Amazon's ambitious push into AI-powered shopping is facing significant resistance from a crucial group: the independent online retailers who stock its virtual shelves. The e-commerce giant's new experimental features, "Shop Direct" and "Buy for Me," are designed to let customers find and purchase items from across the web directly through Amazon. However, business owners worldwide, including many in India's vast digital seller community, are raising alarms, claiming their products are being listed on Amazon's platform without their knowledge or consent.
What Are Amazon's Shop Direct and Buy for Me Tools?
At the heart of the controversy are two AI-driven services currently being tested with a limited user base in the United States. The "Buy for Me" tool employs an artificial intelligence agent to scour the internet, find products on external websites, and complete the purchase on behalf of an Amazon customer. "Shop Direct" allows users to browse items from other sites within the Amazon app itself. Amazon positions these tools as a customer-centric innovation to "find any product they want and need," even if it's not sold on Amazon.com.
The company asserts that the programme helps businesses reach more customers and drive extra sales. It maintains that product and pricing data is pulled automatically from a brand's public website, with systems in place to verify stock status and correct pricing. Crucially, Amazon states that it does not take a commission on purchases made via the "Buy for Me" experiment and that retailers can opt out by simply emailing a designated address.
A Wave of Retailer Complaints and Chaotic Orders
Despite Amazon's assurances, the reality on the ground has been fraught with problems. Business owners have taken to platforms like Reddit and Instagram to share troubling experiences. The core complaint is a lack of permission; retailers say they never agreed to be part of Amazon's programme.
The issues are not merely procedural. Several businesses report receiving orders for items they do not even stock. A prominent example is Hitchcock Paper, a stationery shop in Virginia, USA. In a December 2025 Instagram post, they highlighted the flaw: "Sounds like a great program until the agentic AI starts selling customers things you don’t have." They discovered their inclusion when orders for a stress ball they don't sell arrived from a "buyforme.amazon" email address.
Angie Chua, CEO of Bobo Design Studio in California, faced a similar shock. Her company, which sells stationery via Shopify and a physical store, began receiving orders from Amazon's AI agent last week without ever signing up. "We were forced to be dropshippers on a platform that we have made a conscious decision not to be part of," Chua told CNBC. Although her listings were removed after she contacted Amazon, she felt "exploited" by the ordeal.
Chua's case is not isolated. She revealed that more than 180 businesses selling on platforms like Shopify, Squarespace, and Wix have since contacted her, reporting identical unauthorized listings on Amazon.
The Bigger Picture: Amazon's AI Agent Ambition and Legal Battles
This controversy is part of Amazon's larger strategic bet on "e-commerce agents"—AI that can autonomously handle shopping tasks. This technology, also being developed by rivals like OpenAI and Google, could fundamentally reshape online retail. Amazon has its own shopping chatbot, Rufus, which is gaining similar capabilities.
Interestingly, while investing heavily in its own AI tools, Amazon has blocked dozens of external AI agents from accessing its site. In a notable legal move in November 2025, Amazon sued AI startup Perplexity. The lawsuit alleged that Perplexity's Comet browser agent, which makes purchases for users, took steps to "conceal" itself to scrape Amazon's website without approval—a charge Perplexity dismissed as a "bully tactic."
This legal action underscores the competitive and contentious landscape of AI commerce, even as Amazon faces criticism for practices that some retailers see as similarly overreaching.
For now, the "Buy for Me" experiment continues to grow. Amazon reported the number of products available through the tool ballooned from 65,000 at launch to over 500,000 by November 2025. However, with independent sellers accounting for more than 60% of Amazon's sales, their dissatisfaction poses a substantial challenge. Their central demand is clear: Amazon must seek explicit permission before using their public data to list products, moving beyond a simple opt-out system that places the burden on unaware business owners.
