late last year, Shopify store owners started noticing something weird, random orders showing up in their dashboards with cloaked email addresses, sometimes with products they don’t actually sell, from a platform they deliberately chose not to sell on.
Turns out, Amazon had been scraping their product listings and making them available to Amazon shoppers, without the merchants’ knowledge or consent.
Kinda funny considering they sued Perplexity AI for scraping their site and not being transparent. Admittedly I don’t know all the details of that case, but on its face sounds a little hypocritical, no?
Anyway…
We were talking about this inside the EB Vault back in January, and it was a big conversation. I didn’t do a full episode on it at the time because Katie Hunt over at Proof to Product was already covering it. She did a great episode, episode 426 with Angie from Bobo Design Studio, who was basically the small business owner that blew the lid off this whole thing on Instagram. So I didn’t feel the need to pile on at that point.
But here we are a couple months later, and Amazon just made a major move to expand this program. So I wanted to bring it back into the spotlight before anyone gets starry-eyed over the “opportunity” without understanding what they’re actually signing up for.
Prefer to listen to the episode? Click here.
What is the Amazon Shop Direct and Buy for Me Program
In case you’re not familiar with the program, let me give you a little background. The Shop Direct program, and this is directly from Amazon – I’m using words directly from their news update to make sure I don’t accidentally misrepresent how they’re positioning this feature.
Shop direct is an AI shopping experience that shows products not currently sold in Amazon’s store when customers search for items.
When customers view products that are part of the Shop Direct selection, they have two options: they can tap “Shop Direct” to be directed to the merchant’s website, or, for eligible products, they can tap “Buy for Me” to have Amazon agentically complete the purchase on their behalf using their primary Amazon address and credit card.
Shop Direct now includes over 100 million products from more than 400,000 merchants, with tens of millions of products available to purchase through the AI-powered Buy for Me feature. Shop Direct gives merchants exposure to customers looking for their products, and Amazon has referred customers millions of times to items they were interested in buying from stores across the web.
We’ve gotten positive feedback from both customers and merchants on Shop Direct and received requests from large and small brands to participate. Merchants love that we make it easy for customers searching for their brands to find them. Shop Direct provides merchants the opportunity for their products to appear in front of hundreds of millions of Amazon customers when they’re searching and interested in a product—driving incremental visibility, discovery, and sales with minimal effort on the merchant’s behalf.
How Amazon’s Buy for Me Program Works on the Merchant Side
On the merchant side, the shop direct program doesn’t sound so bad, right? Essentially, they’re redirecting traffic from their site to yours. Okay cool. We’ll talk more about why it might not be so cool in a minute.
The buy for me program on the other hand, means there is an AI tool actually completely checkout on your site, on behalf of the customer.
Along with that comes a cloaked email address and customer contact information that you don’t get access to. It also, makes the customer THINK they’re placing an order through Amazon with all that comes with that (shipping and return policies, customer service, etc.), but you’re the one that’s responsible for all of that.
Of course, Amazon does tell customers this, but we already know people don’t read the fine print.
When this was first blowing up online with merchants talking about their experience, they were dealing with a lot of customer service issues because there was so much confusion. Products were listed incorrectly on Amazon with wrong colors, details, etc. Items they no longer offered were listed for sale, customers were expecting pre-paid return shipping labels… it was basically a shit show.
And this really started catching traction in Q4, which is already a stressful time for everyone so that was really the rotten cherry on top. Especially considering most merchants had no idea their products were being listed on Amazon in the first place.
That alone was enough to piss people off. Some merchants deliberately don’t sell there whether because it’s because they don’t agree with their business practices, because it’s a key selling point to their wholesale strategy, or insert whatever reason they have for not putting their products on Amazon.
But regardless of what we’ve seen in the small business space, and I fully acknowledge that online discourse tends to skew to the negative, it seems the program is popular enough, Amazon is making it even easier for merchants to participate.
Amazon Streamlines Shop Direct Participation With Established Feed Syndicators
The big announcement that came out last week, reinvigorating this conversation, and inspiring me to record this episode is that now, merchants can participate directly with the program by automatically syncing their product feed through tools like Feedonomics, Salsify, and CED eCommerce, with more platforms coming soon.
Through these feeds you can provide real time product details and reach their customers through search and Amazon’s AI shopping assistant, Rufus. Again, coming directly from Amazon:
Merchant store names are clearly displayed so customers know who they’re buying from, whether they choose to shop directly on a merchant’s website or request Amazon purchase the product on their behalf with Buy for Me. Additional feed syndicators and an Amazon merchant portal with a merchant-direct feed are coming soon.
“Product feeds give merchants a streamlined way to reach Amazon customers who are searching for their products,” said Amanda Doerr, vice president of Core Shopping at Amazon. “With feeds, merchants can easily sync their catalog, pricing, and inventory in real time and maintain their customer relationships, while the program drives meaningful traffic and sales and gives customers access to even more selection.”
The nice thing about now having this product feed option, is you can prevent a lot of the product issues so many merchants were having before.
So I guess the question is, should you participate in the Amazon Shop Direct and Buy for Me Program.
What Does Amazon Get Out of the Shop Direct & Buy For Me Program
While there were a lot of horror stories being shared on the Internet, the program isn’t all bad. One of my community members mentioned that she had 38 orders come in between October and January. Hers were all fine, accurate product info, orders fulfilled without issue. And for her, she was excited to get in front of customers who might not have found her otherwise. Her initial plan was to leave it on.
That makes perfect sense. As a small business one of the hardest things to do is get visibility for your brand. And we know, it doesn’t matter how good your product is, if no one knows you exist… it doesn’t matter.
But then she had another thought… she was suspicious that this was going to stay free.
And she was right to wonder. I mean, we know Bezos doesn’t do anything out of the goodness of his heart, so what’s the real motivation behind this?
My educated guess… data and dependency.
The Data Play
And we’ve already seen this in action. Look at Amazon basics line. How do you think they decided what to produce under their own label? They looked at what was already selling well on their platform and made their own… for less. I remember hearing a bunch of similar horror stories back in the day of Amazon knocking off Amazon Handmade merchants.
Amazon certainly isn’t the first company to do this. Steve Madden and Allen Schwartz were famous for it.
But it’s one thing to copy a luxury design that the average person is never going to buy anyway. I mean, if you can afford the luxury brand you’re gonna buy the luxury brand, regardless of who has knocked them off.
Ripping off a small business, that’s a lot different in my opinion.
And who knows what other plans they have. In this day and age, data is the ultimate cash cow. Look at credit card companies. They’re not making money hand over fist from your late fees and interest. They’re making money from selling what they know about you. That’s a lot more lucrative.
The Dependent Play
Then there is the dependency play.
Right now, Shop Direct is free. No referral fees. No commission. Amazon is basically saying, “Hey, just plug in your product feed. We’ll send you customers. No strings attached.”
But once you’re getting a chunk of your sales through Amazon’s discovery engine, once you’ve gotten used to that traffic, once it’s baked into your revenue projections, what happens when they decide to start charging for it? Or when they tweak who gets shown and who doesn’t? Or when they introduce a paid tier that gets you better placement?
You’re not going to want to turn it off. Because now you’re relying on it.
That’s how dependency works. It starts with convenience. It starts with results. And by the time the terms change, you’re already in too deep to easily walk away.
And look, this isn’t just an Amazon thing. This is the model for a lot of platforms. Social media does the same thing — build your audience here, it’s free, look at all this organic reach! And then one day you’re paying to reach the audience you already built.
The difference with Amazon is the scale and the speed at which they can flip that switch. They have hundreds of millions of customers. That’s a spigot they can turn on, and off, whenever they want.
So yeah, free today doesn’t mean free tomorrow. And the deeper you integrate, the harder it becomes to pull the plug when the terms stop working in your favor.
Should You Participate in the Amazon Shop Direct Program
So, now we’re back to the question. Should you participate in the program? The truth is, only you can answer that.
I think the original version of this, where merchants were scraped and opted in without their knowledge, that was complete trash. No way around it.
But actively deciding to participate? That’s a different conversation.
And look, I’ll be honest; I’m conflicted on this myself. Because I can make the argument both ways.
If a competitor really wants to knock off your product, copy your designs, undercut your pricing — they’re going to find a way. That’s the reality of selling products. But there’s a difference between someone figuring it out on their own and you handing them the cheat sheet. Then again, isn’t that what anyone who sells on Amazon is already doing?
On one hand, I wouldn’t love the idea of handing Amazon my data, my customer insights, and my product catalog on a silver platter. Especially knowing their track record. Everything in me wants to say no thanks, on principle.
But on the other hand… if Amazon is going to send me paying customers that I wouldn’t have found on my own, and I can take that revenue and reinvest it into building my brand, my email list, my actual business — is it really that different from running ads on Meta? I’m paying a giant corporation that I don’t love for access to customers. At least with Shop Direct, I’m not paying anything. Yet.
And that’s kind of the tension we live in as business owners, right? The systems we operate in are not perfect. I don’t love that my phone tracks everywhere I go. But I’m not about to go off the grid over it. There are definitely ethical concerns about AI, but my $20/mo subscription to help me get some work done faster isn’t the same as government military contracts. We make trade-offs every single day between what we believe and what’s practical.
So my point is not to tell you what to do. There is no universally right answer here. What I want is for you to make this decision intentionally, with eyes wide open. Not because Amazon made it sound shiny, and not because the internet told you to be outraged. Look at your business, weigh the trade-offs, and decide what makes sense for you.
How to Opt Out of the Amazon Shop Direct and Buy for Me Programs
If you don’t want to participate in the program, there are some things you can do to accomplish that.
- Opt-Out by emailing branddirect@amazon.com
- There have been some merchants saying because they don’t have Amazon seller accounts, they’ve been given the runaround
- Install an app to block checkout for specific email domains
- It’s been reported that the domain of the randomized emails is: buyforme.amazon – that’s what you’ll use to block, but I would keep your eyes out for other variations.
Other Options:
If you prefer to see the orders come through so you know if items have been scraped, or to see what people are buying, you can use a flow to auto-cancel the order, tag it, and email you. You can get access to this template in the EB Vault on this post. If you’re not already a member, you can sign up here.
Keep in mind:
- According to sidekick, you shouldn’t be charged merchant fees since it will be canceled before settled, but I’m unable to confirm
- If you’re not using Shopify payments and pay transaction fees to Shopify, you will likely still be subject to those
- Your analytics will likely be skewed since the order is still technically going through
The Takeaway
So here’s what I want you to walk away with today.
This is the just the beginning of what we’re likely to start seeing in the space. And no matter the uproar, Amazon isn’t pulling back on this, they’re expanding it. AI agents shopping on behalf of customers is going to become more and more common across the Internet, I’m sure.
You have the right to decide how your store is accessed and who controls your customer relationships. If you’re not on Amazon by choice, that choice should be respected. And if you DO want to participate, that’s cool to — just make sure you understand the trade-off.
Pay attention to what companies do, not what they say. Amazon says this is about helping merchants reach more customers. And maybe it is, partly. But when a company is simultaneously arguing in court that other AI agents can’t access their site without permission while their own AI agent is accessing yours? That tells you something about the priorities.
Like everything going on the world, the best you can do is just keep your eye out for what’s happening, and continue to make the best decisions you can for your business with the information you have.
