AI can recommend your store… or talk shoppers out of buying

AI can bring shoppers to your store. Your email flows can bring them back. Or annoy them enough to leave. This week, I want you to check both. I’ve also got a free Black Friday guide for you.

65% of AI users have already replaced some Google searches

Semrush surveyed 2,338 adults in the US in July. They asked how people use AI while shopping. These numbers are based on what respondents said they did.

65.01% of AI users said they’ve replaced at least some Google product searches with a chatbot. These two numbers caught my attention. Both are from people who use AI at least weekly:

AI can help someone buy from you. It can also give them a reason not to.

I see plenty of advice about getting ChatGPT or Gemini to recommend your products. But shoppers also ask what they should avoid. You need to know what the answer is.

“Is it worth the price?” “How fast does it ship?” “Can I return it?” If your shipping details are buried or your returns page is vague, don’t expect an AI assistant to fill in the gaps for you.

Here’s what I’d do. Write down five questions customers ask before buying. Ask a couple of AI tools those exact questions about your store. Check the answers. Fix the missing or incorrect information.

Getting recommended is only part of the job. Make sure customers can find the information they need to buy.

Your email problem might not be the email

I read HubSpot’s breakdown of what goes wrong as email programs grow. One problem is worth checking before Black Friday.

It’s aimed at big teams, but you don’t need a huge list to recognize the problems.

Contacts sit in several automations at once. Old data makes segments unreliable. Deliverability slips. Reports look fine, but nobody can tie them to revenue.

One customer can be in your onboarding flow, a win-back flow and your newsletter list at the same time. Each flow looks fine on its own. The customer gets all three.

Easier to catch now than in November.

Pick a few real customers. Check what actually landed in their inbox. Did someone who bought yesterday still get an abandoned-cart email? Is a recent buyer getting three sequences at once? Check the emails, not just the flowchart.

That’s the check I’d start with. A dashboard won’t always show you the overlap.

Don’t increase your sends for Black Friday until you’ve checked this. More emails won’t fix a messy setup.

Gmail is removing another reason to open an email

Gmail has started showing a “Copy code” button for 2FA emails in the inbox on Android and iOS. Tap it to copy the code without opening the message.

I wouldn’t change a strategy over this. But take a look at your transactional emails. Can someone find their order details or tracking link straight away? If they have to search for it, fix it.

Want my free Black Friday guide?

A lot of ecommerce teams are already deep in Black Friday planning.

Audiences, flows, offers, approvals, testing. Sort these out before November gets busy. They’re harder to fix once the campaigns are running.

I’m putting together a Black Friday guide for ecommerce. It’s free for Emercify readers.

Want a copy? Reply to this email with “black friday” and I’ll send it to you within a few days.

I love automations and AI. But sometimes I like to email you back personally. I’m answering these replies myself, so it’ll take a few days.

My advice this week: pick one recent customer.

Follow what they saw before buying and what you sent afterwards. If something doesn’t make sense, fix it before you send more.

Corné
Emercify