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Green Friday

The Black Friday shopping data reports are in, and the results are big. 

Shopify merchants cleared $5 billion on Friday, a record-breaking day, touted CEO Tobi Lutke. 

In 2020, which was a massive and crazy season for ecommerce shopping overall, Shopify cleared $2.4 billion on Black Friday. After a few years of $500 million year-over-year growth in Black Friday revenue, Shopify added $700 million in 2023 and then almost $1 billion on top of that this year. 

Meanwhile, Adobe’s online shopping benchmark for Black Friday clocked ecommerce spend at more than $10 billion in the US for the first time. Salesforce’s Black Friday analytics estimates that US ecommerce hit $17.5 billion. 

Each report has other interesting tidbits, too. Adobe, for instance, shows a significant uptick in conversion rates on desktop web, whereas mobile conversions remain stubbornly lower. Despite improvements on mobile, desktop traffic is still superior for shopping purposes. 

Still, according to Salesforce, mobile traffic is growing faster overall than desktop traffic. On Thanksgiving and Black Friday, mobile shopping traffic increased by 4% over last year. Desktop traffic, though, dropped by 2% on Thanksgiving Day and 4% on Black Friday. 

Less Than Wellness

TikTok is changing its beauty filter software, which gives all users who want, and many who aren’t aware, an augmented reality glow-up, The Guardian reports. You know, slightly bigger eyes, plumped lips and smoother skin tones.

Now, people under 18 won’t be able to use the software. 

This is part of the changes TikTok is making due to concerns about the mental health effects on young users. It will begin more rigorous screening and then entirely block anyone younger than 13.

There was a cynical, or you might say opportunistic, aspect of TikTok’s beauty filters. Many people would reuse their TikTok videos on other platforms because they subtly looked more attractive. This helped make the TikTok watermark ubiquitous and made the app a content creation hub.

But one must wonder if TikTok advertisers should be wary of other beauty-related changes to come, and they can look to Instagram for a sign of where things might go. Meta has a new policy, beginning in January, that will make it much more difficult, if not outright impossible, for beauty and wellness brands to optimize based on conversions.

When skin care, supplement or health care brands optimize based on conversions or down-funnel behavior, they almost inevitably laser in on people who are anxious about, say, wrinkles, their bellies or their own mental health.

Searching For Dirt

The DOJ’s search antitrust trial against Google is in the remedies phase – and Google is using the opportunity to peek into rival generative AI search startups. 

Google issued subpoenas to OpenAI, Perplexity AI and Microsoft in October, which became public last week, Digiday reports.

Google is attempting to prove it faces strong competition, undermining the US government’s ruling that it operates a search monopoly. But the scope of Google’s requests promises tantalizing glimpses into how these platforms are trained and the backroom deals they’ve struck.

For instance, Google wants OpenAI to disclose ChatGPT’s usage, financials and training data, plus any agreements with third parties, including Perplexity and Microsoft’s Bing Search API. 

OpenAI agreed to release board discussions about ChatGPT’s search distribution and advertising plans, but balked at disclosing its training data and financials. Makes sense, considering OpenAI is facing copyright infringement lawsuits galore and open questions about its business model.

Google had similar asks for Perplexity and Microsoft, and both companies are complying to varying degrees.

Google’s subpoenas will inform what’s sure to be a drawn-out appeals process. Industry skeptics believe that, as the wheels of justice slowly turn, Google will use its current search dominance to prop up a standalone Gemini product before any AI competitors can truly take hold.

But Wait! There’s More!

Uber faces an FTC probe over its subscription plans. [Bloomberg]

Bluesky’s open API lets anyone scrape user posts to train AI. [404 Media]

The bizarre Amazon influencer copyright case that could change the future of social media marketing. [The Verge]

Consumers think generative AI ads look weird, but advertisers are gonna make them anyway. [WSJ]

You’re Hired!

SeenThis appoints Hannah O’Neill as VP of sales for EMEA. [MarTech Series]