Holiday shopping season is here: what brands should do now that shoppers start with AI

By Ben Straley, Chief Product Officer, Augeo

As cautious holiday shoppers turn to AI to stretch their dollars, the brands that win will connect AI discovery directly to their own loyalty and rewards. The NRF projects holiday sales will grow 4.2% over last year, crossing $1 trillion, but consumers remain highly budget-conscious. Here is how enterprise brand leaders can bridge the gap between AI discovery and long-term customer engagement.

Brands can reach AI shoppers in two familiar ways: earn organic inclusion in the answer, or pay for placement. There’s a third route that I think gets less attention than it should. More and more consumers will connect their retail accounts and loyalty programs to their AI assistants. Once a shopper turns on that connection, the assistant can see the products, services, offers and rewards available to them, and its results get more personal. If a shopper can earn bonus points or redeem a member-only offer at your store through one of their programs, the assistant is more likely to put your products in the answer. That matters more this year, when a member discount or bonus points can decide where a cautious shopper buys.

What happens after that matters even more. The connected shopper finds a relevant offer, buys, earns or redeems, and comes back. Each of those steps is a positive signal, and I expect assistants to give brands that earn those signals more weight and relevance in future organic answers. That’s a cycle that builds on itself, from discovery through conversion and engagement and back to discovery. It’s why loyalty connectors may be one of the most powerful ways for brands to influence organic inclusion. It also works only when the shopper opts in and decides what the assistant can see, which is how it should be.

This also changes the job loyalty has to do. When an assistant makes it easy to compare brands, a points program tucked into the checkout page won’t keep many customers. Shoppers who are anxious about costs want to see the savings and benefits available to them while they’re deciding, not after.

Value also has to travel further than one retailer’s program. For example, a shopper who earns rewards through an employer recognition program or a bank card and can spend them at your store is a funded, high-intent buyer. Merchant-funded offers work the same way and help the program pay for itself, so it isn’t just a cost on the holiday P&L.

Most teams locked their media plans and tech stacks months ago, but there’s still time before Cyber Week to make your savings and member benefits easier to find, use and come back for. Here’s where I’d start, in the order the shopper experiences it:

• Get into the answer. Structure your product data, public offers and loyalty benefits so AI tools can read them and send shoppers to the right page on your site or the right screen in your app.
• Let shoppers connect. Give them the option to link their account with you, and the loyalty programs they belong to, to their AI assistant, so their offers, points and member benefits show up when they ask.
• Make it easy to buy. Deep link AI-referred shoppers into your app, keep sign-in to one step on the web, and put their rewards and offers in the cart (Antavo estimates US shoppers leave about $10 billion in loyalty value unspent every year).
• Keep them engaged after the first order. Enroll first-time AI buyers, reward the next visit, and make the benefits they see in the assistant match what they see on your site and in your app.
• Extend your reach through partner programs. Get your offers into the loyalty programs your customers already belong to, so they can earn bonus points or redeem member-only offers with you, and fund more of them through merchant-funded models rather than margin.
• Measure the whole path. Track AI-referred sessions and conversion next to paid search, how many of those buyers you can identify as members, and how many come back.

Shoppers are nervous about this season, and so are a lot of retailers. The brands that put their savings and member benefits in front of shoppers, from the AI answer through checkout and the next visit, have a real chance to turn that anxiety into a strong holiday.

If you’re working through how your loyalty program shows up in AI assistants, I’d welcome the conversation.