How to unlock customer data success this Black Friday

The retail industry depends on major sales events, and no event shapes the year more than Black Friday and Cyber Monday. 

These two holiday sales events offer more than just a surge in revenues - they represent a test of every retailer's operational readiness, customer understanding, and creative strategy. They offer a snapshot of what's working, what needs to change, and where the industry is heading next.

This year, Black Friday comes as key trends in technology and consumer spending collide. 2025 is likely the first year in which retailers could be applying large-scale AI experiments to their holiday sales strategies.

According to Amperity's 2025 State of AI in Retail report:

• Nearly half (45%) of retailers use AI daily or several times per week
• 97% plan to maintain or increase AI investments in the year ahead 

During Black Friday, retailers can try new approaches, stress-test data systems, and collect behavioral signals that shape smarter strategies for the months to come. In this guide, we'll look at approaches retailers can take to leverage insights from Black Friday and Cyber Monday spike and build on the results post-peak shopping days - turning a single sales event into a year-long competitive advantage.

Learn from last year's results

Every shopping season is unique, but no campaign happens in isolation. To prepare, retailers need to begin with a clear-eyed understanding of what happened last year on Black Friday - what goals were set, what results were achieved, and where opportunities were missed.

Retailers that ground their strategy in historical insights and unified customer profiles are better equipped to make sharp, data-driven decisions. Look beyond topline metrics like total sales or conversion rates and dig into how specific customer segments behaved: 

• Which products or price points resonated? 
• Which channels drove the highest-value traffic? 
• How did promotions influence repeat purchases in December and January?

According to Amperity's research, more than half (58%) of retailers said their customer data is fragmented or incomplete, while only 23% are currently using AI in production to resolve customer identities. By contrast, retailers with customer data platforms (CDPs) are twice as likely to use AI daily and far more confident in their ability to understand and act on individual customer behavior.

Identity resolution - the ability to stitch together a complete picture of each customer across channels and devices - is the foundation for personalisation, segmentation, and forecasting. Retailers using Amperity now have a complete view of the customer - meaning they're entering the holiday season with greater insight into what their customers value, when to calibrate promotions, and which high-value customer segments can be leveraged.. 

For those that are navigating the 2025 holiday shopping season without a strong tool for identity resolution, that's a problem you can't afford to ignore in 2026

Tread Black Friday as a customer data event, not just a sales event

Armed with the data and insights from the holiday, retailers can enter December and the new year with a better understanding of their customers and their inventory, leading to sharper strategy and stronger margins during the next periods.

Amperity's Real-Time Profiles make this possible by continuously refreshing each customer's record as new events occur, ensuring predictions are always based on the latest signals. The Identity Resolution Agent ensures those profiles are complete and accurate, stitching together identities across channels to eliminate duplication and error. And with Bridge connectors, retailers can activate those audiences instantly across their marketing ecosystem - powering the tight loop between customer data inputs and AI iteration that provides a meaningful competitive advantage.

A tight loop between customer data inputs and AI iteration provides retailers with a sizable competitive advantage, allowing them to target customers in narrower segments and deliver content with higher precision.

Get ready for 2026

While Black Friday customer data will already be useful in December and January, you should take steps to set yourself up for success a year from now. With Amperity, that work starts early - using unified, AI-ready customer data to evaluate what worked, what didn't, and where next year's strategy can go further. Take stock of what worked and what didn't in this year's campaigns and use that information to guide next year's strategy.

1. Did AI-driven experiments lead to measurable lifts in engagement or ROI? If they did, how can you expand their use in 2026 using Amperity's ecosystem? If they didn't, what adjustments can you make to improve performance next year?
2. Were customer segments accurate and actionable? What goals should you set for next year to make your segments narrower and more valuable?
3. Did your identity resolution pipeline hold up under surges in data? If not, what investments do you need to make in your infrastructure to improve reliability in 2026?

Download the full 2025 State of AI in Retail report to benchmark your AI maturity, and request a demo to see how Amperity can ensure your data foundation is ready for this holiday season and beyond.