Another week has ended—but not our search for save-the-best-for-last ecommerce scoops. Here goes our final news lineup for this week:
- Amazon’s AI shopping assistant “Rufus” 🤖
- Sell on Walmart Marketplace—sell big, save big 🛍️
- TikTok Shop listings on Google 🔝
- Social media KPIs to watch out for 🤳
TECH MARKETING
A month after its beta debut, Amazon’s Rufus is reportedly having a pretty “ruf” time already. According to some users, the AI-powered shopping assistant struggles to give consistently relevant suggestions and answer specific queries.
But let’s give it a break, shall we? As a new chatbot, Rufus still needs inputs, specifically optimized listings. Feedvisor shares a detailed guide on how you can make the most of this new Amazon plaything.
❔ So, how do you optimize listings for Rufus?
There are 4 parts of a product listing you can optimize:
- Title. The rule is to include your brand name, the product model, and product attributes (color, size, etc.).
- Tip: Make the best of your 200-character limit by inserting the primary benefit of your product and using numeric values.
- Product images. You can add up to 9 photos to listings, with a mandatory main image that has a white background. When you do, remember to follow Amazon’s image guidelines.
- Tip: Include some text highlighting product features and do not show accessories NOT included in the listing.
- Bullet points. Not everyone will read every word on your listing—but Rufus will. 🥸
- Tip: To help the chatbot efficiently scan item information, list important features first. Also, keep each bullet under 250 characters and use headers with 2–5 words to sum up the info in each bullet.
- Product description. This is where you can place instructions on how to use the product, safety information, and care tips.
- Tip: Keep it short (under 2,000 characters) and clear. You can also add keywords and factual information.
Despite being backed by AI, Rufus can only do so much. If you want your listings to be discoverable, you have to optimize your content so it can provide valuable shopping assistance to potential customers. 🤖
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BITES OF THE WEEK
- Perfect Timing: Do you know when is the best time to post on X?
- Textbook Restrictions: Ironically Amazon, which started from selling books, has restricted the sale of textbooks.
- POS this 2024: Point-of-sale systems have new roles beyond payment transactions.
- March Shutdown: Google Business Profile websites will be discontinued this month, so migrate now.
HOT TOPIC
Will TikTok Shop switch from content-based to search-based shopping?
This question popped up after Modern Retail reported that TikTok Shop listings are ranking on Google search. According to the report, beauty and skincare products from the platform made an appearance on the search engine, along with goodies from top ecommerce sites.
What’s going on?
A spokesperson from TikTok said their marketing team is constantly testing new strategies and confirmed Google Shopping ads are one of them.
Juozas Kaziukėnas, founder and CEO of Marketplace Pulse, shared some insights into why the industry newcomer did this:
- As Google remains the most popular search engine, it’s not surprising TikTok wants a slice of that pie. 🍰
- TikTok Shop revolves around content that promotes products. But that model can’t replace search-based commerce.
- Still, TikTok won’t probably rely on search-based ads as the main drivers of traffic because its content-based approach is its unique edge over other ecommerce players.
💭 But why Google?
The better question is: Why not Google?
Aside from being the most popular search engine in the world, Google SEO will help you hit the jackpot in online visibility. In fact, Shopify will also be advertising on Google (and Meta) to enhance its sites’ exposure.
If this doesn’t inspire you to optimize your SEO strategy, we don’t know what will.
SOCIAL PULSE
How effective is your social media marketing strategy?
Not sure if your social media marketing is working? Here are the crucial KPIs you must monitor (AND improve), according to Bazaarvoice. 🔍
1. Awareness metrics
Although this metric doesn’t convert to sales, it gives insights into your brand’s reach and visibility. Some of the KPIs to keep an eye on include:
- Impressions, which refer to how many times a post is seen and check whether you’re visible to relevant audiences. Do note that the number of impressions isn’t equal to the number of viewers.
- Community count, which represents your followers—the number of people who want to see more of your brand.
- Social engagement, which indicates how often your audience interacts with your posts.
2. Consideration metrics
Some shoppers linger on the consideration phase before deciding to purchase. The KPIs to consider are site traffic, lead generation, site sessions, and visit duration.
3. Purchase metrics
These are the metrics connected to your cash flow, such as revenue, number of transactions, conversion rate, andaverage order value (AOV). Just be careful when analyzing these because there’s a thing called attribution, which is when a customer who liked your social media post may choose to purchase through a different channel (like via an email link).
How are your social KPIs this quarter so far? Share your ‘social status’ with us by replying to this email. 🖱️
