Black Friday has changed. It’s less known for stampedes and (literal) doorbuster sales.

The doorbusters are digital now, and the stampedes have turned into billions of digital data points and emails. (During peak hours of BFCM 2023, Klaviyo users sent 376 million messages per hour!)

The internet has become our primary BFCM shopping destination.

So how can brands adapt, and drive maximum revenue during the highest-volume shopping weekend of the year?

By leveraging AI—and it’s already happening.

During BFCM 2023, Klaviyo users sent 616 million messages with AI-personalized product recommendations, and 357 million messages to segments created with predictive analytics.

In 2024, Klaviyo expects those numbers to go up, and we’ve launched new AI functionality that will help you handle the holiday rush even more efficiently.

“Klaviyo AI makes advanced techniques easier to access,” says Erin Aguilar, senior customer success manager at Klaviyo. “It’s a time saver.”

Here’s our latest guide to using Klaviyo AI during the holiday rush, based on insights from Klaviyo insiders and customers—so you can optimize, analyze, and execute more quickly, and ultimately drive more revenue.

1. Create multi-branch flows, fast with Flows AI

• What Flows AI does: Builds automated flows based on natural language text prompts.
• When to use it for BFCM: In Q3, to build out advanced flows that need internal approvals and net-new creative—or in Q4, to build a flow quickly in a pinch.
• Example BFCM use case: Flows AI can help you “streamline” post-purchase flow creation, Aguilar says. You may want to serve different messaging to repeat buyers vs. one-time buyers, different AOV ranges, and even based on the specific SKUs purchased. Flows AI can help you do all that in a single flow, which simplifies performance reporting and ensures no one gets multiple, redundant automations when they purchase multiple products.
• Proof it works IRL: Eugenia Martin, head of DTC sales at water filter brand Lifestraw, reports saving 40+ minutes on building a flow triggered by Klaviyo’s Recharge integration using Flows AI. “That was pretty amazing,” she says.

2. Target any customer you can describe with Segments AI

• What Segments AI does: Builds segments based on natural language text prompts.
• When to use it for BFCM: In early November, Aguilar says. That way you can use it to build out segments for holiday campaigns, and schedule sends in advance.
• Example BFCM use case: Use Segments AI to create re-send segments in bulk—so it’s easy to send each BFCM campaign twice in a day, the second time only to recipients who haven’t purchased yet.
• Proof it works IRL: “Segments AI makes it quick and easy to build segments with as much precision as we need,” says Melissa Lush, CMO of all-natural household cleaner brand Force of Nature. She and her team often need to build segments that include and exclude purchasers of long lists of SKUs, to target different stages of their customer journey.
• Bonus tip: Specify that you want to send to subscribers who “accept marketing” in your Segments AI prompt, advises Neil Gogate, principal customer success manager at Klaviyo—otherwise, you could send marketing messages to users who haven’t yet consented to that.

3. Streamline copywriting with SMS, Email, and Reviews AI

• What these 3 tools do: Generate SMS copy, email subject lines, and responses to customer reviews in seconds.
• When to use it for BFCM: Start testing these tools out in Q3 and see how the copy performs with your subscribers, Gogate recommends—before the pressure and visibility of Q4.
• Example BFCM use case: If you want to ramp up SMS volume during BFCM, AI can help you do that without hiring an extra copywriter. “SMS AI can help save you time and give you really creative, on-brand recommendations,” says Aguilar.
• Proof it works IRL: SMS AI saves the team at apparel wholesaler Proozy an estimated 10 minutes per text; subject line AI saves them about 5 minutes per subject line. It all adds up to 45 minutes saved per day.

4. Level up your A/B testing with personalized campaigns AI

• What personalized campaigns AI does: Offers an alternative to one-size-fits-all A/B testing. Instead of sending one version to the bulk of recipients, AI determines the best version for each individual subscriber and sends it instantly.
• How it works: Klaviyo AI looks at profile attributes like location, engagement with past campaigns, customer lifetime value (CLV), average time between purchases, and more to predict which version each customer will engage with.
• When to use it for BFCM: Start testing this feature in Q3 to gather insights about your subscribers.
• Example BFCM use case: Results from personalized campaigns can help inform your segmentation and messaging over the holidays. For example, you might learn that customers on the West Coast with a historical CLV >$500 may convert better when they see lifestyle imagery—and you can make sure they see exactly that during BFCM.

5. Take 30 seconds to grow your list with forms display optimization

• What forms display optimization does: Optimizes the timing and placement of sign-up pop-ups on your site by testing AI-generated alternatives against each other. “It involves no lift whatsoever,” Aguilar says. “It literally takes 30 seconds to turn on.”
• When to use it for BFCM: Start now, Aguilar advises. Testing can take 4–6 weeks, and you’ll ideally have the winning display configuration live before BFCM.
• Example BFCM use case: Run forms display optimization in early Q3, then use the winning version to grow your list before BFCM. (This works especially well for brands that run a Labor Day/back-to-school sale.) Then, owned marketing can play a bigger role in your marketing mix during the holiday weekend—and you can reduce spend on pricey holiday ads.
• Proof it works IRL: Natural skincare brand Tata Harper ran forms display optimization and saw 65%+ growth in submissions across both their sign-up pop-ups—and 27% growth in their welcome flow revenue.

6. Unearth trends in customer feedback with review sentiment AI

• What review sentiment AI does: Tracks and analyzes overarching trends in your customer reviews—good and bad. It can help you identify sentiment trends within a specific date range, or see how sentiment tilts around specific topics.
• When to use it for BFCM: Enable this ASAP, so you can analyze all the new product reviews from holiday customers.
• Example BFCM use case: Look at sentiment for the window of time when orders placed during BFCM got delivered. Review sentiment AI will help you assess the overall success and alignment of your holiday marketing, product, and logistics.
• Why we made it: “Reviews are a goldmine, but when you have hundreds of products and thousands of reviews, it takes hours to sift through all the feedback,” says Jessica Schanzer, lead product marketing manager at Klaviyo. “Klaviyo AI gives you quick insight into what people are saying about your brand at scale.”

7. Send AI-personalized recommendations at scale with dynamic product feeds

1. What dynamic product feeds do: Recommend a carousel of products each customer is most likely to buy next, based on what they’ve ordered in the past and how they’re similar to other customers.
2. When to use it for BFCM prep: Start A/B testing in Q3, to see where personalized feeds—as opposed to feeds of your new or most popular products—drive the most lift. (Aguilar recommends mixing dynamic feeds with other types of feeds, so recommended products always feel novel.)
3. Example BFCM use case: Use dynamic product feeds in post-purchase flows during your BFCM sale. With the limited-time sale creating urgency, a shopper may place a second order based on a personalized recommendation.
4. Proof it works IRL: “Dynamic product feeds help propel that next purchase during a season where everyone is buying,” says Aguilar—improving CLV and reducing churn.

8. Target churn risks and big spenders with predictive analytics

• What predictive analytics do: Forecast next order date, CLV (historical, predicted, and total), and churn risk for each customer based on their behavioral data.
• When to use it for BFCM: “There’s never a bad time to use predictive analytics,” says Aguilar—you can use them to create segments in the months leading up to BFCM, or on the fly during the holiday itself.
• Example BFCM use case: Create a segment of customers whose expected date of next purchase falls on or near BFCM weekend, and target them with an extra dose of seasonal messaging before and during your sale. “Expected date of next purchase does really well around the holidays,” Aguilar says.
• Proof it works IRL: The Willow Tree Boutique saw 53% HoH growth in revenue from Klaviyo campaigns in their first 6 months using predictive analytics segments—like CLV- and AOV-based segments that let them highlight pricier items to bigger spenders.

9. Assess your performance vs. the competition with benchmarks

• What Klaviyo benchmarks do: Empower you to compare your Klaviyo performance to results from the 100 Klaviyo accounts most similar to yours (all anonymized, of course).
• When to use it for BFCM: After your sale, to assess performance.
• Example BFCM use case: After the weekend closes out, look at how your BFCM performance stacks up against peer benchmarks. You’ll see where you outdid competitors, and where you (realistically!) have room to improve.
• Proof it works IRL: Klaviyo benchmarks help leaders at Western outfitter Tecovas contextualize their performance more deeply. “It’s something I’m constantly being asked for from leadership: ‘How are we doing compared to the retail environment?’” says Megan Edwards, email marketing manager at Tecovas. “It’s a helpful comparison to have.”

Delegate BFCM execution and analysis to Klaviyo AI in 2024

During the holiday rush, Klaviyo AI can streamline your marketing operations.

“A lot of times, Klaviyo customers are trying to be very prescriptive about how they’re targeting,” says Gogate—specifying their audiences down to the tiniest detail.

That can get quite time-consuming, especially when you’re exporting data and running manual calculations, Aguilar adds.

But you don’t have to make every decision about your segments, your forms, and even your creative—your customers’ behavior and your brands’ performance data can guide those calls now, too.

“With Klaviyo AI, you don’t have to dot every i and cross every t,” Gogate says. “You can be a little bit more loose and open, in a way that’s going to create more efficiency.”

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