Shopping Trends in 2025

How Retailers Can Leverage AI for Planned Purchases and Impulse Buys

By Peter Curran, GM of Commerce, Coveo

Planning for in-the-moment shopper decision making is a big challenge for brands. In the aforementioned holiday outlook report, 80% of consumer respondents said they make spontaneous purchases online. The data released in December delves deeper into the types of products that consumers are most likely to purchase “on the fly.” The top category for impulse buys, selected by 45% of shoppers, was fashion/shoes/apparel with food & beverage items a very close second at 44%. Beauty/cosmetics came in third at 31% and gaming-related gifts tied with home & garden for the fourth most spontaneous types of purchases, at 25%.

While consumers have their preferences for spontaneous purchases, much of their gift planning falls into different categories. The same consumer data showed that in virtually every demographic category surveyed – regionally, across generations and income levels – the top category for gifting was jewelry/cosmetics/perfume, with, on average, 36% of respondents making this selection. Interestingly, 34% of millennial shoppers surveyed also said they worry about giving gifts that increase clutter, which makes sense given the most popular gift category includes items that take up less space. A close second highest selection for gift categories was personalized/custom gifts (35%) and fashion/apparel came in third (32%). Regionally, there was some variation with books having more popularity for gifting with UK consumers versus home goods for U.S. shoppers (both 27%).

With the vast majority of consumers prone to making spontaneous purchases online, retailers should look to AI to help them adapt to the uncertainty of the economy and other factors impacting consumer confidence and spending to maximize results in their favor. This is where AI-led intelligent search is effective at connecting shoppers with relevant items based on zero party user data, in-session behavior, and search context. AI-powered search not only delivers personalized results but also suggests complementary items, highlights limited-time offers and enhances search with autocomplete suggestions. This helps shoppers discover products they’ll love—even when their search query doesn’t exactly match the product description or when exact-matching products are no longer available.

Meanwhile, when it comes to helping shoppers who are looking for specific items, the best avenue may be Generative AI, integrated into assistants like ChatGPT and Google Assistant. This can be particularly useful for accommodating shoppers on the lookout for various gift occasions all year long – from Valentine’s Day to Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, graduations, birthdays, etc. AI assistants can provide helpful, human-like replies to questions such as what to buy a 12-year-old baseball fan who lives in Saint Louis but roots for the Cubs, or the top choices for sustainable cosmetics that complement neutral-cool undertones, improving the experience and making it more likely that shoppers will be compelled to make return visits. It’s entirely possible that we’re at an inflection point and 2025 is the year when this experience becomes the new gift shopping routine.

In fact, according to findings from Salesforce, brands are jumping on the AI bandwagon: during Cyber Week, $60 billion of global online sales were influenced by AI and agents for product recommendations, targeted offers, and conversational customer service support. This trend is especially popular among younger generations and higher-income households, who appear to be more open to AI-assisted shopping. In our holiday outlook report data, 44% of millennials said they’d like to use AI assistants for gift buying (as compared to 16% for Baby Boomers), and this number is expected to increase as consumers experience success with these tools.

Overall, the advent of AI is up leveling what’s possible in personalization for the retail market. While personalized product recommendations are already the norm, entire experiences like custom “shops within shops” will be possible thanks to improved machine learning algorithms. Advanced AI algorithms are already enabling sellers to individualize messaging and experiences at the per-shopper level. As AI continues to increase in sophistication, it will deliver hyper-personalized shopping journeys that adapt in real-time to individual preferences and needs, creating a transformed experience for consumers and benefitting brands as a result.