Imagine you’re shopping on Amazon and can’t find what you want, so Amazon says ‘Hey, we don’t have this, but we know a retailer we get it from – would you like us to source it for you? Well, Amazon have been doing this since they started a ‘Buy for me’ trial back in April 2025. You’re going to be super happy.
Now imagine you’re the retailer and you’ve never wanted your products sold on Amazon, but you start getting Amazon orders and suddenly discover that your entire shop’s inventory is listed on Amazon. Even worse if a few products are mispriced. You’re not going to be super happy.
Buy for Me is integrated into Amazon’s shopping experience so customers can quickly and easily discover additional selection. When customers search for branded items in the search bar in the Amazon Shopping app, they’ll see relevant results from Amazon and third-party sellers in our store, and in some cases, additional relevant products from other stores in a separate section of search results labeled ‘Shop brand sites directly.’ Customers can link directly to these sites, or in some cases, customers will see a link to Buy for Me.
If a customer decides to proceed with a Buy for Me purchase, they tap on the Buy for Me button on the product detail page to request Amazon make the purchase from the brand retailer’s website on their behalf. Customers are taken to an Amazon checkout page where they confirm order details, including preferred delivery address, applicable taxes and shipping fees, and payment method. Using agentic AI capabilities, Amazon makes the purchase by securely providing the customer’s encrypted name, address, and payment details to complete the checkout process on the brand’s website. Amazon say that they cannot see customers’ previous or separate orders from other brands’ sites.
Once Amazon makes the purchase on a customer’s behalf, the customer will receive an order confirmation email from the brand store, and be able to track their order via Your Orders in the Buy for Me Orders tab in the Amazon Shopping app. Delivery, returns and exchanges, and customer service are managed by the brand store, and customers can contact the brand store with any questions regarding their order.
Is this a good thing? Well Amazon thinks so, but they don’t like it when Perplexity did it to them, purchasing items on Amazon on behalf of their AI shoppers. They disliked it so much they’re suing Perplexity! As a buyer I quite like the idea of being able to shop from any retailer (including Amazon) on the platform of my choice, but as a retailer I hate the idea that I’ve zero control over which platforms my products are being sold on.
This is just one of the conundrums that will have to be worked through in 2026 as Agentic commerce becomes more widespread. Over to you – are you in favour or against?
