The Shop Direct Merchant Workspace, announced Wednesday (Nov. 4), lets any eligible merchant register for Shop Direct and link their store to Amazon, making their products discoverable to customers using Alexa for Shopping and Amazon’s website and app.
“Customers are increasingly trusting Amazon and Alexa for Shopping as the place to start any shopping journey—whether what they’re looking for is in our store or somewhere else on the web,” Amanda Doerr, vice president of core shopping at Amazon, said in a news release.
“Shop Direct makes it simple for merchants to have their selection discovered by Amazon customers. We created the Merchant Workspace to make it fast and easy for merchants to be part of this growing experience using the catalogs they’ve already built for other shopping destinations.”
With the Merchant Workspace, merchants can submit product feeds and manage their participation, while also getting visibility into which of their products are active and available to Amazon customers via Shop Direct.
Customers who wish to learn more about or purchase a product can tap the “Shop Direct” button on the product page to be sent to the merchant’s store to see product details and complete the purchase. Amazon will notify customers that they’ve left its site.
Amazon launched Shop Direct last February, allowing customers who ask for a brand or product that is not available from Amazon’s store purchase it from another store.
Amazon announced last week that it was expanding Alexa for Shopping, with the artificial intelligence assistant now able to help with more than 100 new shopping actions, like creating, adding to and editing grocery lists and baby registries.
The same day, during the company’s earnings call, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy dismissed any threat from AI agents, saying that few consumers are using agents to shop, and that Alexa for Shopping “is going to be the primary shopping agent customers use to shop Amazon.”
Research from the PYMNTS Intelligence report “Will the 2026 Shopping Season Go Agentic?” shows Amazon securing 59% of AI-assisted purchases due to its competitive pricing and policies around delivery and returns.
“The research started, but completion remains concentrated,” the report said. “Amazon accounts for 29% of research starts, 49% of main purchase completion and 59% of the most recent AI-assisted purchase.”
