Hey, it’s Cam 👋

BFCM is officially behind us.

Operators everywhere are slowly prying their eyes away from Shopify dashboards and FB Ads Manager.

If that’s you, have a big sip of your coffee and take a deep breath, because now it’s time for the holiday push.

BUT… before we hear Mariah Carey 1000 times, let’s break down what actually happened this weekend and why it was a massive W for Shopify merchants.

What’s in this issue

• Shopify merchants smashed records on Black Friday

• OpenAI’s new “Shopping Research” mode

• ChatGPT ads might be coming sooner than we thought

• Why consumer confidence is low but spending is high

• Gen Z’s new shopping behaviors

• Ben’s new Italy video

• We’re hiring at Platter

BFCM SUMMARY

Shopify merchants absolutely crushed Black Friday Cyber Monday

Harley dropped the numbers from Black Friday Cyber Monday and… wow.

Merchants on Shopify did $14.1B in sales, up 27% YoY.

At peak on Black Friday, they hit $5.1 million in sales per minute with an average cart of $117.93.

He gave a special shout out to these trending products:

• The Quencher ProTour Flip Straw Tumbler by Stanley 1913

• Cotton Jersey Long Sleeve T-Shirt by SKIMS

• Brightening Eye Masks by DRMTLGY

• ALO, Accolate Crew Neck Pullover

• Cozy Earth, Bamboo Sheet Set

• Merit Beauty, Flush Balm

• Goose Creek Candle, Christmas Tree 3-Wick Candle

• Caraway Home, Cookware Set

• ILIA Beauty, Super Serum Skin Tint

• Brooklinen, Super Plush Robe

• Béis, The Weekender

Here is a full breakdown from Shopify of the BFCM numbers.

But the Shopify stats were just the start. Here’s the full picture from across the industry…

The Black Friday TLDR

• Americans spent $11.8B online on Black Friday (Adobe), up from $10.8B last year.

• From Nov 1 to 23 — before the shopping weekend even began — U.S. shoppers already spent $79.7B online (+7.5% YoY).

• BNPL exploded with $6.1B in spend (+10.3% YoY) — a macro signal that consumers are leaning heavy on credit

• Salesforce tracked $79B in global Black Friday spend (+6% YoY).

• Their data shows prices were up 7% while order volume fell 1% — meaning people didn’t decide to buy more, they just paid more for the same stuff.

• Mastercard reported 4.1% overall growth across online and retail. Online alone grew 10.4%.

• Adobe expects Cyber Monday to hit $14.2B, which we’ll cover next week.

Read the full story from Reuters.

MAIN STORY

OpenAI quietly launched a shopping assistant that… actually works

Right on cue for BFCM, OpenAI released Shopping Research, a new mode in ChatGPT that builds personalized buying guides based on your preferences, past chats, and public product data.

It’s live right now for Free, Go, Plus, and Pro users.

What it does:

• Find products (“best gaming laptop under $1,000”)

• Discover dupes

• Compare 2–3 items

• Pick gifts

• Hunt Cyber Monday deals

• Make you feel like your laptop is judging your taste

When you ask a shopping-related question, ChatGPT launches a short quiz, tried to understand your constraints, then spits out a clean buyer’s guide with tables, pros/cons, and recommendations.

I tested “best sippy water bottle under $50” and it recommended the exact Owala bottle I already own — despite me never mentioning it. So either the model is getting good… or my taste is now officially predictable.

It’s worth noting…

OpenAI has deals with Walmart, Etsy, Shopify, and Target, but says Shopping Research is unsponsored. Yet.Which brings us to…

FOLLOW UP STORY

ChatGPT is getting ads. For real this time.

Developers digging through the latest Android beta found references to:

• “ads feature”

• “search ad”

• “search ads carousel”

• “bazaar content” (???)

This suggests OpenAI is preparing ad units inside commercial queries, similar to:

• Google’s AI Overview ads

• Copilot’s shopping ads

• Perplexity’s sponsored follow-ups

The most likely placement:

• Shopping and search queries → product cards.

Paid users likely stay ad-free. Free users get more usage in exchange for ads. Which honestly, makes sense. Running ChatGPT is wildly expensive and they need new revenue streams.

Sam Altman has famously waffled between “ads suck” and “ads are probably inevitable.” Looks like we’re entering the “inevitable” era for everyones favorite LLM.

PLATTER UPDATE

We're hiring!

We mentioned this in last weeks newsletter, but I’m going to spam you again. Platter is hiring, again.

We’re growing fast and bringing on a few new roles.

1. Project Manager

2. Senior UX/UI Designer

3. Technical Business Analyst

4. Senior Strategist 

If you know someone great? Email [email protected] and make an intro.

OTHER NEWS

Consumer spending vs confidence

The economy looks strong on paper, but it’s being propped up by the wealthiest households. This episode does a great job breaking it down.

Give the episode a listen on Spotify.

Gen Z spending slowdown

WSJ reports that Gen Z isn’t spending the way retailers hoped. Lots of thrift, second-hand, and low-price behavior creeping in.

Read the full WSJ article.

Shopify goes 3D with the Sphere

So this is not important at all, but it’s very cool. The Sphere in Vegas went full Shopify takeover. It looked insane. (Worth a watch)

Read the breakdown of Twitter.

VIDEO OF THE WEEK

New video alert

Ben dropped a great new YouTube video.

He just got back from a much-needed trip to Italy where he touched grass, disconnected, and remembered what life feels like outside of Slack.

If you’ve ever struggled to step away from the business, this one will hit.

If you’re still reading, I’ve got a teaser for what’s coming in Thursdays issue… I sat down with the team and did a full breakdown of Sidio Crate’s Shopify store.

Their store was one of the most-clicked links in the newsletter back in July. And for good reason.

All I’m going to say is this: when they came to us, they had just rebuilt their store three months earlier. Three months. And it was already costing them tens of thousands of dollars in lost revenue.

Full teardown coming Thursday, make sure to check it out.

Have a good week people!