Amazon lists your products unless you opt out. Should you stay in?
Amazon's Shop Direct and Buy for Me put other shops' products, and orders, on Amazon by default. For most mid-sized retailers the answer is: check, then decide.
| What it is | Shop Direct shows products from other stores' websites inside Amazon search; Amazon's page says it covers over 100 million products from more than 400,000 merchants and has sent shoppers to other stores' sites millions of times (Amazon, Shop Direct page) |
|---|---|
| Buy for Me | on eligible products, Amazon's AI completes the purchase on the merchant's own website using the shopper's payment and shipping details; tens of millions of products are eligible (Amazon, Shop Direct page) |
| Who handles the order | the merchant receives the customer's name and address and handles delivery, returns, exchanges and customer service (Amazon, Shop Direct page) |
| Default | Amazon builds listings from brands' public websites, and businesses are included unless they ask to leave; Amazon said in January 2026 that they can opt out at any time by emailing branddirect@amazon.com and are removed promptly (Amazon statement, as reported by SiliconANGLE) |
| Commission | Amazon said Buy for Me takes no commission on the purchases it makes (Amazon statement, as reported by SiliconANGLE) |
| Feeds | since March 2026 merchants can control what Amazon shows by sending a product feed through Feedonomics, Salsify or CEDCommerce, with prices and stock synced in real time (Amazon, Shop Direct page; date from PPC Land) |
| Not disclosed | how many sales Shop Direct or Buy for Me sends a typical merchant, and how often listings carry wrong prices or stock |
Amazon now shows products from more than 400,000 other merchants' websites inside its own search results, through a programme it calls Shop Direct, and on tens of millions of them its AI will buy the item from the merchant's own site on the shopper's behalf. Merchants are in by default: Amazon builds the listing from the shop's public website and removes it only when asked.
This week brought reports that Amazon has grown the programme sharply since spring and is showing it more prominently. The verdict for a retailer with a few hundred staff and its own webshop is not "opt out". It is: find out whether you are in, look at what Amazon is saying about your products, and then make a deliberate choice. Most firms have not done the first step.
What is actually happening to your products?
Two things, and they are different. Shop Direct is a listing: a shopper searching Amazon sees your product, clicks, and lands on your website. Buy for Me goes further. The shopper never leaves Amazon; Amazon's AI fills in your checkout using the shopper's card and address, and you receive an ordinary-looking web order.
Amazon's own page is clear about where the work lands. The merchant gets the customer's name and address and handles delivery, returns, exchanges and customer service. Amazon has said it takes no commission on Buy for Me purchases. So the order is yours in every sense, including the return and the complaint, even though the shopper thinks they bought it on Amazon.
The shopper thinks they bought it on Amazon. The return, the complaint and the refund come to you.
Should a mid-sized retailer opt out?
Usually not straight away. Shop Direct is traffic from Amazon's own search results that you did not pay to place, and Amazon has said it takes no commission on the Buy for Me orders it sends. If your product data is accurate and your margins can carry an ordinary return rate, a listing you did not ask for can still be a listing worth having. The case for leaving is specific: wrong prices or stock, a brand you keep off Amazon on purpose, or orders you cannot serve.
Those failure cases are not hypothetical. When Buy for Me spread in January, small brands reported finding their whole catalogues on Amazon without having been asked, and one stationery supplier said it received dozens of agent orders for a product it does not sell. Amazon's answer then was that it checks accuracy and stock with AI and removes any business that emails to leave.
What this does not mean
It does not make you an Amazon seller. There is no seller account, no marketplace fee and no Amazon rulebook on your pricing. It does not mean Amazon holds your customer: the order and the customer record arrive in your own system.
It also does not prove anything about sales. Amazon has published counts of products and merchants and says it has referred shoppers millions of times, but not what a typical merchant earns from it. Merchants quoted in the press describe few sales. Treat it as a channel to measure, not a channel to plan around.
What to do this week
First, search Amazon for your three best-selling products by name and see whether your shop appears as an outside store. Check the price, stock status and photo against your own site.
Second, ask whoever runs your webshop to search last quarter's orders for buyer emails from an Amazon Buy for Me address, the marker merchants have reported on agent orders. Tag those orders so you can see their value and their return rate separately.
Third, decide. If the listing is accurate and the orders are clean, stay in, and if your products are already in a feed tool such as Feedonomics, Salsify or CEDCommerce, connect it so Amazon reads your prices from the feed rather than your website. If the data is wrong or the brand should not be there, email Amazon to leave, keep the reply, and recheck in a month.
Either choice is fine. Not knowing which one you have made is the only wrong answer.