RUFUS CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT
The LLM-based Rufus Shopping AI launched as a Beta feature for US customers in July 2024. We were tasked with teaching the world all the cool ways you can use the assistant to shop smarter.
We started with a series of onsite ads, geared toward highlighting niche queries tied to seasonal events, showing that Rufus can help you with any shopping mission, no matter how big, small, or weird.
The ads directed customers straight into the chat experience with a pre-populated query for a hands-on way to learn how to use the feature.
Art Directors: Tristan Olarti, Alex Yachi
My role:
collaborating with Art & Design on overall concept and layout
headline writing
Seasonal Push Notifications for Back-to-School & Off-to-College
ALEXA FOR SHOPPING LAUNCH
Seasonal Onsite Banners
Noteworthy metric: “Pickiest pups” Pet Day banner received 627,909 impressions, 38,043 taps, a 6.06% click-through rate (CTR; between 0.5% and 2% is generally considered good), and 4,451 in absolute Rufus engagement
Social and Display Ads
Noteworthy metric: “Screen-free toys for kids” holiday banner received 3.35% CTR (+71bps to avg CTR of ads in the slot where it ran)
In early 2026, Amazon folded the Rufus technology into the Alexa family of AI personal assistance products. This created a more connected experience for customers, with a shopping assistant on their mobile Amazon app and Amazon.com that could pull relevant conversation data from Alexa-enabled home devices.
It also meant a need to think through how to transition existing Rufus users to Alexa for Shopping, and how to make it clear what the difference is between regular Alexa, Alexa+, and Alexa for Shopping.
I was tasked as a core content partner to help bring Alexa for Shopping to market. I worked across the full launch content ecosystem, from customer-facing onsite placements to social media advertising, ensuring the launch landed consistently and compellingly across every touchpoint.
My role:
Co-developed the complete suite of go-to-market assets spanning social media ads, onsite placements, and digital campaigns—writing copy that introduced customers to a familiar assistant in a new light.
Owned the update and refresh of all FAQ content and the Get Started landing page—ensuring the most visible educational touchpoints reflected Alexa for Shopping accurately and accessibly from day one.
Co-concepted a splash screen animation for the launch—a branded moment seen by all customers upon opening the Amazon app, serving as the first impression of Alexa for Shopping at scale.
Landing Page
Just as we did with the launch of Rufus, we created a landing page for Alexa for Shopping, to serve as the overall explainer for how this shopping assistant works, and where to find it. Our landing page includes a comprehensive FAQ section to answer the more nuanced questions previous Rufus users might have, such as, “Does this require a paid subscription like Alexa+?” and “How is this different from Rufus?”
Splash Screen
For the launch of Alexa for Shopping, we created a splash screen that played briefly for all customers upon opening the app for the first time post-launch. This drew attention to the change for prior Rufus users and added a touch of excitement for new users. Our splash screen resolved on the location of the Alexa for Shopping ingress with in the app.
Noteworthy metrics:
Delivered 181.5M impressions. The impression cap reset on 5/25 and drove a 79% day-over-day increase for customers who clicked into Alexa for Shopping (vs. 182% day-over-day increase on 5/18). We measured sustained daily increase in Alexa for Shopping interactions of 56%, which we correlated to awareness driven by the splash screen.
Noteworthy metrics:
Amazon homepage Window Display ads delivered 110M views, converting to 106K interactions across 30K sessions at $0 cost—the highest interaction-per-session rate (3.6x) of any channel, confirming it reaches an already-engaged audience. The placement drove 50% of total Homepage campaign views, with CTR at 0.68% (15bps above trailing 3-month average).