Black Friday is the biggest day of the year for many retailers, with Adobe forecasting that global revenue for 2025 will reach $11.7 billion. However, as consumer expectations rise fuelled by everyday use of AI-powered tools and hyper-personalised digital experiences, retailers can no longer rely on traditional tactics to win buyers over.
Instead, they must look incredibly carefully at what can be done to maximise sales during this important shopping event. This year, success will depend on smart pre-planning, strong data foundations, seamless logistics, and the intelligent use of AI to create tailored shopping experiences at scale.
Getting your logistics ducks in a row
Although invisible to consumers, Black Friday preparation starts months before the flashing banners and limited-time sales. Oana Jinga, Co-founder at Dexory, voices, “effective supply chain management becomes critical. Demand surges, geopolitical tensions and labour constraints leave little room for error.”
Real-time visibility across a retailer’s logistics operations is often the make-or-break factor. “A digital twin of the warehouse powered by continuous live data can give teams clarity on how space is being used in the moment, helping them adjust setups quickly and prioritise stock movements for fast-selling items,” Jinga explains.
Pricing is another crucial backbone of Black Friday success. Ensuring these remain competitive and updated against market conditions is vital before putting in front of consumers. According to Tom Summerfield, Director of Revenue at UiPath, “AI should now be a vital part of the pricing toolkit, allowing retailers to balance strong profit margins with the need to deliver attractive discounts to seize sales and capture volume.” Adding that, “retailers using AI-driven pricing report time savings of up to 40%, freeing teams to focus on more strategic, customer-facing tasks during the Black Friday rush.”
With Black Friday’s rapid sales and high product movement, brands also need full visibility over every item in their supply chain. Ravi Shankar Sundaram, Senior Director of Product Management, Pragmatic Semiconductor, highlights how “more traditional methods like holograms or QR codes have one key problem – they can be easily replicated.” He states that, “instead, new research has found that half (49%) of consumers say they would pay more for a connected product using technology like NFC, with 92% of brands either beginning to embed NFC into their products or planning to do so in the next year. NFC, a subset of RFID technology, enhances product security through unique chip identifiers that are inherently hard to clone,” helping retailers ensure authenticity while providing a seamless experience for shoppers.
Together, Jinga, Summerfield, and Sundaram underline the message that retailers cannot deliver a standout Black Friday experience unless their back office, from logistics to pricing and security, is fully optimised, AI-enabled, and data driven.
Agentic AI enhancing the customer-driven experience
Once sales begin, for many retailers, staff are inundated with customer queries. Most importantly, customers now expect updates in real time, and if they don’t get them, they’ll simply open a new tab and switch to a competitor.
In fact, Jamie Cooper, Chief Product Officer at Natterbox explains, “32% of customers would stop buying from a brand they love after one bad experience, which is why companies must have AI agents on-hand to tackle these issues and free up human agents’ time to focus on more complex requests.” As such, “AI is essential for reducing hold times and ensuring that quick, efficient customer service isn’t compromised by a peak in consumer activity.”
Stuart Templeton, VP of UK and Ireland at Genesys, agrees that we should look to AI Agents not just for speed, but personalisation too. “AI-driven customer service that feels personal and human will set brands apart. Combining emotional intelligence with tailored recommendations will help brands stand out and build lasting loyalty this Black Friday, especially as retailers compete harder than ever to be heard.”
For 2025, data-driven insights along with real-time updates on stock and deliveries, will play a crucial role in keeping customers informed, satisfied and loyal.
Delivering a personalised touch
If brands can create a truly tailored experience for customers, they’re far more likely to deliver exactly what shoppers want, which will keep them from looking elsewhere. “With 23% of Gen Z and 27% of Millennials trusting recommendations from AI more than those from people, AI is becoming a trusted shopping companion”, Andrew Norman, SVP & GM, EMEA at Commerce explains.
He believes that, “to stay ahead, brands must harness AI-driven insights to offer authentic recommendations and create shopping experiences that feel truly tailored. Meanwhile, AI-powered checkout systems must deliver seamless convenience to help foster loyalty. Shoppers in 2025 want a personal shopper, not a copy-and-paste concierge.”
But delivering these personalised, real-time experiences depends on reliable technology behind the scenes. As Paul McHugh, Head of Sales EMEA, Ericsson Enterprise Wireless Connections, states, “although retail businesses are some of the most adventurous with implementing technology, they need to have greater networking capability to support it. Cellular connectivity solutions that provide secure, reliable, and easy-to-manage connectivity will also enable pop-ups and concept stores to deliver memorable experiences and support high-volume sales in different locations.”
Manvinder Singh, VP of AI Product Management, at Redis, agrees that advanced technology is absolutely necessary for customer individualisation, arguing that “modernising the data layer and moving away from tightly coupled systems that cannot flex when peaks arrive has become essential,” and that “the winners this year will be the retailers who treat performance and personalisation as core infrastructure, not add-ons. By improving the speed and reliability of inventory information, retailers can avoid the delays and inconsistencies that frustrate shoppers at the busiest retail time of the year.”
The pinnacle of success for 2025
This Black Friday, it’s clear that success will no longer hinge on discounts. Retailers that will stand out are those that combine data-driven insights, AI-powered personalisation, and seamless logistics to deliver experiences that customers truly value.
Those that champion success will invest in technology, prepare back-end operations, and create tailored, frictionless experiences that build lasting customer experience and loyalty.
