Amazon offers direct AI connector to third-party retailers
Amazon is streamlining retailer access to its Shop Direct product discovery program and Alexa for Shopping agentic customer assistant.
The online retailer introduced Shop Direct, which lets customers discover hundreds of millions of products in Amazon's store and from stores across the web – including those that don’t sell via Amazon’s site – in 2025. Now, Amazon is rolling out the Shop Direct Merchant Workspace, a self-service portal that gives any eligible retailer the ability to register for Shop Direct and connect their store to its site.
This will make products from participating retailers discoverable to customers using the Amazon site and app, as well as Alexa for Shopping, which combines the personalization capabilities of the next-gen Alexa+ voice model with the functionality of the Rufus agentic AI shopping assistant (discontinued as part of the launch) to deliver a targeted shopping experience where customers can browse and shop the full Amazon store using voice, touch, or both.
[READ MORE: Amazon enables conversational shopping via Alexa voice assistant]
Shop Direct brings Amazon closer to being a Google-style search platform. Google has allowed consumers to shop search results for products from various brands and retailers since 2002. In 2021, the company began displaying deals right on its Shopping tab, and has let retailers sell on its platform for free since 2020.
Through the Shop Direct Merchant Workspace, merchants can submit product feeds and manage their participation. The Merchant Workspace also gives merchants visibility into which of their products are active and available to Amazon customers through Shop Direct.
Selection connected to Shop Direct may be displayed to Amazon customers in relevant searches and within Alexa for Shopping. Customers who are interested in learning more about a product or buying it can tap the "Shop Direct" button on the product page to be directed to the merchant's store. Shoppers will receive a notification that they're leaving Amazon before being directed to the merchant site to see product details and complete the purchase.
For eligible products, the Buy for Me agentic AI feature handles the entire purchase on a customer’s behalf using their primary address and credit card. Customers tap the “Buy for Me” button and confirm their order details on Amazon’s interface — including delivery address, taxes, shipping fees, and payment method. Amazon’s AI then securely completes the purchase from the retailer’s website.
Retailers who are already Amazon sellers may also be eligible to participate in Shop Direct and list selection they don’t currently sell in Amazon’s store. Retailers continue to handle inventory, pricing, order fulfillment, and customer service through the same processes they already use. Through the Amazon AI connector, Shop Direct provides customers near real-time information about retailers’ products.
In addition, retailer can select what items they want to include in Shop Direct. There are no fees to participate and retailers can opt out at any time.
“Customers are increasingly trusting Amazon and Alexa for Shopping as the place to start any shopping journey — whether what they're looking for is in our store or somewhere else on the web,” said Amanda Doerr, VP of core shopping at Amazon. “Shop Direct makes it simple for merchants to have their selection discovered by Amazon customers. We created the Merchant Workspace to make it fast and easy for merchants to be part of this growing experience using the catalogs they’ve already built for other shopping destinations.”
The Shop Direct Merchant Workspace accepts widely adopted shopping feed formats, allowing retailers to reuse product catalogs they’ve already built for other shopping destinations. Within the Merchant Workspace, retailers can connect through established third-party app providers including Feedonomics, Salsify, CEDCommerce, and VersaFeed Feedonomics, Salsify, CEDCommerce and VersaFeed, with more apps expected to become integratable.
Shop Direct is available for all U.S. customers on Amazon.com, the Amazon Shopping app, mobile web browsers, and through Alexa for Shopping.
