With the support of AI chatbots, this year's "Black Friday" in the USA saw online retail websites "selling out".

Data shows that on "Black Friday" (local time November 29th), during the period from 10 AM to 2 PM, average online consumption per minute for shoppers in the usa reached 11.3 million USD.

The total online sales for "Black Friday" reached 10.8 billion USD, setting a historic high and surpassing the sales level of physical stores during the same period.

The key factor behind the surge in traffic and sales on retail websites is AI.

AI chatbots can simulate interactions between people, helping users quickly find discounts, compare products, and complete checkout, significantly enhancing the shopping experience for consumers. According to adobe Analytics, compared to the previous year, AI chatbots provided a 1800% increase in traffic to retail websites.

Salesforce statistics show that during this year's "Black Friday" period, the usage of AI-driven online chat services increased by 31% year-on-year. Salesforce Consumer Insights Director Caila Schwartz stated, "Compared to digital retailers not using generative AI and AI Agent technology, retailers utilizing these technologies have a conversion rate that is 9% higher."

Generally, "Black Friday" marks the beginning of the end-of-year holiday sales peak in the usa.

Adobe Analytics estimates that during the "Cyber Week" composed of Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday, the total online consumption will reach 40.6 billion dollars, a year-on-year increase of 7%.

OpenAI, Amazon, and Walmart have successively laid out their strategies, and e-commerce has become the core track for AI commercialization.

According to media reports, last year on Black Friday, a consumer used an AI price comparison app to buy an iPad for his daughter, successfully saving 50 dollars. This year, planning to buy a Barbie doll for his daughter, he intends to use multiple AI applications for price comparison, aiming to save 30%.

Indeed, before this "trend," American consumers who wanted to buy the most cost-effective discounted commodities might need to line up outside Best Buy or Walmart for hours before the stores open.$Best Buy (BBY.US)$Now, consumers have started using AI tools like ChatGPT to complete their shopping.

Before this year's Black Friday, a survey conducted by the research institution Attest on 2,000 consumers showed that 44% of potential Black Friday shoppers plan to use AI this year.

Multiple AI companies, including OpenAI and Perplexity AI, have recently expanded their search and shopping functions to attract consumers. Perplexity AI revealed that the search volume around "Black Friday" and "Cyber Monday" has significantly increased recently.

Meanwhile, $Amazon (AMZN.US)$ 、 $Walmart (WMT.US)$ Retailers are also using AI to simplify shopping and find discounts for consumers. "I do think this foreshadows future trends," said John David Rainey, chief financial officer of walmart, in a recent interview, admitting that Walmart is committed to developing AI tools to optimize commodity searches.

Today, e-commerce has become a core track for the commercialization of AI, with rich application scenarios for AI on both the supply side (writing emails, optimizing listings, after-sales service, etc.) and demand side (recommendation systems, voice assistants, image search, etc.).

Fangzheng Securities pointed out that with the continuous iteration of AI technology, the ongoing enrichment of related functions is expected to drive the penetration rate to continue rising. Platform-based enterprises with AI service capabilities are also expected to form new differentiated advantages through product stickiness, further consolidating their market share and achieving industry leadership.

Editor/Rocky