Amazon's "Buy For Me" AI Sparks Small Business Backlash

Amazon's Buy For Me feature represents a strategic shift in how the platform approaches third-party sales. When customers search for branded items in the Amazon Shopping app, they may encounter a separate section labelled "Shop brand sites directly." Rather than simply linking to external websites, Amazon's agentic AI completes the entire purchase on the customer's behalf, securely providing encrypted payment details, shipping information, and customer names directly to the brand's website.

‍

On the surface, it seems like a win-win: customers get seamless shopping, brands get exposure, and Amazon positions itself as a discovery engine rather than just a marketplace. There's even an interesting strategic angle. Amazon forfeits its typical 15% commission fee on these purchases, possibly positioning itself ahead of similar features expected from AI platforms like ChatGPT.

Small business owners across platforms like Shopify, WooCommerce, and Squarespace are discovering their products listed in Amazon's Buy For Me programme, but they never opted in. Bobo Design Studio brought the issue to light with an Instagram video garnering over 500,000 views, revealing deleted products still appearing on Amazon, AI-generated images mismatching their branding, and orders placed for out-of-stock items. According to Amazon's own FAQ, they may "modify" product information for display, creating serious issues: order tracking doesn't sync with anonymised emails, return policies clash with Amazon's system, and one Shopify seller reported a 28% chargeback rate on Buy For Me orders.

‍

The opt-out process compounds the problem. Whilst Amazon claims merchants can email branddirect@amazon.com for prompt removal, Bobo Design Studio found traces of their listings remained even after opting out. The fundamental question remains: Why should businesses opt out of a programme they never joined? The use of AI-generated content and modified descriptions also raises significant legal liability concerns for both Amazon and the unwitting merchants.

An Amazon spokesperson defended the programme, stating that Buy For Me helps "customers discover brands and products not currently sold in Amazon's store, whilst helping businesses reach new customers and drive incremental sales." The company emphasised that businesses can opt out at any time and that "Amazon is a longstanding supporter of small and independent businesses."

‍

Critics have pointed out a striking irony: Amazon recently sued AI search company Perplexity for scraping Amazon's website without permission. Now Amazon appears to be doing something remarkably similar to independent e-commerce sites, scraping product data, modifying it with AI, and using it for commercial purposes without explicit consent.

The controversy is escalating, with an intellectual property attorney now collecting testimonies from affected merchants to explore potential legal action. This isn't just about one feature gone wrong. Amazon's Buy For Me arrives at a pivotal moment for AI and e-commerce, but the backlash reveals a fundamental problem: innovation without consent isn't innovation, it's intrusion. Small businesses already navigate tight margins and fierce competition; adding unexpected customer service burdens, branding inconsistencies, and potential legal exposure isn't support, it's exploitation. As AI-powered shopping agents become inevitable, this serves as a critical reminder that the future of e-commerce must be built on transparency and genuine partnership, not platforms asking for forgiveness rather than permission.