🚨 Amazon’s AI Shopping Tool Sparks Retailer Revolt: “Consent Isn’t Optional”
Amazon’s much-touted “AI shopping” experiment — designed to make online buying easier — is now facing a fierce backlash from online retailers who say the tech giant overstepped by listing their products without permission. What was pitched as a consumer convenience is rapidly turning into a controversy over consent, data usage, and brand control in the age of agentic AI. (SiliconANGLE)
🛒 What’s Happening
Amazon’s new AI-powered additions include “Shop Direct” and “Buy for Me.” These tools are designed to let customers find products from other retailers’ websites inside Amazon’s platform and even have Amazon’s AI place purchases on their behalf — all without shoppers leaving the Amazon experience. (SiliconANGLE)
Here’s the twist: many of the small businesses whose products are appearing on Amazon never agreed to be part of this program. They discovered their items had been scraped from their own sites and listed on Amazon, sometimes with outdated or incorrect details. (Business Insider)
📉 Retailers Are Pushing Back
Small brands are publicly calling out Amazon for what they see as unauthorized listings, reputational risks, and logistical headaches:
- Some merchants only learned products were on Amazon after customers mentioned unfamiliar links or orders. (TechRound)
- Products have shown up with wrong pricing information or even out-of-stock items being advertised, leading to confusion. (PPC Land)
- Retailers who deliberately avoid selling on Amazon feel their autonomy has been violated. (SiliconANGLE)
Several online shop owners say Amazon’s opt-out process — telling brands to email to be removed — places the burden entirely on them, rather than requiring clear consent up front. (SiliconANGLE)
“It’s a matter of autonomy and consent,” one business owner told Modern Retail. “I would really like to see these things be opt-in instead of opt-out.” (SiliconANGLE)
🧠 Amazon’s Defense and Strategy
Amazon argues these AI tools help consumers find what they need — even when Amazon doesn’t sell it — and can drive incremental sales to small shops. The company has also reiterated that brands can request removal from the program at any time. (SiliconANGLE)
This initiative is part of a broader push by Amazon into “agentic commerce,” where AI agents act on behalf of users to discover and purchase products, potentially shaping future retail behavior. (SiliconANGLE)
🧩 What This Means for E-commerce
This clash highlights a growing tension in digital commerce:
- Brand control vs. platform dominance: Retailers want control over where and how their products appear online.
- AI convenience vs. consent: Consumers may enjoy automated purchasing, but brands are questioning the ethics of data scraping without clear permission.
- Regulatory watchfulness: As agentic AI reshapes online shopping, policymakers may soon step in to clarify what’s permissible in terms of consent and data use.
Whether this leads to tighter rules around AI-powered commerce or forces Amazon to rethink its rollout, one thing is clear: AI shopping is no longer just a consumer feature — it’s a battleground.
📘 Glossary
Agentic AI — Autonomous artificial intelligence systems that act on behalf of users to perform tasks such as making purchases. (SiliconANGLE) Data scraping — Automated extraction of information from websites, often used to gather product details or prices. (Business Insider) Opt-in/Opt-out — Consent models where users or businesses must agree before participation (opt-in) or are included unless they decline (opt-out). (SiliconANGLE)
Source: Amazon’s AI shopping tool faces backlash from online retailers — Tech in Asia (link above)
