Black Friday is typically thought of as a make-or-break time for retailers, but the pre-holiday shopping frenzy is equally important for the credit card and payments companies that make all that spending possible.
In-store shopping has been under pressure during what many call the retail apocalypse. Retail giants like Gap and Macy's that used to rely on heavy mall traffic have turned to ecommerce to drive sales, where they compete with players like Amazon.
Online, Black Friday has become more than a one-day event. Amazon started its Black Friday rollout a week early, and other retailers have gone live with deals throughout the week.
But brick-and-mortar shopping is key for small businesses without an online presence, and American Express is betting on tech pushes to get shoppers to spend at small shops.
For the past 10 years, Amex has promoted Small Business Saturday, where they encourage cardholders to shop at local stores the day after Black Friday.
Amex hosted a pop-up event last week in New York that went all-out to promote its Small Business Saturday push and debut what it calls "The Big Future of Shopping Small." To bring that to life, Amex partnered with several small businesses to showcase some new tech that the credit card giant has been working on.
Amex has even brought on Lin-Manuel Miranda, the writer and composer behind the Broadway show Hamilton, as a brand ambassador for Small Business Saturday. At the event, he and Amex' chief marketing officer, Elizabeth Rutledgeand, discussed the importance of small businesses.
Miranda himself became a small business owner after purchasing the Drama Book Shop in midtown Manhattan to keep it from going out of business.
Amex isn't the only credit card company pushing futuristic tech to keep people shopping in-store. Mastercard recently rolled out Provenance, its own blockchain which lets grocery shoppers scan a QR code to see the origin of seafood.
At Mastercard's own technology showcase in September, there was an AR element to the blockchain shrimp. Using a smartphone, we got to look around the Florida harbor where the shrimp were caught.
We got a preview of some of Amex' tech pushes, from biometric donut choices to augmented reality wine shopping.
There was a Glazed and Confused mini donut stand, which featured biometric flavor recommendation. A camera watched your face as you are shown images—like a carnival ride or cows grazing on a farm. Based on how you reacted to the images, it recommended a flavor for you.
There was a clothing boutique of upcycled clothes from designer Zero Waste Daniel. Across the way, there was a virtual clothing store, where you couldn't touch or feel the clothes, but swipe through options on a tablet.
The idea is that virtual stores could prove more efficient for small businesses who can't afford large backstocks of clothes. Shoppers could use the virtual store to purchase clothes that are out of stock, or before the retailer actually orders them from a supplier.
At the wine shop, there was also an AR push. Using a smartphone, a shopper could learn more about a bottle of wine's blend and brand.
One of FedEx's SameDay delivery robots, known as Roxos, was also in attendance at the event.
Last week, FedEx unleashed some of these robots on the streets of New York to promote them, though the robots are still in testing. FedEx received a cease-and-desist letter from New York's Department of Transportation on Monday.
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