Amazon continues to expand its already impressive catalog, which includes more than 300 million products, 300 million of which are available with fast and free delivery for Prime users.
However, the company wants to make it even easier for customers to find any item they need, even if it is not available directly in its store. That is why it has launched, in a beta phase, a new feature called Buy for Me in the Amazon Shopping app, which allows users to discover and purchase products directly from other brands’ websites without leaving the Amazon ecosystem.
The feature is already available for a limited group of customers in the United States, on both iOS and Android, and currently works with a small number of brands and products. According to Oliver Messenger, Director of Shopping at Amazon, “Buy for Me uses an agent AI to shop on behalf of the customer securely and seamlessly, while also providing greater visibility and conversion for brands”.
The process is simple and integrated into the usual shopping experience in the Amazon app. When searching for a branded product, the results include not only items sold by Amazon and third parties within its store, but also options from external sites under the section ‘Shop brand sites directly.’ There, the customer can:
Tap the product labeled as Buy for Me and access a detail page within Amazon, with all relevant information.
Press the Buy for Me button to request that Amazon complete the purchase on the brand’s website, securely providing the customer’s information.
Confirm the order from a checkout page on Amazon, reviewing the address, taxes, and payment methods.
After completing the purchase, the user receives a confirmation email from the brand’s store and can track the order from the Buy for Me Orders section in the application. Delivery, returns, and customer service are handled by the brand’s site.
This innovative functionality is supported by the power of Amazon Bedrock, a managed service that allows developers to use foundation models such as Amazon Nova and Claude from Anthropic. These models provide the “agentic” capabilities to complete purchases from start to finish with minimal human intervention.
The concept of agentic AI refers to systems that execute specific tasks on behalf of the user, autonomously but in a controlled manner. In this case, the customer always retains control over the process, and brands decide whether they want to participate, gaining more visibility, engagement, and sales.
This advancement not only aims to facilitate purchases but also to strengthen trust, a key pillar for AI agents to be accepted by consumers and brands. As Amazon explains, transparency in interactions and user control are essential for this tool to succeed.
How can this possibly be a good thing???
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