AI shopping tools push Black Friday 2025 to $11.8B in US online sales
Black Friday 2025 set a new online record: $11.8 billion in U.S. spending. Shoppers skipped crowded stores and let AI shopping tools do the heavy lifting. Traffic sourced from these assistants jumped an estimated 805% year over year as new agents like Walmart's Sparky and Amazon's Rufus went mainstream.
There's a clear pattern: people spent more while buying fewer items. Salesforce data points to order volumes down 1%, average selling prices up 7%, and units per transaction down 2% year over year-classic price sensitivity behavior.
Globally, AI agents influenced about $14.2 billion in online sales on Black Friday, with roughly $3 billion from the U.S. Adobe expects an even bigger Cyber Monday at $14.2 billion in sales, up 6.3% from last year.
Top sellers tell a familiar story: LEGO sets, Pokémon cards, Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 5 consoles, and staples from Apple AirPods to KitchenAid mixers. As one shopper, Lesliee Antonette of Los Angeles, put it while grabbing an ice cream maker for her mom: "I got a good deal on the ice cream maker, but I was very aware of prices on everything in the store."
Why this matters for sales teams
AI shopping agents are now a real demand channel. They parse product attributes, pricing, reviews, and availability faster than any human, then route buyers to the shortest path to value.
With fewer units per transaction and higher ASPs, your conversion now hinges on clarity, perceived value, and frictionless checkout. If your data feed or PDPs are sloppy, you're invisible to these agents-even with a solid offer.
Move now: fast checklist for Cyber Monday and Q4
- Structure your product data: bulletproof titles, specs, dimensions, compatibility, and rich attributes. Add schema markup so assistants can "read" your catalog.
- Fix your feeds to marketplaces and search: correct GTINs, complete attributes, accurate inventory, and live promo flags. Broken feeds = lost traffic.
- Price with intent: set guardrails for dynamic pricing, show real savings, and use tiered or bundle offers to protect AOV while ASP rises.
- Make comparisons easy: add "vs." content, quick spec callouts, and clear value props on PDPs. AI agents surface this in recommendations.
- Remove friction at checkout: guest checkout on by default, fast pay options, tax/shipping clarity, and delivery dates above the fold.
- Strengthen social proof: recent reviews, Q&A coverage on common objections, and image/video reviews for top SKUs.
- Keep inventory clean: sync stock in real time, publish back-in-stock alerts, and swap to waitlist when needed to save sessions.
- Track the channel: tag assistant-driven sessions, compare add-to-cart and conversion vs. baseline, and monitor promo redemption rate.
Metrics to watch this week
- Assistant-referred sessions and revenue share
- Add-to-cart rate and conversion rate for AI-sourced traffic vs. site average
- Units per transaction and AOV by promo type (percent-off vs. bundle)
- PDP exit rate on comparison-heavy pages
- Promo code discovery and redemption rate
- Return risk signals: mismatched specs, sizing issues, and repeat "compare" behavior
Category notes for sellers
- Toys/collectibles (LEGO, Pokémon): push bundle sets, list age ranges and piece counts, and spotlight limited editions to drive urgency.
- Gaming (Switch, PS5): feature availability windows, must-have accessories, and game bundles to lift AOV.
- Personal audio (AirPods): clarify compatibility, battery life, and warranty at a glance. Cross-sell cases and AppleCare equivalents.
- Kitchen appliances (KitchenAid, ice cream makers): show capacity, attachments, and countertop footprint; add recipe content to reduce returns.
What to change in your sales motion
Shift from channel-first planning to data-first planning. Your best "ad" is clean product data that agents can trust and surface during discovery.
Train your team to think in attributes, not slogans: specs, availability, price clarity, and proof. Then follow the money-optimize the experiences AI agents actually recommend.
Helpful sources and next steps
For context on holiday trends, see Adobe Digital Insights and Salesforce holiday reports: Adobe Digital Insights and Salesforce Holiday Insights.
If you're skilling up your sales org for AI-driven discovery and conversions, browse practical courses by role here: Complete AI Training - Courses by Job.
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