to large and mid-sized companies with high growth objectives. Supported by its technology division and the Ubersuggest marketing platform, NP Digital has positioned itself as one of the fastest growing and internationally recognized agencies in the industry. Its approach to marketing is consultative and holistic, applying specialized solutions to cross-cutting business challenges, which makes them strategic partners for their clients, among others: Fortune 500 companies and leaders in their sectors and regions. NP Digital has a presence in 19 countries with more than 800 employees worldwide.