Your shop.
Your Rufio. Let’s begin.

Before you start

You need a WordPress administrator login, an active WooCommerce shop, WordPress 6.6 or newer, PHP 8.1 or newer, and an HTTPS website. Your hosting provider can help check these requirements.

Have your Rufio account details ready. Each licence connects one shop. If you want to move from a staging site to your live shop, contact us before changing the connection.

This guide covers Rufio for WooCommerce. The Shopify app is coming soon.

Get your plugin

1. Choose a plan and create your account. Rufio sends you straight to Stripe checkout.
2. After verified payment, your setup page opens and your private licence is generated automatically.
3. Enter your shop’s full HTTPS address, including any WordPress subfolder. One licence is assigned to one shop.
4. Download Rufio for WordPress, then install and activate the ZIP in your WooCommerce shop.
5. Reveal your licence on the setup page and copy it with the service address into Rufio → Settings. Click Connect & refresh allowance.

If confirmation takes a moment, use Check payment again. Signup alone does not unlock access. Checkout currently runs in test mode.

Install on your shop

1. Sign in to your shop’s WordPress dashboard.
2. Open Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin.
3. Select the Rufio ZIP, choose Install Now, then Activate Plugin.
4. Open the new Rufio menu.

Install the customer plugin only. Rufio HQ is our service management system and is not needed on your website.

Connect your Rufio account

1. Open Rufio → Dashboard and find Connect your Rufio subscription. The connection panel is also available in Settings.
2. Enter the HTTPS Rufio service address supplied by Rufio and your private licence.
3. Submit the connection form and check that your subscription information appears.
4. In Rufio → Settings, keep Visibility → Administrators only selected while you test.

You do not need a separate AI account or AI provider key. Your shop connects to the managed Rufio service using its licence. Keep that licence private.

Let Rufio learn your products

Once connected, Rufio uses AI to scan your published catalogue in background batches. It reads product names and public details, then saves alternative names and useful shopping phrases against each product in your WordPress database.

For example, a backpack can be found as a rucksack; a coffee mug can be found through a request for warm drinks. These phrases help find products. Answers still use current product information, prices, options and availability.

Open Rufio → Dashboard → Product learning to see the status and the number processed in the initial scan. Larger catalogues take longer and can pause at the indexing allowance. Scans retain their progress, and edited or new products are queued for updates.

Background learning relies on WordPress scheduled tasks. If progress stops on a quiet website, ask your host to check WordPress cron. If the dashboard reports a connection or allowance problem, check your account or contact support.

Add clear descriptions, care instructions, materials, sizes and other relevant specifications to WooCommerce. Rufio cannot reliably answer details your shop has not supplied. Draft, private and hidden products should not be used as public recommendations.

Make Rufio feel at home

In Rufio → Settings, choose a Colour scheme, or use the custom brand colour option. Edit the Welcome message, save, and refresh your storefront.

Voice input and search-bar integration are optional. You can launch with the Ask Rufio chat box alone. If you enable search-bar integration, test it with your theme’s product search before making it public.

Try a real conversation

While logged in as a WordPress administrator, visit your shop’s public pages and open Ask Rufio. Try examples that match your own catalogue:

• “Do you have any warm drinks items?” — check that relevant mugs appear.
• “Find a blue nurse tunic in size 14.” — check the product link selects the correct available options.
• “Which of these would suit my kitchen?” — review the recommendation and explanation.
• Open a product page and ask “How do I clean this?” — check the answer against its care instructions.
• Ask for an item you do not sell — Rufio should explain that it cannot find it, rather than invent a product.

Check the product links, prices and answers. AI can make mistakes; correct missing or unclear product information and tell us about answers that remain wrong.

For voice, select Voice input, allow microphone access when your browser asks, record, then stop. Review the transcribed text and select Send. Test on your HTTPS site with a browser that supports microphone recording.

Show Rufio to customers

1. When your checks are complete, open Rufio → Settings.
2. Change Visibility from Administrators only to All customers and save.
3. Open your shop in a private browser window while signed out. Confirm your chat button appears and complete a search.
4. If the old appearance remains, clear your website cache and refresh.

To pause the assistant, set Visibility to Off. To return to private testing, choose Administrators only.

Manage usage and updates

Your Rufio dashboard shows your search allowance and reset date. Monthly allowances also apply to annual subscriptions. Successful follow-up searches use the allowance too; voice recording alone does not count as a search.

Use your Rufio account to access available billing controls and plugin downloads. If a payment is pending, a download remains locked, or you need to change the connected shop, contact support.

For an update, download the latest customer ZIP, back up your website, and upload it through Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin. Use WordPress’s replacement option when offered. Test a conversation after updating.

Optional customer features

In Rufio → Settings → Optional customer features, enable order questions and recommendations from purchase history separately. Both default to off and require a managed connection. Currently available for WooCommerce; Shopify support is coming later.

A signed-in customer can ask “Has my latest order been dispatched?” or “Find a bag to go with the boots I ordered last month.” Rufio checks only their own account orders and asks for clarification when purchases are ambiguous. Purchase matching checks up to 30 processing or completed orders, within the requested month if supplied. Guest orders not linked to the account are excluded.

Order status and supported tracking details come from the shop. Completed does not mean delivered, and Rufio cannot confirm dates without tracking information. Other shipping extensions may need an adapter.

Relevant purchased product names, options and dates can be sent to Rufio for suggestions. Addresses, payment details and private order notes are excluded. Update your shop privacy notice and test with separate customer accounts before enabling publicly. These switches do not add a separate subscription charge.

Voice shopping & basket actions

In Rufio → Settings, enable voice input, ongoing voice conversations, spoken answers and confirmed basket actions as needed. These new features are off by default on customer installs. Basket actions require a managed Rufio connection.

Tap Voice chat, allow microphone access and speak. Pause when you finish. Rufio answers aloud, then listens for your next request. Select Stop listening to finish. Closing the panel or switching tabs also stops voice mode; ten seconds of silence ends listening. You can always use text instead.

Find a product and specify all required options. Say “Add that to my basket”, check the product, options, quantity and current unit price, then say “confirm” or “cancel”. You can also ask to change quantity, remove an item, view your basket or go to checkout. Payment happens in the shop’s normal checkout, not in chat.

For matching suggestions, open a product or find it in chat, then ask for a complementary category: “Find a bag to go with these boots.” Matching a past purchase requires the separate purchase-history setting and a signed-in customer.

Voice shopping is a WooCommerce beta. Test your actual phones and browsers, microphone permissions, prices, stock and basket changes before enabling publicly. Standard simple and variable products are supported; custom add-ons, bundles and subscriptions need separate integration testing. Shopify support is coming later. The public Rufio demo uses an isolated demonstration basket and cannot take payments.

Check your setup

After connecting, open Rufio → Dashboard. Your setup checklist shows how many published, visible products have saved AI phrases. Use Refresh progress to check background learning. If it pauses, check your connection, indexing allowance and scheduled WordPress jobs.

Use the three Try question links to open a real product question in your shop. Review it and press Send. Check the product link, factual answer and available options; also try an alternative product name and something you do not sell. Save the checks you have completed. Tests use your normal allowance.

Choose your shop name, button wording, colours and optional features in Settings. Saving checks does not make the assistant public: change visibility yourself when you are happy.

See what Rufio is helping shoppers do

In Rufio → Dashboard, this month’s results show conversations, questions, product clicks, confirmed basket additions, no-match requests and failed AI requests. Staff and isolated-demo activity appears separately.

A product click is counted once per suggested product in a conversation. A basket addition is a successfully confirmed add action, not a unit sold or completed order. No-match counts exclude clarification and order questions; they are not a list of all unanswered questions.

Counts begin when version 0.9.0 is installed; earlier activity is not reconstructed. Reports use UTC calendar months, separate from billing windows. Browser interruptions may cause missed clicks. Only daily aggregate counts are stored in the reports, without questions or customer details, for 13 months.