AI Tools & Use Cases
to Prepare for BFCM

It feels like one Black Friday/Cyber Monday season ends, and we’re already preparing for the next year. If you’re like many ecommerce companies, you have plans in place for this year’s holiday sales. From inventory management to optimizing your website’s performance under pressure, the stakes are high and there are many tasks to juggle.

The good news is that AI can help lighten your load. Instead of scrambling last-minute, harnessing AI allows you to anticipate problems, streamline operations, and elevate your marketing in ways that give you an edge.

Enhancing Forecasting and Inventory Management with AI

One of the biggest stressors going into BFCM is inventory management. It’s a tightrope act—order too little, and you miss out on sales, but overstock, and you’re left with unsold items and reduced cash flow. This is where AI-powered forecasting can be a game-changer. By analyzing historical data, customer behavior trends, and real-time purchasing patterns, AI tools can predict exactly what stock levels you should maintain. 

Instead of relying on intuition or static forecasts from last year, AI adapts to changes in demand as you move through the shopping event. What’s even better is that some tools can continuously adjust predictions based on ongoing sales trends, ensuring you aren’t caught off guard by unexpected demand spikes. That way, you can focus more on customer experience and less on worrying about whether your best selling items will run out too soon.

Tool Example: Blue Yonder (formerly JDA Software)

Blue Yonder’s AI-driven demand planning solution uses machine learning algorithms to analyze historical sales data, social media trends, and economic indicators. It can predict demand surges for specific product categories during BFCM.

Use Case: An electronics retailer used Blue Yonder to forecast a 30% increase in demand for smart home devices during BFCM. This allowed them to adjust inventory levels and avoid stockouts, resulting in a 15% increase in sales compared to the previous year.

Tool Example: Nextail

Nextail’s AI-powered inventory optimization platform uses advanced analytics and machine learning to make data-driven decisions about stock allocation and replenishment. This tool is used by big names in fashion like Guess and Terranova. 

Use Case: A fashion retailer implemented Nextail to optimize their inventory across 500 stores and their ecommerce channel. During BFCM, the system automatically reallocated stock based on real-time sales data, reducing stock outs by 60% and improving sell-through rates by 25%.

These two tools are just a sample of what you’ll find when it comes to optimizing inventory. As fun and exciting as this type of forecasting can be with AI, you also need to consider the cost to implement a system like this, and the technical skills needed to maintain it. You can also weigh the options on the market today to see if their service can get you up and running faster, for a monthly fee. 

Dynamic Pricing with AI

On the pricing side, AI can also help you stay competitive without slashing margins unnecessarily. With AI-driven dynamic pricing, your system can adjust prices in real-time based on competitor prices, customer behavior, and inventory levels, allowing you to seize opportunities without undercutting your profits.

Tool Example: Prisync

Prisync uses AI to monitor competitor prices and automatically adjust your pricing strategy. They integrate with popular platforms like Shopify, Magento and Google Shopping.

Use Case: An online electronics store used Prisync during BFCM to dynamically adjust prices on popular items. When competitors lowered prices on similar products, Prisync detected the change and suggested price adjustments, helping the retailer maintain competitiveness while preserving margins. This resulted in a 20% increase in revenue compared to static pricing.

Case Study: An ecommerce store focusing on baby products increased sales by 1000% by utilizing Smart Automation and Pricing, especially with Google Shopping.

Optimizing Your On-Site Experience

A smooth on-site experience is crucial when traffic peaks.  AI-powered tools can analyze your site performance, identifying bottlenecks that could slow down the customer experience and offering real-time solutions. From optimizing load times to preloading content that a customer is likely to click on next, these technologies ensure your site remains fast, even when traffic surges. For mobile visitors—who likely make up the bulk of your BFCM shoppers—this can make the difference between converting a visitor and losing them to a competitor.

Tool Example: Cloudflare

It’s likely you’re aware of Cloudflare, but do you know about their AI tools? Their AI-powered content delivery network and DDoS protection ensure your site remains fast and secure, even during traffic surges.

Use Case: A major online retailer experienced a 500% traffic increase during last year’s BFCM. This year, they’re using Cloudflare’s AI to automatically detect and mitigate DDoS attacks, balance server loads, and optimize content delivery. Early tests show a 40% improvement in page load times under simulated peak traffic conditions.

Beyond speed, AI can elevate the personalization of your site. When customers visit, AI can analyze their previous behavior and preferences, dynamically altering what they see. From personalized product recommendations to custom landing pages, AI tools help you make every visit feel tailored to each customer. This is especially effective during BFCM when customers are bombarded with offers and personalized experiences can cut through the noise.

Tool Example: Dynamic Yield

Dynamic Yield (a company by Mastercard) uses AI to create personalized experiences for each visitor. This means offering custom product recommendations, content and messaging. Dynamic Yield works across your website, email, app, and SMS.

Use Case: A home goods retailer used Dynamic Yield to create personalized BFCM landing pages. The AI analyzed each visitor’s browsing history and preferences, dynamically adjusting featured products and offers. This resulted in a 15% increase in conversion rates compared to generic BFCM pages.

Automating Customer Service and Cart Recovery

During BFCM, you’ll likely see a surge in customer inquiries. Instead of overwhelming your customer service team, AI chatbots can handle the bulk of these interactions. Equipped with common FAQs, these bots can assist customers 24/7 with questions about product availability, shipping times, and even return policies. By doing so, you free up your human agents to handle more complex issues, all while keeping response times short and your customers satisfied.

Tool Example: Intercom

Intercom’s AI-powered chatbot can handle common customer inquiries and guide users through the purchase process. Their tools not only help customers, but also aid support agents with an AI-powered inbox, a personal AI assistant and reporting to help improve the support team.

Use Case: A beauty products company deployed Intercom’s AI chatbot to handle common BFCM questions about shipping times, return policies, and product availability. The bot successfully resolved 70% of inquiries without human intervention, reducing response times from hours to seconds.

Another biggest pain point during BFCM is cart abandonment, which tends to spike as shoppers get distracted or continue browsing elsewhere. AI-driven cart recovery solutions can help bring these customers back. By sending personalized emails or SMS messages that are tailored based on items in the cart or past purchase history, AI can ensure your outreach is relevant and timely. Moreover, AI can analyze when your customers are most likely to respond, ensuring that these messages reach them at the optimal time. Some of these features are already part of tools like Klaviyo.

Tool Example: Klaviyo

You likely already know Klaviyo, but their new AI features can help recover abandoned carts with personalized messages, utilizing predictive tools. This includes features like review sentiment AI, predictive analytics, and personalized product feeds.

Klaviyo also uses AI to help you set up emails. They offer AI to create subject lines, set up SMS campaigns, suggest headlines and write drafts, as well as create audience segments and build flows.

Use Case: An outdoor gear retailer used Klaviyo’s AI to analyze customer behavior and send personalized cart abandonment emails during BFCM. The system determined optimal send times and customized content based on items left in the cart, resulting in an improvement in recovery rate and a significant boost in sales.

Optimizing Marketing and Ad Spend with AI

If there’s ever a time to get your marketing right, it’s during BFCM. AI offers advanced capabilities to not only analyze which campaigns are working but also dynamically adjust your marketing strategy on the fly.

AI-driven marketing tools can use predictive analytics to assess which products or promotions are likely to resonate with different customer segments. This allows you to create more personalized email campaigns, landing pages, and ad copy that speak directly to your customers’ needs and preferences. The AI can also automatically update these promotions as customer behaviors shift in real-time, so you’re always one step ahead.

Tool Example: Albert.ai

Albert.ai is an autonomous AI marketing platform that can manage and optimize digital advertising campaigns across multiple channels.

Use Case: A kitchenware brand used Albert.ai to manage their BFCM ad campaigns across Google, Facebook, and Instagram. The AI continuously optimized ad spend, creative elements, and targeting, resulting in a 40% improvement in ROAS compared to manually managed campaigns.

On the paid advertising front, AI helps you maximize your ROI by allocating ad spend more efficiently. Whether through real-time bidding or by identifying the most valuable customer segments, AI tools can ensure your ads are seen by the right people at the right time. And as the BFCM event unfolds, these systems continuously optimize to focus your budget on top-performing campaigns, giving you an edge in a crowded market.

Tool Example: Cometly

Cometly is a platform to help improve your marketing. Specific for ads, they offer an AI Ads Manager that identifies poor performing ads, helping you adjust budgets in real-time. 

Use Case: A sports apparel store used Cometly to manage their ads in one place. The Ads Manager helped them identify seven ads that were not performing well, allowing them to shift that budget to better performing campaigns.

Strengthening Security and Fraud Detection

With increased sales volumes comes an increased risk of fraud, which is a common concern during BFCM. AI-powered fraud detection tools can help mitigate these risks by scanning for suspicious activity in real-time. Whether it’s spotting abnormal purchasing patterns or flagging high-risk transactions, AI helps you stay ahead of potential threats.

This kind of proactive fraud detection ensures you’re not only protecting your revenue but also avoiding costly chargebacks and negative customer experiences. 

Tool Example: Riskified

Riskified uses machine learning to analyze hundreds of data points per transaction and flag potential fraud in real-time. They’re used by big brands like Shein, GoPro and Prada. 

Use Case: A luxury watch retailer implemented Riskified to protect against BFCM fraud. The AI analyzed transactions in real-time, accurately flagging high-risk orders while reducing false positives by 50% compared to their previous rule-based system. This resulted in a 30% reduction in fraud-related losses without impacting legitimate sales.

Analyzing Post-BFCM Data for Future Success

Once the dust settles from BFCM, the work isn’t over. AI can help you analyze the massive amounts of data generated during the event, offering insights into what worked, what didn’t, and how to improve for next year. From identifying trends in customer behavior to evaluating the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns, AI allows you to extract actionable insights that can shape your future strategy. In our opinion, this is the best time to analyze what occurred and find takeaways to bring into the next BFCM season. Automated reporting tools can also speed up this process, giving you a clear picture of your performance without drowning in data analysis. 

Once you’re ready to meet with your team to break down BFCM results, you can use AI to help structure the meeting topics as well. 

Tool Example: Tableau with Einstein Analytics

Tableau’s visual analytics platform, enhanced with Salesforce’s Einstein AI, can process and visualize complex BFCM data sets.

Use Case: A multi-category online marketplace used Tableau with Einstein Analytics to process their BFCM data. The AI automatically identified key performance drivers, unexpected trends, and opportunities for improvement. It generated insights such as a 40% increase in mobile conversions when paired with specific promotional offers, informing the company’s mobile strategy for the following year.

By leveraging these AI tools and strategies, busy ecommerce professionals like yourself can significantly enhance BFCM preparedness and performance across multiple operational areas. The key is to start implementing and testing these solutions so you know what works best for your business and team.