Minty's latest Prompt Watch reveals a shift toward dupes, fashion and activewear, and more specific holiday gift searches as Black Friday approaches.
Holiday shopping is getting more specific, and shoppers are turning to AI to find exactly what they want without overspending.
Minty's latest Prompt Watch, covering October 26 through November 8, tracks shopping prompts across Minty and its PromptToSave™ library. The newest findings reveal three shifts in how consumers are using AI to shop ahead of Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
1. Luxury shoppers are looking for dupes
One of the biggest shifts is happening in luxury shopping.
Prompts for Luxury & Designer stores fell from 13% to just 2% of retailer prompts, while dupe searches climbed to 20% of all prompt theme views.
Luxury products were the most requested category for dupes, followed by beauty, activewear, and women's fashion.
Rather than searching exclusively for designer brands, shoppers are using AI to explore more affordable alternatives to the products they want.
What this means for brands: Shoppers are comparing products across price points. Brands offering compelling alternatives have an opportunity to appear in those AI-assisted comparisons.
2. Fashion and activewear are gaining momentum
Fashion and activewear saw some of the biggest growth in this reporting period.
Together, Women's Fashion and Athletic & Activewear accounted for 28% of retailer prompts, doubling from 14% in the previous two weeks.
Abercrombie & Fitch ranked as the second-most-prompted brand overall, while Nike, Alo, and Hoka led the activewear category.
Everyday-value retailers still held the largest share at 30%, led by Amazon, Walmart, and Best Buy.
What this means for brands: As BFCM approaches, fashion and activewear brands have an opportunity to reach shoppers who are already using AI to explore retailers, compare products, and discover alternatives.
3. Gift searches are getting more specific
Gifts remained the #1 AI shopping theme, accounting for 23% of views, down from 39% in the previous reporting period.
But shoppers aren't abandoning gift searches. They're broadening their interests, with dupes rising to 20% and trips reaching 13%.
Specialty Gifts stores also doubled their share of retailer prompts to 8%, with 1-800-Flowers and Goldbelly both ranking among the top 15 brands overall.
And gift prompts are becoming increasingly detailed.
Instead of asking for general gift ideas, shoppers are specifying recipients, interests, and budgets. One example from the report involved finding a gift for a 5-year-old girl who loves Frozen.
Common budgets centered around $50 for children's gifts and $100 or more for fashion.
What this means for brands: Showing up in AI shopping results increasingly means being relevant to specific requests, not just broad product categories.
What these AI shopping trends mean heading into BFCM
The latest Prompt Watch shows shoppers moving beyond broad discovery toward more targeted shopping decisions.
They're looking for luxury alternatives, exploring fashion and activewear, and asking for gift recommendations tailored to specific people and budgets.
For brands, the opportunity is to understand the questions shoppers are asking AI and how their products fit into those conversations.
Minty's Prompt Watch tracks shopping prompts across Minty and its PromptToSave library, providing a look at how shopper interests and behaviors are changing.
Explore the full Prompt Watch report for the top 30 brands, category rankings, and product-level shopping trends.
About Minty
Minty is the AI shopping companion proactively unleashing savings that matter most for smart shoppers, creating more loyalty for the brands they shop.
As the pioneer of Proactive Commerce, Minty reaches hundreds of millions of shoppers and is ranked a top 5 eCommerce tool.