You could pay $100k to be at the top of Rufus AND STILL LOSE. Without optimising
By Oliver Bradley · May 6, 2026 · Curated by George's Blog
You could pay $100k to be at the top of Rufus AND STILL LOSE.
Without optimising your hero images to pass GLANCE-READABILITY on mobile, you're wasting money.
I spoke with The CMO Wire about a worrying disconnect I see listening and reading what Digital Shelf Experts are popping on LinkedIn.
Brands are investing heavily in agentic commerce. They want to be first.
They want to be recognised for pioneering. They want the internal kudos.
I get it I was in big corporate for a very long time.
The shiny new stuff gets you noticed internally.
Until it comes back that it didn't deliver decent ROI.
And finance now hold marketing accountable and the pilot period is over.
I have no issue with Brands investing in Agentic and pioneering but please don't miss the moment that actually converts.
Agentic tools can surface products and streamline comparison.
They can get shoppers to the page.
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Shoppers still have to look at the hero image & decide:
is that what I want?
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Basics still matter.
As AI compresses DISCOVERY, the hero image becomes the final source of truth this is what I want. It's what people want to look at to confirm.
Two things drive conversion right now:
✅ Ratings & Reviews (Disproportionately drives Rufus)
✅ A glance-readable hero image (what drives the shopper's final confirmation it's the right product)
If your hero can't communicate brand, format, variant, and size at a glance on a 20mm thumbnail, you lose the sale.
We've seen 5-25% uplift just from fixing hero images to make them "glance-readable" on Mobile in AB tests.
The full CMO WIRE article is here: https://lnkd.in/epPnW8Kz
If you're a marketing or content lead for commerce, these are the two killer moves right now: fix your reviews and fix your hero images.
Everyone is in Atlanta this week at the Digital Shelf Summit 26 discussing
"The Digital Shelf and the Agentic Shelf" /
"Envisioning Agentic PXM" /
"Design your Agentic Commerce Roadmap" /
"Bridging the Gap Between AI Hype and Commercial Reality"
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Big BOLD topics AND...
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(It's an "and" not a "but")
Don't forget the shift to mobile has happened.
Don't forget that Design for Screen and Design for Mobile are Different.
Don't forget to design for real people scrolling small screens,
Don't forget, people choose from 4 curated Rufus AI results, looking at the hero images first.
Are you missing out on fixing basics to chase Agentic alone?
Are you moving beyond Agentic Buzzwords to fix the basics that deliver your SALES numbers?
Is your investment in Agentic giving you ROI?
Commercial realities demand we do the end-to-end well.
I think heroes still matter, even matter more now with Agentic.
What do you think?