Amazon is broadening the reach of its Shop Direct program, an initiative designed to enable U.S. customers to discover and purchase products that are not directly sold within its proprietary online marketplace.
The e-commerce behemoth announced on Wednesday its new capability to support third-party product feeds. These feeds are instrumental for merchants in sharing real-time data concerning their inventory, pricing structures, and product catalogs with various partners. Leveraging this data, Amazon can guide shoppers directly to a merchant's external website through its search results or its advanced AI shopping assistant, Rufus, and even facilitate purchases using artificial intelligence.
To facilitate this expansion, the company has integrated support for product feeds from prominent providers such as Feedonomics, Salsify, and CEDCommerce, granting Amazon real-time access to a vast array of merchant inventory and product details. Plans are in place to integrate additional feed providers over time, with an Amazon merchant portal featuring a direct merchant feed reportedly launching in the near future.
Beginning in February 2025, Amazon initiated beta testing for an innovative shopping feature. This functionality would provide direct links to a retailer's external website if a customer's desired product was not found within Amazon's internal search results. While basic product information would be displayed on Amazon, users could then navigate to the retailer's site for comprehensive details, current pricing, and available delivery options. Crucially, customers would receive a clear notification indicating they were departing Amazon's platform, preventing any misconception that they were completing a purchase directly from Amazon.
This program has been made available to a diverse array of brands, and its participation is not exclusively tied to partners utilizing "Buy with Prime"—a service that enables customers to complete purchases using their saved Amazon payment information.
While inclusion in this Amazon initiative unquestionably offers a significant boost to a brand's visibility and potential sales, it simultaneously provides Amazon with valuable insights into customer preferences regarding brands, products, and price points. The company stands to leverage this intelligence to enhance its own operations, gaining data on competing products, tracking market trends, identifying prospective "Buy with Prime" partners, among other strategic advantages.
Furthermore, this strategy could reinforce Amazon's position as the primary destination for product discovery and search.
Amazon has confirmed that its "Buy for Me" feature, which employs an AI agent to finalize purchases, is now also supported on external third-party merchant websites.
This AI-powered agent manages the entire purchasing journey on behalf of the customer. Users are only required to confirm their order specifics on the checkout page, encompassing their delivery address, applicable taxes, shipping charges, and preferred payment method. Subsequently, Amazon's AI seamlessly completes the checkout process directly on the merchant's website, utilizing the provided necessary information.
Customers have the convenience of tracking these particular orders either within their familiar "Your Orders" tab, alongside their standard Amazon purchases, or via a dedicated "Buy for Me Orders" tab.
The Shop Direct program is currently operational for U.S. customers across Amazon.com, within the Amazon mobile application, and integrated into Amazon’s Rufus AI assistant.
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