E-Commerce Leaders Invest in AI to Offset Last Year's Missed Revenue Opportunities by Adding Virtual Shopping Assistants this Holiday Season

A new report, unveiled today by commerce operating system Swap, shows that late planning, issues with AI tools and services, supply-chain disruptions, and inventory constraints limited revenue opportunities for brands attempting to capitalize on 2024 Black Friday Cyber Monday (BFCM) shopping. This year, the survey reveals executives are doubling down on bolstering their tech infrastructure to meet raised revenue expectations.

Nearly one-quarter of customers plan to begin their holiday shopping before the official BFCM season in 2025, and over half intend to use AI for smarter shopping this holiday season. This presents a unique opportunity for businesses of all sizes to optimize their AI infrastructure to appeal to tech-savvy shoppers. However, with economic uncertainties continuing to plague many sellers' profit margins, executives must weigh the risks and benefits of investing in AI, supply-chain channels or inventory management solutions.

The global impacts of tariffs and supply-chain disruptions will continue to affect how organizations plan their holiday campaigns leading up to BFCM. Swap's survey findings reveal that e-commerce leaders are preparing to counteract these challenges, with 65% of executives expecting their organizations to add AI-powered chat or virtual shopping assistants, 24% planning to make the adoption of new tech, such as automation or personalization tools, a priority, and 44% will enhance personalization with integrated customer data.

Tariffs and supply-chain issues have already caused a majority of e-commerce executives (87%) to experience significant impacts on contingency planning for supplier relationships and inventory management. This has driven many executives (50%) to strengthen their companies' operations by investing in resilient operations that can withstand sudden, tariff-driven changes in sourcing. Survey findings also suggest there is heightened optimism surrounding areas of opportunity for increased sales: the majority (51%) of executives anticipate a considerable increase in revenue performance for the holiday period in 2025.

As of today, around only 14% of Americans have used an AI shopping agent. However, 43% are aware of their added benefit, indicating that brands that adopt such agents ahead of this holiday season could maintain a significant competitive advantage.

“Brands need to start thinking agentic first, as that's what consumers will come to expect in their shopping experiences,” said Juan Pellerano, Chief Marketing Officer of Swap. “The consumer dollar has become increasingly hard to earn, especially under current market conditions, so brands should start planning now to position their tech infrastructure for the increased wave of shoppers this holiday season."

An early adopter of agentic AI, Swap has recently launched its own Agentic Commerce and Demand Planning offerings in response to e-commerce executives' growing interest in AI. This move provides a fully agentic customer experience while optimizing the brand's demand planning. Building on this momentum, Swap will continue scaling its agentic AI capabilities to address the evolving needs of commerce brands around the world.

About Swap:

Founded in 2022 by Sam Atkinson and Zach Bailet, Swap builds infrastructure to enable global commerce, from our real time tax and duty API, to our new agentic commerce platform, and our full global services network. With a global network of carrier accounts, every pain point in a brand's operations journey – from shipping, tracking, and package-protection, to returns, inventory, and cross-border operations is improved with Swap. To learn more, visit Swap Commerce.

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