Since 4 November, any eligible online store can sign up through Amazon’s free Shop Direct Merchant Workspace, send in a product feed, and have its products appear in US Amazon search results and in Alexa for Shopping, without selling on Amazon. Shoppers click through to the merchant’s own site to buy, or let Amazon’s AI buy it for them there. For a private-label seller this cuts two ways. Direct-to-consumer brands that never paid a referral fee can now show up in the searches you pay to win. And if you have your own website, products you don’t sell on Amazon can be listed there too, though Amazon routes existing sellers to an email address, not the portal.

What changed

  • A self-service portal for Shop Direct. Merchants can register, connect their store, submit product feeds, manage which items take part and see which products are live. Amazon calls it “a fast, free direct AI connector” from a merchant’s store to Alexa for Shopping and Amazon. Source: Amazon’s announcement, 4 November.
  • No fees to take part. Amazon says: “There are no fees to participate in Shop Direct, and merchants can opt out at any time.” The merchant keeps control of inventory, pricing, shipping, returns and customer service. Source: Amazon’s announcement.
  • Where the products show up. In relevant searches on Amazon.com, the Amazon Shopping app and mobile web, and inside Alexa for Shopping, labelled “Shop Direct”. US customers only. Source: Amazon’s announcement.
  • Two ways to buy. With “Shop Direct”, the shopper gets a notice that they are leaving Amazon and lands on the merchant’s site. With “Buy for Me”, on eligible products, the shopper confirms address, tax, shipping and payment on Amazon, and Amazon’s AI completes the purchase on the merchant’s website. Source: Amazon’s announcement.
  • Sign-up is three steps: create a Shop Direct merchant account, verify the business website, and share the catalogue through a feed provider (Amazon names Feedonomics, Salsify, CEDCommerce and VersaFeed) or the Selling Partner API. Source: Amazon’s announcement.
  • Existing Amazon sellers go a different route. Amazon says current sellers “may be eligible” for products they don’t sell in Amazon’s store, and should email shopdirect@amazon.com instead of using the portal. Source: Amazon’s announcement.
  • Amazon’s scale claim. Amazon says Shop Direct products appear in “hundreds of millions” of searches a month. It doesn’t define the figure or break it down by category.

What it means for a private-label seller

Your search results just got a competitor that pays nothing to be there. A DTC brand that has stayed off Amazon to avoid referral and FBA fees can now sit in the same search results as your listing for free. Amazon hasn’t said how Shop Direct items are ranked against products sold in its own store, or whether they can be advertised. Both PPC Land and Shopifreaks point out that the announcement doesn’t cover ranking or traffic reporting. Until it does, you can’t tell how much of your category’s search space these listings take.

Your own website may already be in it. Shop Direct didn’t start with this portal. Amazon has been listing products from other stores’ websites for some time, and PPC Land and Shopifreaks both report brands complaining about listings they never signed up for. If you run a Shopify store next to your Amazon listings, search your brand on Amazon and look for the “Shop Direct” label.

A sale on your site is not a sale on your listing. Sending Amazon shoppers to your own site keeps the margin and the customer email. But that order does nothing for your Amazon sales history, your rank or your review count. For a product that sells on both, splitting traffic this way can weaken the listing that brings in most of your volume. It makes most sense for products that aren’t on Amazon at all: bundles, sizes or refills you sell only direct.

Your customer service carries the risk. The shopper found you on Amazon but bought on your site, so the return, the late parcel and the complaint are yours, under your own policies. If your returns process is weaker than Amazon’s, that’s a trade-off worth weighing before you send a feed.

What this doesn’t tell you

Amazon hasn’t published the eligibility criteria, how Shop Direct items rank, whether they can carry ads, or what click and sales reporting merchants get. It hasn’t said whether the programme will come to the UK or EU. We’ve left those out instead of guessing.

What to do about it

  1. Nothing, if you sell only in the UK or EU. This is US-only for now.
  2. Search your top three keywords and your brand name on Amazon.com this week. Note any “Shop Direct” results: whose they are and where they sit on the page. Repeat in a month. That’s the only way to see whether this is changing your category before Amazon publishes any data.
  3. Check whether your own site is already listed. If it is and you didn’t choose that, decide on purpose: keep it for products you don’t sell on Amazon, or opt out where it competes with your own listing.
  4. Got products you sell only direct? Email shopdirect@amazon.com, as Amazon tells existing sellers to do, and ask which items qualify and what reporting you’d get before you send a feed.
  5. Keep your listing ahead on the things Amazon controls: Prime delivery, review count and complete attributes. These are what a shopper compares when a “Shop Direct” result sits next to you. Amazon’s agent reads the same fields; see our note on Alexa for Shopping by text.

Sources

  • About Amazon, 4 November 2026: the launch, no fees, opt out at any time, US placements, Shop Direct and Buy for Me checkout, sign-up steps, named feed providers, the route for existing sellers, the “hundreds of millions of searches” figure
  • PPC Land, 5 November 2026: no published eligibility criteria, open questions on ranking, ads and reporting, earlier complaints about listings brands didn’t authorise
  • Retail Insight Network, 5 November 2026: independent report of the launch and the checkout flow
  • Shopifreaks, 9 November 2026: merchants listed without signing up, no traffic reporting in the announcement