January 10, 2026
Checkout chaos goes prime time
Brands upset Buy For Me is featuring their products on Amazon without permission
Small brands say Amazon turned them into unwilling drop-shippers
TLDR: Amazon’s “Buy For Me” listed small brands and routed orders through their own sites without consent, triggering outrage. Comments split between “shady delivery-app vibes,” “this is how the web should work,” and “fix your shop config,” while Amazon says it’s a test and offers an email opt‑out.
Amazon’s new “Buy For Me” feature just sparked an indie brand meltdown, and the comments are pure chaos. Stationery maker Angie Chua and kidswear founder Amanda Stewart say they never chose to sell on Amazon — yet their catalogs popped up there, orders flowed through their own sites, and one video calling it out racked up 16,000 likes. Cue the crowd: one camp yelled “this is just like those fake restaurant sites from delivery apps,” accusing Amazon of hijacking storefronts for clout. Another camp shrugged, arguing it’s the original Web dream — Amazon acting like a “user agent” that fills in checkout details, basically a helper bot doing the shopping.
The meme-makers chimed in with “inverse drop shipping” jokes, while hardliners warned this opens the door for copycat private-label knockoffs. A spicy sub-thread blamed the merchants: if Amazon can place out‑of‑stock orders on your site, your shop setup might be broken. Amazon’s response: we’re testing “Shop Direct” and “Buy For Me” to help customers find brands not on Amazon; businesses can opt out via branddirect@amazon.com, and we remove them promptly. That didn’t calm the drama. The vibe? Indie shops feel blindsided, tech purists think it’s the web working as designed, and everyone else is here for the popcorn and the clapbacks.
Key Points
- •Amazon’s “Buy For Me” feature listed independent brands’ products on Amazon without those merchants’ consent.
- •The feature uses agentic AI to transfer encrypted payment and shipping data to third-party sites and labels listings as “other brands” with a “Buy for Me” button.
- •Bobo Design Studio and Mochi Kids discovered their catalogs on Amazon; Bobo received out-of-stock orders and Mochi Kids received around 16 orders.
- •Merchants can opt out by emailing branddirect@amazon.com; Bobo Design Studio’s products were removed after opting out.
- •Amazon says “Shop Direct” and “Buy For Me” are test programs aimed at discovery and incremental sales, with positive feedback reported.