Revolution Beauty said a record-breaking number of customer enquires were handled by AI over the Black Friday Cyber Monday (BFCM) weekend.

Data from the beauty retailer and conversational commerce solution, CM.com, showed that during its Black Friday sales period, Revolution Beauty’s AI chatbots handled nearly a quarter of all customer queries end-to-end, without the need for an agent handover to human customer care reps.

It also said one in three (29%) of all customer queries resolved by its AI agents took place on WhatsApp.

AI-assisted customer care

“It’s been a record-breaking weekend for us, which has led to a rise in queries around products and deliveries as people try to make the most of deals,” Steve Griffiths, Head of Digital Development at Revolution Beauty, commented. 

“The Black Friday weekend is the one of the biggest moments in the retail calendar,” added Hodny Benazzi, GM at CM.com, which provides Revolution Beauty with Mobile Cloud Services. “It’s the moment when customer service is really put to the test.”

Beating the Black Friday customer query backlog

Compared to Black Friday 2024, Revolution Beauty customer queries which reached its human customer care team were almost -60% lower, highlighting the growing role of AI in resolving routine shopper questions quickly and efficiently.

With AI fielding more queries, this meant the retailer’s customer service teams were freed up to focus on other essential tasks. It also helped Revolution Beauty limit unresolved queries.

By the end of the Black Friday weekend, the volume of outstanding queries fell by -95% compared to 2024, helping the retailer avoid a customer service “hangover” from Black Friday extending into peak December trading.

“Having AI-assisted chatbots working in sync with our team of service agents meant every customer got the help they needed, fast,” said Griffiths. “People have changed how they like to communicate and it’s crucial we keep pace.”

“Revolution Beauty understands the importance of meeting customers where they are,” Benazzi explained. “By blending intelligent AI-powered chatbots with live support, they delivered fast, personalised service at scale, on the channels shoppers prefer [and] when it mattered most.”