Your Black Friday Buys Could Show Up on the Las Vegas Sphere

As you’re scrolling through Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals this week, your purchases just might make an appearance on the Las Vegas Sphere.

Shopify worked with Sphere to create a real-time activation on the structure’s Exosphere—which it claims is the world’s largest LED screen—enveloping Sin City’s immersive, globe-shaped venue. That screen opened up to advertisers last year, offering a new, over-the-top way for advertisers to make their mark in a famously over-the-top city.

It’s also a way for Shopify to highlight the scale of its platform. It’s often an invisible, behind-the-scenes ecommerce tech partner to businesses that range from tiny entrepreneurs to major retailers, explained Brennan Loh, director of brand at Shopify.

“On an annual basis, Shopify would be the second largest retailer in the U.S.,” Loh said. Earlier this year, cumulative sales made on the platform since its inception surpassed $1 trillion.

It’s the second year in a row that Shopify has worked with Sphere to bring Black Friday shopping data from its ecommerce platform to Las Vegas. The Live Globe concept predates the Sphere, though—Shopify has been creating a digital visualization of its Black Friday purchase data annually since 2018.

The Live Globe shows a map of the world with streaks of light that dart across borders and continents as purchases are made—visualizing each transaction that happens through the ecommerce platform.

This year, there’ll be additional Easter Egg-style animations, Loh explained. For example, every time a merchant makes their first-ever sale on the platform, fireworks will explode from their location on the map.

BFCM Live on the @SphereVegas

And I mean truly live! It turns out that the Sphere can be powered by the Unreal Engine, so of course we had to go there. Place an order from your phone, see it arc in front of you! pic.twitter.com/ecsNIQhVic

— tobi lutke (@tobi) November 29, 2024