Amazon launched the Shop Direct Merchant Workspace, a free self-service portal that connects off-Amazon stores to Alexa for Shopping and Amazon search.
The detail that matters is what it does not ask for. Merchants can reuse catalogs they already built for other destinations.
Amazon says the Workspace accepts widely adopted shopping feed formats, so there is no rebuild. Merchants verify their business website, then share a catalog through an established provider like Feedonomics, Salsify, CEDCommerce or VersaFeed, or integrate directly with the Selling Partner API. The portal then shows which products are active and available to Amazon customers, with an AI connector updating product info in near real time.
The surface is simple. Eligible products may surface in relevant searches and inside Alexa for Shopping, clearly labeled Shop Direct. A Shop Direct button sends shoppers to the merchant site after a notice they are leaving Amazon. Shipping, returns and customer service stay with the merchant. Where eligible, Amazon offers Buy for Me, its agentic buying tool that lets a customer confirm address, taxes, shipping and payment on Amazon while Amazon's AI completes the purchase on the merchant's site.
Amazon says tens of millions of customers have already discovered hundreds of millions of unique Shop Direct products since the program launched last year, with Shop Direct items appearing in hundreds of millions of searches monthly. That pitch follows a broader agentic push. Per PYMNTS, CEO Andy Jassy said on the Oct. 29 earnings call that few consumers use third-party shopping agents today, their experience is not great, and Alexa for Shopping will be the primary shopping agent.
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There are limits baked in. There are no fees to join and merchants can opt out anytime, but they keep inventory, pricing, fulfillment and support. Product info is near real time, not guaranteed real time. Prime delivery is not included unless the merchant separately uses Amazon's Multichannel Fulfillment. If you live on feed quality, broken attributes and stale availability will still filter you out.
For merchants who already syndicate feeds everywhere, this is a low lift way to chase Amazon intent without listing in the store or handing over fulfillment. The tradeoff is you get the traffic and keep the operations.
