Andrew Bell, VP of Research at ReFiBuy, joins the podcast to share what it actually takes to rank #1 in Alexa for Shopping, Amazon’s AI shopping assistant, drawing on ReFiBuy’s study of 100,000 shopper prompts. Every seller wants position one, but in Amazon’s AI shopping results, “#1” works differently than it does in search. Alexa for Shopping groups products into themed “semantic shelves,” so a product can rank first on the shelf that matters most to its buyers without topping the overall answer. And with no Alexa-attributed sales reporting yet, most sellers are guessing at what moves them up. Andrew breaks down how Alexa for Shopping builds its rankings: it fans out multiple Amazon searches to pull in a pool of products, then re-ranks them based on context. That makes Amazon SEO the entry ticket, not a thing of the past. He shares the ranking factors from the study, including the 4.0-star rating floor products need to compete, why 53% of product rationales cite a specific use case, and why item name and item highlights carry so much weight in the re-ranking. He also explains how to map Search Query Performance reports to customer missions to win the right shelves, why sponsored prompt reports are the best way to measure results today, and which off-Amazon sources, from Quora to Alibaba’s Accio, show up in Alexa’s citations.

Episode Notes:

00:00 - Intro & the 100K Prompt Study

01:28 - Andrew’s Background

02:27 - Why Amazon SEO Still Matters

05:14 - Alexa Usage on Shopping Holidays

06:04 - How the Study Worked

06:49 - Alexa’s Three Shopping Contexts

09:23 - What Ranking #1 Really Means

10:19 - The 4.0-Star Floor

12:40 - Be Use-Case Specific

14:35 - Item Name & Item Highlights

15:54 - Mapping Search Terms to Missions

16:34 - Are Brands Seeing Results?

18:28 - The New Item Details Field

21:04 - How Top Brands Use Alexa

23:36 - Measuring Alexa ROI

27:08 - Sponsored Prompt Reports

28:17 - ChatGPT Habits on Alexa

31:40 - Does Off-Amazon Content Help?

33:46 - Citations: Quora & Accio

35:04 - Learn More About ReFiBuy

Related Post: SmartScout MCP Prompt Library

How to Reach Andrew: Website: refibuy.ai LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/andrew-bell-540403275

Scott’s Links: LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/scott-needham-a8b39813 X: @itsScottNeedham Instagram: @smartestseller YouTube: www.youtube.com/@smartestamazonseller2371 Newsletter: smartscout.com/newsletter-sign-up Blog: smartscout.com/blog

Episode 340 - How to Rank #1 in Amazon's AI Shopping Results

The Smartest Amazon Seller

Episode 340 - How to Rank #1 in Amazon's AI Shopping Results