How consumers are using AI for holiday shopping – marketplace.org
More retail sites are integrating AI into the online shopping experience.
Honestly, I’m a total Luddite when it comes to AI. I’d never used it — until I had to do this story. So, I logged onto ChatGPT and typed: “I want to find a gift for my elderly mother. She’s 87, hard of hearing, and can’t see very well.”
ChatGPT wanted to know more. “Tell me whether she lives aone or in care? What she currently enjoys — music, radio, conversation, etc?”
I answered: She’s in a senior-living facility with caregivers. She can’t read anymore, but enjoys TV, music, and talking to her grandchildren.
With that, we were off to the races: “Here are some specific ideas that tend to work well for someone in your mom’s situation,” ChatGPT responded. “Simple music-audiobook player. Recorded family voices message player. Comfort item for TV-time: a very soft throw blanket.”
Perfect! She keeps the thermostat at 80 and is still always cold. ChatGPT asked for my budget. I said $50.
“A TV blanket under $50 is very doable, and it’s a good, low-stress choice,” it responded. Nice! The bot’s looking out for my holiday-shopping mental health.
But when I tried to actually buy the blanket via ChatGPT, it said, “You can't purchase anything directly here on this chat interface. You'll need to go to Amazon.com to search and buy.”
I ran this AI shopping experience by Greg Zakowicz, a retail advisor at e-marketing firm Omnisend, which has surveyed consumers about AI.
“It’s a companion tool for you, rather than just doing blind searching,” he said. “If I go to Google, I’m going to be presented with a whole bunch of ads, probably some really bad blog posts, and AI kind of gives you that clean look.”
AI as a tool for shopping has been making huge inroads with consumers. According to Omnisend, eight in 10 consumers will use AI in their holiday shopping this year — for everything from coming up with gift ideas and writing gift messages, to planning and budgeting. And Adobe reports AI traffic to retail sites is up 500% to 800% over last year.
Ultimately though, ChatGPT wasn’t able to actually execute the purchase of my TV blanket, pointed out Vanessa Valiente, a personal stylist and personal shopper based in San Diego.
“For AI to assist a shopper, people don’t want to be playing around. They want, ‘Show me the items, dude.’ We’re looking for really personalized recommendations,” she said.
There are more and more retail sites that have AI apps built in so a consumer can search, discover, and purchase products without leaving — including Amazon, Walmart, Shopify, and Nordstrom.
“The way AI is being used on Nordstrom, they’re actually trying to get you to the product, which is what I would love, and what consumers would love,” Valiente said.
Meanwhile, Greg Zakowicz has questions about how and where AI finds the things it thinks you want to buy.
“So right now, all the things I’m looking at — a pair of pajamas, a cappuccino-maker — it’s the same retailers — it’s Kohl’s, it’s Amazon, Best Buy,” he said. “Well, are you just recommending all the big brands because they have the most reviews?”
That could make it hard for smaller companies to compete for consumers’ attention when they shop using AI.
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