By Aishwarya Venugopal and Arriana McLymore
(Reuters) -After lackluster spending in U.S. stores on a deal-filled Black Friday, retailers are pulling out all the stops with big deals and discounts on their websites and apps to entice people to buy gifts Christmas gifts and other merchandise after the long Thanksgiving weekend. .
Retailers have been persuading wary American shoppers on Cyber Monday, traditionally the biggest day of online shopping in the United States, with push notifications, emails and other ads promoting cosmetics, electronics, toys, clothing and other products. with great discounts.
With only 23 days until Christmas, this year's discounts have been greater and buyers expect days of great promotions, according to experts. For example, Aim (NYSE:) said it was offering 50% off thousands of items, including video games, home decor and other tech items, with a two-day “Cyber Monday” sale that began Sunday.
The measures follow a mixed holiday season so far, with reduced spending in stores on key shopping days such as Black Friday. Sales at physical stores grew just 0.7% year-over-year on Friday, according to preliminary estimates from payment processor Mastercard (NYSE:). Meanwhile, data firm Facteus said sales were actually lower.
Online, retailers like Walmart (NYSE:) and amazon (NASDAQ:) have relied on generative ai search and customer service features to make it easier for shoppers to find products on websites and mobile apps.
Cheyenne Berens, 29, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, has been using Rufus, amazon's generative ai chatbot, to track prices on electronics and baby products this holiday season. amazon launched Rufus in February to provide customers with product recommendations and details based on its entire merchandise catalog.
“I have found that using Rufus on amazon has been extremely helpful in determining whether a 'deal' is really a 'deal,'” Berens said. You've been following the fluctuating prices of a Pack 'n' Play portable playpen and waiting for the right time to buy it. The price started at $90 before the holidays, briefly rose to $120 and dropped back to $90, he said.
Caila Schwartz, chief consumer insights officer at Salesforce (NYSE:), a cloud computing company that tracks global purchasing data for more than 1.5 billion consumers, said GenAI tools, such as chatbots, to respond to basic questions from online shoppers, such as product inquiries, helped retailers protect their profit margins despite rising costs.
On Saturday, retailers that used GenAI tools for customer service saw a 15% higher purchase rate from users, according to Salesforce estimates. Schwartz said the so-called higher conversion rate is a “game changer.”
Online spending on Monday in the United States is expected to reach $13.2 billion, up 6% from Cyber Monday a year ago, according to preliminary estimates from Adobe (NASDAQ:) Inc. That outlay would follow the roughly $10,800 billion dollars Americans spent online on Black Friday, according to Adobe.
<img src="https://technicalterrence.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/US-retailers-aim-to-cash-in-on-Cyber-Monday-with.jpg" title="© Reuters. Workers select products during Cyber Monday at the amazon fulfillment center in Robbinsville, New Jersey, U.S., December 2, 2024. REUTERS/” alt=”© Reuters. Workers select products during Cyber Monday at the amazon fulfillment center in Robbinsville, New Jersey, U.S., December 2, 2024. REUTERS/” rel=”external-image”/>
Traffic to retail sites from chatbots or shoppers clicking on a link to a website increased 1,800% from Black Friday through the weekend, Adobe said.
As many Americans have recently taken on more debt, many are using third-party “buy now, pay later” services, and spending on those services is likely approaching $1 billion, according to projections from Adobe, which tracks devices that use its software to help drive more than 1 billion visits to US retail sites.
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