Amazon expands Shop Direct to include third-party product feeds

Amazon announced on Wednesday that it is expanding its Shop Direct program, allowing U.S. customers to discover and purchase products that are not sold directly by the retail giant. As part of this expansion, the company now supports third-party product feeds—which are data feeds used by merchants to provide inventory, pricing, and catalog information to partners. Specifically, Amazon has added support for feeds from third-party providers Feedonomics, Salsify, and CedCommerce to access merchant inventory in real time. The program is currently live for U.S. customers on Amazon.com, within the Amazon mobile app, and through the company’s search tools.

This expansion builds on a beta test initiated in February 2025, which linked Amazon search results to a retailer’s website when Amazon’s own search results did not include the product the customer was seeking. Under that test, customers could click through to the retailer’s site to check pricing and delivery options, receiving a notification that they were leaving Amazon’s website. The program is now integrated with Rufus, Amazon’s AI shopping assistant, and supports a feature called “Buy for Me.” This feature uses an AI agent to complete purchases on third-party merchant sites on behalf of the customer. The AI agent handles the entire checkout process, requiring the customer only to confirm order details such as delivery address, taxes, shipping fees, and payment method. Customers can track these transactions in their “Your Orders” tab or a dedicated “Buy for Me Orders” tab.

The program is open to a range of brands and is not restricted to partners using Buy with Prime, an Amazon service that allows customers to check out on external sites using their saved Amazon payment information. By integrating these real-time product feeds, Amazon could gain valuable insights into competing products, pricing trends, and brand popularity. The company could use this data to track market trends, improve its own business operations, and identify potential partners for its Buy with Prime service. Furthermore, the program could help Amazon solidify its position as the primary starting point for consumer product searches, keeping users within its ecosystem even when purchasing from external retailers.

Why it matters

The expansion of Shop Direct allows Amazon to gain insights into competing products and price points while reinforcing its role as the primary starting point for consumer product searches.