The news: Amazon has significantly expanded Shop Direct, a feature that surfaces products sold on other retailers’ sites and directs shoppers to those sites when the items aren’t available on Amazon, per The Information.

• Shop Direct now includes about 250 million outside product listings, roughly 2.5 times the number in March, an Amazon spokesperson tells EMARKETER.
• Amazon is testing ways to make these products more prominent through curated collections, dedicated brand pages, and richer product information.

Why is this happening? Amazon wants to remain at the center of consumers’ online shopping journeys, even when it can’t fulfill the purchase itself. By surfacing products like eyeglasses from Warby Parker, Amazon gives shoppers fewer reasons to turn to Google or AI shopping tools like Muse and ChatGPT to find what they need.

The strategy is both offensive and defensive.

On offense, Shop Direct could increase time spent on Amazon and deepen engagement, creating more opportunities to serve shoppers ads. A broader product selection could make Alexa more useful by allowing it to recommend products Amazon doesn’t sell, giving shoppers more reasons to use it.

On defense, Shop Direct could help Amazon fend off emerging competitors like Google, which recently launched its Universal Cart tool that lets shoppers save products from multiple retailers in one place, and Meta’s Muse personal AI. As AI increasingly mediates shopping, Amazon wants to remain the starting point for product discovery rather than cede that role to a third-party assistant. For eligible products, Amazon can take that strategy a step further through Buy for Me, its agentic buying tool, which completes purchases on merchants’ websites on shoppers’ behalf.

The challenges: Amazon’s ambition to own product discovery hinges on shoppers trusting its recommendations. In a May 2026 survey of Amazon shoppers in the US and five major European markets, just 25% said products at the top of search results were the best match for their queries. Nearly as many believed those products were bestsellers (24%) or paid placements (23%). The findings suggest shoppers don’t necessarily equate prominent placement with relevance, which suggests Amazon may need to build consumer trust.

Amazon also appears to have a trust issue with retailers. Eleven people who run ecommerce sites or work with merchants told The Information they had little insight into when, why, or how outside products appear. Amazon says it proactively selects products based on customer interest and allows merchants to opt out by contacting the company. But that still leaves merchants with limited visibility into how individual listings are selected, surfaced, and removed.

Some featured merchants say they have seen few resulting sales. Amazon says its referral links include URL tags that let merchants track traffic from the program through their existing analytics tools. But the company is still building out reporting capabilities to help merchants understand Shop Direct’s value, making it unclear whether its growing reach is translating into meaningful traffic and sales.

Accuracy about the information Amazon features is another concern. Some listings contain product details that don’t match what brands actually sell on their own sites. Amazon says merchants can use existing product feeds from providers including Feedonomics, Salsify, CEDCommerce, and Versafeed to sync product information, pricing, and inventory with Shop Direct. But it remains unclear how broadly those tools are being used or how consistently listings reflect what merchants actually have available. Ironically, listing accuracy was the same type of concern Amazon cited when it blocked outside AI shopping agents last year. Product links also don’t always lead to brands’ direct-to-consumer sites. The Information cited one example in which Amazon directed shoppers to a retailer that wasn’t an authorized reseller of a wellness brand’s products.

That creates an uneven trade-off. Amazon gains a broader assortment and more opportunities to engage shoppers, while brands have little control over how their products appear, where shoppers are directed, or whether listings generate sales. The approach also exposes a double standard as Amazon is expanding its own shopping tools to feature products sold elsewhere while restricting outside AI agents over concerns about accuracy and reliability.

Implications for retail: While it is easy to see how Shop Direct could help Amazon defend its commerce and advertising businesses, its success depends on Amazon’s ability to build stronger retailer relationships and give shoppers greater confidence in its recommendations. If Amazon can make progress on both fronts and improve the quality of its listings, sales could follow. Until then, more product visibility means little if listings are inaccurate, shoppers are directed to unintended sellers, or the exposure fails to generate sales.

This content is part of EMARKETER’s subscription Briefings, where we pair daily updates with data and analysis from forecasts and research reports. Our Briefings prepare you to start your day informed, to provide critical insights in an important meeting, and to understand the context of what’s happening in your industry. Non-clients can click here to get a demo of our full platform and coverage.