Amazon Prime Day has become a destination for shoppers looking to score great deals. Price drops can be substantial, sometimes up to 40% off an item, but without knowing a product’s price history, it’s impossible to know if there’s a deal. really a deal Consumers have long used third-party price trackers to fill that gap, but now Amazon says it will let some users access that information via a quick chat with its AI shopping bot, Rufus.
Take, for example, this week’s deal on the LifeStraw Personal Water Filter. As part of Prime Big Deal Days, the filter was available for $10, half off its original price of $20, and it looked like a steal. But was it really a bargain or had the price been even lower? Until recently, the company didn’t tell you. But in recent weeks, it has quietly begun testing greater transparency. To gain access just use Rufus.
Released to select users in February and to everyone in the US in July, Rufus is Amazon’s shopping-focused answer to ChatGPT. It can be accessed from the bubbles icon at the bottom right of the Amazon app or at the top left of their website navigation.
Some early reviews found it unreliable and only moderately useful. Rajiv Mehta, Amazon’s vice president of conversational search and shopping, wrote in a blog post last month that users have been overwhelming Rufus with questions about product details, recommendations on what to buy and how they compare. articles Rufus can also handle inquiries about orders or the meaning of life.
What Mehta didn’t mention was Rufus’ price history capability. Navigate to a product page, tap Rufus, and ask it for “price history.” In the case of the Lifestraw filter, Rufus wrote during this week’s sale: “This is the lowest price on Amazon in the last 30 days.”
In the Amazon app, Rufus also presented a line chart showing the price of the filter over the past month. He revealed that the price was below $20 throughout the period and as low as $14 on several days. So the deal price represented a bargain, yes, but perhaps not as deep a discount as advertised by Prime Big Deals Days.
Amazon spokeswoman Janelle Rasey says exposing price history is an experiment available to a limited number of US users. “The goal is to make customers’ lives better and easier every day, including helping them find and discover anything they want and make informed purchasing decisions in our store,” he says. “We regularly test new features to help customers get great value from our wide selection.”
LifeStraw did not respond to a request for comment.
