Amazon is quietly rolling out a new feature, Buy for Me, allowing customers to purchase items from third-party websites without leaving the Amazon Shopping app.
The feature, currently in beta, aims to bridge the gap when Amazon doesn’t stock an item, giving users a seamless way to complete their purchases elsewhere.
Instead of redirecting shoppers to external sites, Amazon’s system steps in as a middleman. It finds the item, fills in the buyer’s details, and processes the payment—all within the app.
This means customers won’t have to manually enter their shipping address or payment details on another retailer’s website. The idea is that even when Amazon doesn’t sell a product, it can still facilitate the sale, keeping users within its ecosystem.
According to Amazon, Buy for Me is designed with security in mind. The company states that payment details are encrypted before being sent to third-party websites, ensuring it cannot track or store customers’ purchases made outside its marketplace.
Whether this reassurance will be enough to convince users remains to be seen, especially given concerns about automated transactions and potential order errors.
Amazon is growing big in AI-assisted commerce, putting it in direct competition with companies like OpenAI and Google, which have also introduced AI-driven shopping tools. Unlike its rivals, Amazon isn’t just helping users find products—it’s actively making purchases on their behalf.
“We’re always working to invent new ways to make shopping even more convenient, and we’ve created Buy for Me to help customers quickly and easily find and buy products from other brand stores if we don’t currently sell those items in our store,” said Oliver Messenger, Amazon’s shopping director.
The company says its AI, powered by Amazon Nova and Anthropic’s Claude, can autonomously complete online checkouts, reducing the friction of shopping across multiple platforms. While this technology could make online shopping faster, control is also important. Shoppers are essentially trusting Amazon’s AI to buy exactly what they intended—without mistakes.
How It Works
Customers searching for an item on Amazon may now see a “Shop brand sites directly” section in their results. If the product isn’t available on Amazon, they can tap the Buy for Me button, which takes them to a product page similar to Amazon’s standard listings. If they choose to proceed, Amazon handles the checkout process using the details stored in their account.
Once the purchase is completed, the third-party retailer sends an order confirmation, and tracking is available within the Buy for Me Orders tab in the Amazon app. However, Amazon won’t handle returns or customer service—those will be managed by the brand selling the product.
For Amazon, Buy for Me is about keeping users engaged even when it doesn’t have the inventory. For shoppers, it’s a question of trust: Can AI handle their purchases without errors? And will they be comfortable with Amazon processing payments on external sites?
Amazon is starting small, testing the feature with select U.S. customers and brand partners. Depending on its success, Buy for Me could expand further, whether customers buy directly from Amazon or not.
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