This is a practical guide for how Amazon sellers can reach customers using Rufus and other Amazon AI tools. Rufus is the AI-powered shopping assistant available to Amazon customers that is designed to help save time and make more informed purchase decisions by answering a variety of shopping questions. As an Amazon seller, it is important to understand how customers shop in order to better reach your customers. AI tools are becoming more prevalent and normal as an avenue for shopping so sellers should consider not just the Amazon Search Bar but the other ways customers are engaging with your brand. By approaching Amazon Rufus from a seller’s perspective, you will set yourself apart from your competitors by capturing this growing trend of shopping behavior. This post will cover what Amazon Rufus is, a practical guide for how sellers can reach Amazon customers using Amazon Rufus, and other Amazon AI tools for Amazon Sellers.
Amazon Rufus Overview
Amazon Rufus is the generative AI-powered conversational shopping experience for Amazon shoppers. Currently within the Amazon mobile app in the US customers can interact with Rufus to answer customer questions on shopping needs, products, comparisons, make recommendations based on context, and help customers find what they are looking for. Rufus is trained on Amazon’s product catalog, customer reviews, community Q&A’s, and information from across the internet. Rufus is conversational meaning customers can respond in real time to refine the results provided by Rufus. Traditionally, customers have searched to find products using the Amazon Search Bar. I don’t see Rufus as replacing the Amazon search bar but this can be more of a supplementary tool to help find the product customers are looking for, or even help surface a product that customers didn’t know they were looking for. Tools like Rufus provide a better and more enhanced shopping experience for Amazon customers which will have customers returning back to the site. Let’s shift to the Amazon Sellers perspective to see how sellers can reach customers with Rufus.
How Sellers Can Reach Customers Using Amazon Rufus
Let’s look at the different features Amazon Rufus has and how Amazon Sellers can help train the AI tool to provide better results and feature your product more effectively.
Ensure Accurate Product Listing Details
Making sure you include accurate product details and merchanding has always been important, but with Rufus, it makes it even more important because Rufus can help sellers conduct more detailed product research within a listing. If you pull up Rufus when you are on a product listing such as a wrench set, Amazon customers can ask questions such as “How does its chrome finish prevent rusting?”, “Can its angled open end access tight spaces?”, “Is its roll pouch easy to carry?”, etc. Including correct product details will help train the AI model to provide accurate details in answers.
Include More Purpose Based Product Information in Product Listings
Rufus can enable customers to search and discover products based on activities, events, and purposes. For example, they can ask “What tools and equipment do I need for lawn care?” Sellers can make sure to provide content and context that explains how your product is used in lawn care to help train Rufus to understand how the product is used. Traditionally, Amazon product details and content skewed heavily on including keywords and search terms - or what the product is. With Amazon Rufus, content should also be more geared around general content - who the product is for, how to use it, when to use it, etc. Really put yourself in the shoes of an Amazon customer when adding content to Amazon listings.
Incorporate Your Target Customer in Product Details
Rufus is able to provide recommendations for gift giving to Amazon customers. For example, if an Amazon customer were to search for a “gift for a 10-year old?” if you include within your bullet points or product description that your product is suitable for a 10-year-old, you are more likely to be featured and surfaced by Rufus.
Respond to Community Q&A
Rufus pulls answers from product details, customer reviews, and community Q&As. By responding to product listings questions and answers, you are helping to train Rufus in providing the best responses to Amazon customers. Be sure to follow the Amazon Community Guidelines and policy and compliance when interacting on Amazon.
Understand What Rufus is Telling Your Amazon Customers
Pick up your Amazon mobile app and start interacting with Rufus on your product listings. This is a great way to surface what Rufus is suggesting to ask your questions and how Rufus responds to inquiries. If you find Rufus is providing incorrect information you can downvote the result to provide feedback and also identify where on your product listing you could improve your content.
Amazon AI Tools for Amazon Sellers
Amazon Rufus is just one of many AI tools currently available to Amazon Sellers. Here are some other Amazon AI programs sellers can interact with in order to better reach Amazon customers:
Amazon Generative AI Listing Content
If you have created an Amazon listing recently, you may have noticed the “Generate Listing Content” early access feature that automatically generates your title, description, and bullet points from a short input. You only need to enter a short phrase description about your product and Amazon will generate content for you to review and refine. This tool can help sellers speed up content creation but should edited for accuracy and information you know about the products you are selling
Amazon AI Image Generator
The Amazon AI-powered image generator is an Amazon Ads tool that helps you create product images using your product image along with a text input to create an AI-generated image that can be used in advertising and product listing. It can be expensive and time consuming taking images of products in natural environments, so this tool can help companies save costs while also increasing the speed of testing what images work best in ads.
Customer Review AI Highlight Experience
Amazon is using generative AI to summarize Amazon product reviews. Amazon pulls out the specific themes and sentiments from reviews to create a short paragraph highlighting product features. This helps Amazon customers understand holistically how other customers have viewed the product. Amazon Sellers can take this information and address their product in the product details or for future product development to create better products for Amazon customers.
FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions on How Amazon Sellers Can Reach Customers Using Rufus
What is Amazon Rufus?
Amazon Rufus is the name of the generative AI conversational shopping companion for Amazon shoppers to help find and answer questions about Amazon products.
How can seller’s products be featured in Amazon Rufus?
Seller’s products are featured automatically in Rufus but can show up more if you include more relevant content about your product that is surfaced from Rufus discussions.
What information is Amazon Rufus trained from?
Amazon Rufus is trained from Amazon’s product catalog, customer reviews, community Q&A’s, and information from across the internet.
How can Amazon Sellers train Amazon Rufus more effectively?
Amazon Sellers can train Amazon Rufus more effectively by ensuring accurate product listing details, including more purpose based product information in product listings, incorporating target customer information in product details, responding to community Q&A, and understanding what Rufus is telling Amazon customers.
Why is it important for Amazon Sellers to address Amazon Rufus?
It is important for Amazon Sellers to address Amazon Rufus because it is a new way for customers to shop and interact with your product and brand. If you are featured more in general searches this will increase your organic brand awareness for your product and can lead to more sales.
What are other Amazon AI tools available for Amazon Sellers?
Generative AI listing content, image generator, and customer review are a few AI tools Amazon sellers can use to improve their selling on Amazon.
Conclusion
Amazon Rufus is a new and exciting AI generative shopping companion for Amazon customers. Sellers should understand how Amazon customers are using this tool in order to best get your product in front of them. Integrating an Amazon Rufus product research process can help you generate more sales and provide a better shopping experience for Amazon customers. Remember with all of these AI tools, the current state is the worst it will ever be and the systems continue to improve with more use. Goat Consulting can help you understand how Amazon customers are using Amazon Rufus with your product listings. Reach out through our contact form to start the conversation.
About the Author - Mac Richards
This post was written by Mac Richards, an Account Manager at Goat Consulting. Mac helps his clients sell on Amazon by increasing sales, mitigating risk, reducing costs, and solving problems. Mac has experience and expertise in researching how Amazon customers use Amazon Rufus to shop for products, and improving merchandising in order to surface products more frequently and accurately on Rufus. If you want help with understanding Amazon Rufus for sellers, or assistance with other aspects of selling on Amazon, please reach out through our contact us form.