HireNinja: Blog

Updated January 19, 2026: Amazon took Alexa to the web with Alexa.com during CES week. Six days later, Google announced the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) so agents can discover products and complete checkout. Lenovo debuted its ambient AI platform Qira, BMW confirmed an Alexa+ in‑car rollout in H2 2026, and Razer previewed AVA, a desk companion. Translation: assistant search is now a real acquisition channel.

This guide is your AASO playbook—Assistant App/Answer Store Optimization—to rank on Alexa.com and Qira while protecting (and compounding) your classic SEO.

What is AASO—and why it matters now

AASO is the discipline of making your brand, products, and actions discoverable and executable by AI assistants. If SEO earned blue links, AASO earns assistant actions: add‑to‑cart, book, subscribe, schedule, and track.

• Discovery surfaces: Alexa.com web, Alexa app, Google AI Mode/Gemini, Lenovo Qira surfaces, desk companions.
• Execution rails: UCP endpoints (discovery → cart → checkout), product feeds + structured data, and your own Action API.
• Attribution: tag assistant traffic and orders so finance trusts the channel.

New here? Start with our quick primers: Alexa.com 72‑Hour Founder Playbook and UCP: The 72‑Hour Ecommerce Fix.

The new ranking model: how assistants decide

Assistants blend “classic” relevance signals with actionability and trust:

1. Intent match: Do you expose clear intents (“find,” “compare,” “buy,” “return”) that map to endpoints?
2. Structure: Clean product schema, real‑time price/availability, shipping/tax, variants, return policy, store hours.
3. Actionability: UCP or compatible endpoints so the assistant can add to cart and checkout without brittle scraping.
4. Experience: speed, reliable responses, low failure rates, frictionless identity and payments.
5. Trust: ratings/reviews, policies, brand safety, payments (Google Pay/PayPal support via UCP where eligible), and clear support paths.
6. Freshness: frequent feed and cache updates; assistants reward low staleness.

Your 10‑step AASO checklist (do this in a week)

1. Map intents → endpoints. List top tasks by channel (browse, compare, buy, reorder, subscribe, schedule). Each task needs a URL or API route. Tip: start with your top 100 SKUs or top 10 services.
2. Implement UCP (or compatible) endpoints. Publish discovery, cart, and checkout endpoints for assistants. If you’re on Shopify/WooCommerce, follow our UCP Starter Kit.
3. Harden product data. Add structured data for price, inventory, dimensions, return window, warranties, store hours, and local pickup. Keep feeds in sync every 15–60 minutes for fast sellers.
4. Surface offers & loyalty. Include first‑order promos, bundles, and loyalty IDs in your assistant responses. Assistants weigh “deal quality” when ranking comparable items.
5. Build an Action API. Expose POST/PATCH routes for add‑to‑cart, book, subscribe, and cancel/return. Use idempotency keys and clear error codes so assistants can recover gracefully.
6. Make policies machine‑readable. Publish canonical URLs for shipping, returns, warranty, support SLAs, and store locations. Link them in your action responses.
7. Add assistant attribution. Tag links and orders by assistant and surface (e.g., utm_source=assistant&utm_medium=alexa-web&utm_campaign=buy-now). Wire revenue tracking per our Assistant Attribution 101.
8. Optimize content for answers. Create short, factual snippets that assistants can quote: product one‑liners, feature bullets, return windows, model compatibility. Keep it crisp.
9. Reduce latency. Assistants penalize slow. Put action routes behind edge functions/CDN, cache read endpoints, and precompute common combos (size/color) for your top SKUs.
10. Close the loop. Log assistant session IDs, action success/failure, and time‑to‑checkout. Feed this back into ranking experiments weekly.

Channel notes: Alexa.com, Qira, and what’s next

Alexa.com and Alexa+

Alexa+ now runs on the web via Alexa.com, with a huge installed base coming via devices and, later this year, cars (BMW from H2 2026). Expect early ranking lifts for brands that expose high‑quality actions and clean policies.

Lenovo Qira

Qira is Lenovo’s ambient layer across PCs and Motorola phones. Treat it like a cross‑device concierge: if your responses reference context (cart, calendar, location) and include direct actions, you’ll convert on reminder and reorder flows you never saw before.

Google AI Mode + UCP

UCP makes your catalog agent‑ready in Google AI Mode and Gemini. Implement once, unlock multiple assistants. Start with discovery and checkout flows; add post‑purchase support next (order status, returns).

Automotive and desk comps

BMW’s Alexa+ rollout begins H2 2026; design hands‑free, succinct responses and route to phone for long forms. For desk companions like Razer AVA, expect persistent, proactive prompts—prime content for subscriptions and reorders.

On‑page optimization that actually moves ranking

• Answer blocks: 25–60 word product summaries, followed by 3–5 factual bullets (compatibility, dimensions, materials, warranty, return window).
• Comparisons: Assistants love structured comparisons. Add tables/bullets to differentiate similar models.
• Availability & delivery: Include in‑stock flags, delivery ETA by ZIP, and pickup options.
• Trust widgets: Star ratings, review counts, and policy links placed near CTAs.
• Offer clarity: Plain‑English promo rules (“20% off first order, auto‑applied at checkout”).

Analytics and attribution: prove the revenue

Finance will ask “Did assistants drive incremental sales?” Instrument it up front:

• Session tags: Attach assistant, surface, and intent to each session/order (e.g., assistant=alexa, surface=web, intent=reorder).
• Offer testing: Run assistant‑only codes to validate incrementality.
• Event logging: Log action attempts, success/failure, latency, and retries. Reconcile against order IDs nightly.

Need a blueprint? Steal from our Assistant Attribution 101.

Example: a DTC coffee brand in 4 days

1. Day 1: Map intents (first‑time buy, reorder, gift packs). Add structured data for grind options, bag sizes, freshness date, and subscription discount.
2. Day 2: Implement UCP discovery + checkout endpoints. Add Action API for reorder last subscription with idempotency.
3. Day 3: Publish answer blocks (25–60 words), policy URLs, and assistant‑only promo (COFFEE-ALEXA20). Wire UTM tags.
4. Day 4: Latency pass (edge cache), QA on Alexa.com and a Lenovo laptop with Qira beta. Go live and monitor ranking changes and completion rates hourly for 72 hours.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Only shipping a feed. Feeds help discovery; actions need stable endpoints.
• Missing policies. If assistants can’t cite your return window or shipping cutoffs, they’ll down‑rank you.
• No failure design. Return clear error codes and recovery prompts. Silent failures kill ranking.
• Ignoring attribution. If you can’t prove revenue, budgets won’t follow—even if assistants love you.

Tools to ship faster

• HireNinja agents to expose UCP endpoints, wire attribution, and test AASO across Alexa.com and Qira.
• Our weekly roundup: This Week in Agentic Commerce.

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Bottom line: Assistants now rank and transact. Implement UCP, expose actions, and optimize answer blocks. The brands that treat AASO like SEO in 2010 will own the next decade.

Launch AASO with HireNinja — ship endpoints, rank on Alexa.com and Qira, and prove revenue in 7 days.