Amazon’s Rufus – Friend or Foe for Sellers?

You may have heard that Amazon recently started rolling out its new super powerful AI-powered bot called Amazon Rufus, designed to help shoppers find exactly what it thinks they’re looking for with pinpoint accuracy.

In this article, I’m going to tell you a bit about this bot and show you whether this bot is likely to be a friend or foe for us Amazon sellers.

Despite the friendly name, Rufus is not something you want to ignore or get on the wrong side of because if you’re selling on Amazon and misunderstand him… you’re in trouble.

Don’t worry though; it’s not all doom and gloom. I will also show you what you need to be doing to make sure you remain best pals with good old Rufus.

What Is Amazon Rufus?

So who or what is Amazon Rufus and how does it work? In a nutshell, it’s an AI bot designed by Amazon that’s basically made to help people search in a smarter way. According to Amazon, Rufus has been trained on everything about Amazon’s product catalog, customer reviews, community Q&As, and relevant information from across the web about all kinds of products and shopper needs.

Having all of this knowledge means that customers on Amazon are now able to get much more tailored product suggestions than before (… plus one other thing I’ll tell you about in a minute)…

And that’s because Rufus can answer any customer questions and provide product recommendations based on very specific long-tail keywords that a customer is possibly unknowingly looking for.

So for example, instead of just typing in “men’s face soap”, a shopper can ask Rufus: “What’s better for my face: bar soap or liquid soap?” or “What kind of soap should a 30-year-old man use to look like David Beckham at 50?”… (I promise I haven’t tried that prompt… yet).

Just like any search engine, Rufus will use its knowledge to prioritize certain suggestions over others.

And this is where us Amazon Sellers need to stay on our toes.

What It Means For Amazon Sellers

The bottom line for Amazon sellers who are building brands is that this is going to completely change the way keyword research is done due to how shoppers will now conduct their searches. This ties back to the new ways shoppers will be able to search.

Currently, if you go to Amazon, a basic generic search query—like “men’s face soap”—will generate a ton of SEO-optimized results for that exact phrase. However, with the help of Rufus, searches will be much more specific—like “cheapest high-quality face soap for a 30-year-old man with sensitive skin who wants to look like David Beckham”.

This means that if you’re selling ‘sensitive skin face soap’, you may still appear on the search results page that the customer sees, but there’s a lot more you’ll need to do to ensure Rufus includes you in its suggestion list and doesn’t ignore your listing if it determines that the customer isn’t likely to be interested.

Moreover, the bot has the ability to ignore your listing in a search result if it doesn’t think it’s what the customer wants.

Now, earlier I mentioned there’s one other thing that this new AI bot Rufus can do, and here it is: Rufus also lets customers ask specific questions about individual products, which it will attempt to answer.

When this happens, Rufus will answer these questions by using its knowledge, pulling from customer reviews, community Q&As, listing details, general web, and a bunch of other information to generate detailed answers.

Now, Rufus hasn’t been fully rolled out to every customer yet – it’s still in beta. Therefore, there’s speculation that Amazon may use Rufus to prioritize vendors who spend more on Amazon advertising. While the truth of this is yet to be seen, there’s no doubt that having a smart and structured approach to Amazon PPC will continue to help sellers with this AI bot.

Regardless, if you want to stay ahead in this game and keep smashing sales, there are a few things that you need to do better than before…

What You Need To Do About It

So before we dive into what you need to be doing about Rufus, let’s remember what you should already be doing anyway.

Amazon’s existing A9 algorithm is already pretty sophisticated. It pulls together things like:

• Keywords from product titles, descriptions, and images
• Listing performance (like click-through and conversion rate)
• Off-site traffic
• Product sales history (including both organic and PPC sales)
• Seller authority and customer ratings

All of these things will remain super important. But here’s what will matter even more…

1. QUALITY PRODUCT

The #1 thing that sellers need to do is the same thing they should already be doing anyway… and that’s to have a kickass QUALITY PRODUCT that’s differentiated from the competition in a way that buyers actually care about.

To put it bluntly: If you don’t have an amazing quality, in-demand product—you’re in trouble. Having a standout brand and product offer is what’s going to get people to leave good reviews, recommend you to friends, and come back to buy more in the future – and keep you in Rufus’ good books.

2. BRAND

Another thing is the strength of your BRAND. If you’re selling a commodity product, your keyword strategy is everything. However, if you’ve built a brand that people know and search for, Amazon and Rufus will put you right at the top. This is branded search—when people search for you by name.

To support this, building an off-Amazon presence will remain super important—through platforms like TikTok, Instagram, or any other social media channel. Social media engagement will be even more crucial.

3. PRODUCT LISTING

Your product LISTING has to be optimized like never before.

Your product title, descriptions, bullet points, videos, images, meta descriptions, A+ content… all need to be optimized to clearly explain what you offer, who your product is ideal for, and what makes it different from your competitors. To achieve this, you need to have a deeper understanding of what your target customer is looking for and ensure you incorporate those longer-tail keywords.

This means investing more time into understanding your customer—their needs, wants, and, more than ever, the actual terms and questions they use to search for your products. Your keywords don’t all need to be in your product title; they can be spread across your listing—in your bullets, image meta descriptions, A+ content, and even your backend keywords, which are like “hidden” key terms.

If you are having problems with your listing, check out my article: Tips for Dealing with Missing Amazon Product Listings.

4. REVIEWS

Additionally, as we’ll see more and more with Rufus, keywords will also matter in your REVIEWS. Your reviews will be an even bigger driver of how Amazon determines customer satisfaction, along with all the positive aspects and shortcomings of your product. Rufus has the ability to read these comments and determine whether to show or hide your listing based on a customer’s specific product needs. Encouraging more and better reviews will play a significant role in your Amazon seller strategy.

If you want to learn more about Amazon reviews, here’s an article about How To Get Amazon To Remove Negative Reviews.

Rufus is something that we’re going to be watching closely at HonestFBA. So if you haven’t already, make sure you’re subscribed to get the latest updates on all things Amazon FBA.

If you want to learn how you can create an Amazon FBA business yourself, then check out my free training where I’ll teach you everything you need to launch your first product on Amazon and scale to $5,000+ in monthly profit.

Or if you’re ready to begin your journey and want to start with the best chances of success, apply to become a member of HonestFBA’s training programme where you’ll receive guidance & support from our team of 7-figure Amazon FBA seller experts whenever you need it.