Amazon "Buy for Me" provides an example of the way agentic artificial intelligence is going to reshape consumer retail. “Buy for Me,” a new program in beta testing stage, helps customers discover and seamlessly purchase select products from other brands’ sites if those items are not currently sold in Amazon’s store.
Depending on the product, customers using the Amazon shopping app and "Buy for Me" can either shop brand sites with the help of AI, or visit the brand’s site directly. Shipping, delivery, returns, exchanges, and customer service are managed directly by the brand.
As seems to be the case for earlier e-commerce aggregators including Expedia and delivery services such as DoorDash, the impact on retailers might be both positive and negative.
On one hand, brands can experience expanded customer access, but also lower profit margins. Smaller brands might benefit in terms of awareness and sales, but at the risk of some brand dilution and loss of control.
And, as has been the case for virtually every e-commerce advance, price competition will grow. In some cases, the danger of disintermediation (replacing distributors from the value chain and allowing manufacturers to sell directly to customers) is possible.
New questions will emerge around the issue of whether customer loyalty is affected as well. Will customers be more loyal to the platform or to the brands?
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