Amazon ‘Buy For Me’ Enters AI Shopping Agent Race

Introduction to Amazon’s "Buy For Me" Feature

Amazon’s new "Buy For Me" feature represents a stunning departure from the company’s decades-long strategy of keeping customers within its walled garden. By enabling AI agents to purchase products directly from brand websites when items aren’t available on Amazon, the retail giant is sacrificing short-term transaction revenue to maintain its position as consumers’ first stop in an increasingly AI-driven shopping landscape.

Breaking Its Own Rules

The feature, announced last week, is in beta for select U.S. customers, helps shoppers "discover and seamlessly purchase select products from other brands’ sites if those items are not currently sold in Amazon’s store," according to Amazon’s announcement. What makes this particularly remarkable is how it contradicts Amazon’s traditional approach to e-commerce. Scot Wingo, co-founder and CEO of ecommerce tech startup ReFiBuy and former CEO of ChannelAdvisor, called the initiative ‘bonkers,’ saying that Amazon has spent 31 years building a ‘fortress’ – a meticulously constructed a walled garden designed to keep shoppers within its ecosystem.

The AI Shopping Race

The answer likely lies in Amazon’s growing concern about AI shopping assistants potentially disrupting product discovery and purchase patterns – both of which are critical not only for its core business of selling physical products, but also for its ancillary but much more lucrative business of selling media space. Amazon says that Amazon Nova and Anthropic’s Claude models support the Amazon Shopping app’s agentic capabilities to complete the purchase from start to finish on a customer’s behalf. In my analysis of Amazon’s ‘Nova Act’, I highlighted how Amazon is battling with OpenAI and others to control the future of AI-driven shopping agents, like Operator.

My Experience With ‘Buy For Me’ As A Beta User

I was able to try the feature with footwear brand Rothy’s, which began selling on Amazon as a third-party seller just a year ago. After searching for "Rothy’s," I found the Buy For Me widget a couple of lines down on the search results page. What I discovered was particularly interesting: the variants in the Buy For Me widget appeared to be styles that aren’t sold on Amazon by the brand. The experience of using Buy For Me was seamless, if not a little cold and joyless – I selected my size, clicked the button to buy, and received an order confirmation, all within the Amazon app without being taken elsewhere.

Data Is The Real Prize With AI Shopping Agents

While Amazon seemingly sacrifices gross merchandise volume and merchant fees (at least while the program is in beta), the data collected through off-platform purchases provides the retail giant with increased visibility into consumer preferences. Every data point that Amazon collect on what a user’s interests, preferences, and behaviors are enables more sophisticated targeting options for advertisers and also informs Amazon’s own merchandising decisions. Some industry experts commenting on LinkedIn believe this is primarily a data and advertising play.

Strategic Implications

For brands, Buy For Me creates an interesting opportunity. It potentially allows them to maintain direct customer relationships while leveraging Amazon’s massive traffic. Retailers using the feature can display their complete product assortment without providing their entire catalog on Amazon. Amazon is clearly taking an "innovator’s dilemma" approach – focusing on aggregating shopper demand and delivering it, regardless of whether they own the inventory or collect the same merchant fees.

Conclusion

One thing is certain: in the battle for AI shopping dominance, Amazon has just made a bold, unexpected move that signals how seriously they’re taking the threat – and opportunity – of agentic AI in retail. The company appears willing to sacrifice some of its most cherished principles to ensure it remains the starting point for consumer shopping journeys, no matter where those journeys end. By allowing its AI to complete purchases across the web, Amazon positions itself as the front door for all shopping journeys – even those that end on other websites.

FAQs

• What is Amazon’s "Buy For Me" feature?
  Amazon’s "Buy For Me" feature is a new service that allows customers to purchase products from other brands’ websites directly through the Amazon app, even if the products are not available on Amazon.
• Why is Amazon introducing this feature?
  Amazon is introducing this feature to maintain its position as consumers’ first stop in an increasingly AI-driven shopping landscape and to collect more data on consumer preferences.
• How does the "Buy For Me" feature work?
  The feature allows customers to discover and purchase select products from other brands’ sites if those items are not currently sold in Amazon’s store.
• What are the implications of this feature for brands?
  The feature creates an opportunity for brands to maintain direct customer relationships while leveraging Amazon’s massive traffic, and to display their complete product assortment without providing their entire catalog on Amazon.
• What is the significance of this move by Amazon?
  This move signals how seriously Amazon is taking the threat – and opportunity – of agentic AI in retail, and its willingness to sacrifice some of its most cherished principles to remain the starting point for consumer shopping journeys.