Amazon’s new AI chatbot Rufus was key to increasing sales during this most recent Black Friday shopping event. The new cart service is designed to help shoppers navigate Amazon’s massive store of products more quickly and efficiently. It provides a completely customized shopping experience and allows for effortless product comparison. In the wake of this change, Rufus had a powerful year. AI is helping an increasing number of consumers with their holiday shopping this year.
On this single day—Black Friday—Amazon received more website visits than all their other competitors combined. Total sessions banked up by 20% over that previous day! These sessions with Rufus increased by a whopping 35%! This increase is clear evidence that shoppers who engaged with the AI-powered shopping assistant are more engaged than ever. This increase in engagement resulted in a big increase in purchases. Indeed, sessions leading to a transaction have increased by 100%. In fact, it is a 2x increase over the U.S.’s previous 30-day average.
Sessions with Rufus experienced a whopping 20% boost in purchases. This points to the deepening impact and sometimes the pernicious effects of AI-driven engagement. We know from our clients using Adobe Analytics that AI services such as Rufus increase conversion rates. This trend underscores the impact AI is having and, perhaps more importantly, will have across the retail industry. U.S. shoppers who come to retail sites through AI sources are significantly more engaged. In fact, users who arrive at websites through organic AI traffic are 38% more likely to convert than users who originate from non-AI traffic.
Rufus’s recent success is indicative of a larger trend. Consumers increasingly are looking to AI technology for assistance with their holiday shopping. During this period, Amazon’s app downloads increased by 50%, with competitor Walmart increasing by an even more significant 75%. Together, both companies saw a 30 percent increase in mobile app and website use on Black Friday over the previous month. Visitation and download growth rates have dropped significantly following the skyrocketing growth percentages of 2024. Over the course of that year, overall visits increased by 95% and downloads shot up 130%.
Rufus encourages the extension of Black Friday sales. His role speaks to the ways in which AI technology is fundamentally reshaping consumer behavior and changing the in-store experience. Today, shoppers are more than ever on the hunt for AI help. In turn, retailers will continue to be challenged to invest effectively in these technologies as consumer preferences continue to change.
