What can an artificial intelligence tell you about the deals? Not much, it turns out, but when we posed a few contrarian thoughts about the upcoming shopping season, an image generator returned some interesting images that got us thinking about what this Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping season will be like
This won’t be a typical Black Friday and pre- Christmas shopping season, I think. A cost of living crisis is threatening to turn into a full-blown recession in many countries as we face extraordinary upheaval around the world. Recent studies show consumers are more cautious and invested in Black Friday than in the past.
There have been indications.
US consumers spent an average of $46.68 during Amazon’s Prime Day 2, which is down from the mid-year Prime Day average. It’s clear that Amazon may have jumped the shopping gun with the majority of purchases revolving around household and personal items and not gifts. Only a small amount of shoppers bought gift items.
The bigger question is how consumers’ economic concerns will manifest themselves when Black Friday arrives.
45% of consumers are making changes to their spending habits in the face of inflation concerns, according to a study by Future and The Lens. Some 40% of people plan to make at least some slight changes. Only a small number of people seem comfortable conducting financial business.
A study found that 75% of Primed people are ready to shop on Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
This makes sense because we want to get our shopping done so we can enjoy the holiday and festive season, and also because these deals may be more important than ever.
That was the dilemma we presented to.
One of a growing number of artificial intelligence based image and art generators, Dall-E 2 asks for a detailed text description of the image you want and will generate a few options based on that set of ideas. It’s possible to adjust the size of the image, roughly edit some portions of it, and then generate updated images with the help of the Dall-E 2.
A person is shopping for Black Friday Deals with an empty wallet and bad weather. Family members want gifts. It should be a 1920 x 1920.
I think it got the sentiment correct, as it quickly generated a few options that were perhaps too on-the-nose.
An impending shopping season, decreased discretionary funds, an uncertain economic future, and families that want gifts are what we’re talking about.
The image above is the result after we removed illegible text from the image and asked Dall-E to add more segments, extending the image to our desired HD format, which it did not understand.
DALL-E’s other ideas have been presented by me.
This image generator can’t answer the question of whether Black Friday Shoppers will shop at the same level and spend the same amount. It leaves open the question of whether retailers and tech companies will be able to meet the challenge of offering more extraordinary sales during Black Friday Deals season.
I think it’s safe to assume that inflation will have an impact on how consumers shop and what they expect from tech brands. During Prime Day 2, 29% of consumers bought something they’ve been waiting for, but at a lower price. Yet, an almost equal number (26%) passed on a great deal because they decided it wasn’t a necessity.
We can infer that there’s some tension between impulse buys based on incredible deals, and people spending money they may not have. During this cost of living and inflation crisis, retailers will likely have to offer excellent prices on must-have products and gifts.
The question is whether or not they will.
You can get a head start on Black Friday deals by visiting the deals page.
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