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If you’re an Amazon die-hard and want to see all your online shopping in one place, you will soon be able to buy even non-Amazon goods straight from the Amazon app.
What a world we live in.
Announced in a new press release, Amazon’s “Buy for Me” function will let you search for specific items by specific brands, pick the item you want, and order it all from the Amazon app, even if Amazon itself doesn’t stock it.
If you have the Android or iOS version of the Amazon app and live in the US, there’s a good chance you have the ‘Buy for Me’ function right now, as it has begun rolling out for US customers. It initially starts with testing the function on a “limited number of brand stores and products” but is due to see even more brands and users in the future based on early feedback.
This new feature uses “agentic AI” which is a buzzword for a more advanced generative AI with, as Nvidia claims, “sophisticated reasoning and iterative planning to autonomously solve complex, multi-step problems.”
Amazon’s new system is intended to be integrated into the broader shopping experience and, from shots shown off so far, looks indistinguishable from the usual shopping UI. That being said, you cannot currently apply promo codes to third-party items you buy so you’re still a little bit better off shopping around first. It can also only buy one item at a time so no buying in bulk.
Effectively, this new system is designed to make you feel like you are shopping on Amazon even when you’re not, and the app can receive confirmation of purpose, give you up-to-date delivery tracking, and can even work as limited customer service. If you want to organize a return or refund, you do have to go through the shopfront you have bought from though.
You pay through Amazon, but, if the price of items you buy from third-party sources changes between putting it in your basket and checking out, Amazon will authorize the payment if it’s within $10 of the estimated amount.
With this, Amazon could position itself as the middleman between shops and the customer. I’m rather torn on what I think about it. On one hand, the idea of seamlessly doing all of my online shopping through the same app does sound handy, even just for laying out orders and delivery windows together.
On the other hand, the idea of Amazon further cementing its role as the Google of shopping makes me weary. We don’t yet know if Amazon gets anything out of making sales to other shops, though the idea of it being the go-between means all Amazon has to do to stop customers shopping elsewhere is start actually stocking the items it currently doesn’t. That’s maybe valuable direct market research that would only further Amazon’s tight hold over the big shopping events every year.
It is certainly a clever use of AI though.
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Kurt Indovina
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