Amazon's AI shopping tool lists products without seller permission

Multiple online retailers report that Amazon's AI-powered shopping tool displays their products on the marketplace without consent. Amazon defends the program, but criticism is mounting.

Angie Chua has been selling stationery through her brand Bobo Design Studio since 2016. She never wanted to be on Amazon. In late December, she discovered her entire product catalog on the company's marketplace anyway, Modern Retail reports.

The tip-off: unusual orders from an email address ending in @buyforme.amazon. Many of these orders were for products Chua no longer carried or that were sold out. That's how she learned about Amazon's "Buy For Me," an AI-powered tool the company introduced last year.

According to Modern Retail, Chua said Amazon enrolled her in a program she had no idea about, essentially turning her into a dropshipper for the company against her will.

How "Buy For Me" works

The feature lets customers buy products from third-party websites without leaving Amazon. These listings appear alongside regular Amazon search results, marked with a "Buy for Me" button. According to Amazon, the system uses agentic AI capabilities to transmit encrypted payment and shipping information to external shops.

The problem: retailers are apparently enrolled in the program automatically. Those who don't want to participate have to actively reach out to Amazon via email to opt out.

More sellers discover unauthorized listings

According to Modern Retail, Chua isn't alone. Amanda Stewart, founder of children's clothing brand Mochi Kids, discovered 4,000 of her products listed on Amazon after seeing Chua's viral Instagram video. Since November, she received around 16 orders through "Buy For Me" - some of which she had already fulfilled before realizing where they came from.

Emi Moon of digital art brand Peachie Kei also found her entire Shopify catalog on Amazon, including gift cards. Moon told Modern Retail that the big concern is reputation, as she doesn't want to be associated with Amazon.

A survey Chua launched received 145 responses from brands that believe their products were listed without consent, according to Modern Retail.

Flawed listings create business problems

The automated listings contain significant errors in some cases. For one of Chua's products, a vinyl sticker, Amazon displayed a photo of pants - a product Chua has never sold. After removal, so-called shell listings with SEO keywords remained, potentially diverting search traffic from Chua's own website.

Some sellers face business complications as well. A wholesale partner of Mochi Kids, whose contract prohibits selling their products on Amazon, contacted Stewart with concerns after discovering the listings.

Amazon defends the program

Amazon told Modern Retail that "Buy For Me" and "Shop Direct" are programs designed to help customers discover brands that don't sell in the Amazon store. The company said it has received positive feedback and that sellers can opt out at any time via email.

Amazon itself moved aggressively in 2025 against third parties using AI crawlers to scrape the marketplace, including Meta, Google, and Perplexity. In November, Amazon sent a cease-and-desist letter to Perplexity over its Comet browser, which lets users shop on Amazon through an AI agent. In a statement, Amazon demanded that third-party shopping agents operate openly and respect the decisions of service providers.

Shopify has responded by introducing a "Robots & Agent policy" aimed at restricting unauthorized scraping of merchant websites.