Amazon already runs your e-commerce, your cloud, and a big slice of your warehouse logistics.
Now it wants to run your AI shopping helper too.
The firm just opened up the tech behind Alexa for Shopping. It's selling that tech to other stores - starting with Kate Spade.
Same Play As AWS, A Decade Later
Amazon's plan here is one you've seen before.
Build a tool. Run it for years inside the firm. Then package it up and sell it to everyone else as a service.
AWS did this with cloud about two decades back. Just Walk Out did it with checkout-free stores.
This time the product is AI shopping. Amazon's pitch: a store can launch its own AI shopping tool in as little as 60 days.
The tool is being sold through AWS. That's a useful detail.
Stores tend to trust AWS more than they trust Amazon's shopping arm. Sharing data with a cloud vendor feels safer than handing it to a direct rival.
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Amazon Is Fighting For The Front Door
The bigger story is what Amazon doesn't want to happen.
OpenAI, Google and Perplexity have all rolled out shopping agents. They try to sit between shoppers and stores.
Walmart, Target, Etsy, Gap and eBay are building their own tools too. They're also teaming up with OpenAI or Google. Salesforce is selling its own version.
If shoppers start their buying inside ChatGPT or Google instead of Amazon, Amazon loses a lot of ground.
That's why Amazon is running two plays at once.
On the shopper side, it just renamed its in-store bot from Rufus to Alexa for Shopping. It also made the bot the default in store search.
On the store side, it's now selling other shops a way to keep buyers inside their own apps. The tech comes from Amazon, but the shop owns the brand.
Amazon also has a tool called Buy for Me. It buys items for users on other stores' sites.
What To Watch
Amazon told stores in its blog post they should build their own AI tools. Don't hand control to a middle layer.
That middle layer is OpenAI, Google or Perplexity. Amazon would rather sit under stores than fight them for clicks.
Kate Spade, owned by Tapestry, is the first named user. It set up a gifting helper on the new tool.
More stores are in testing now. Most will pick the side that already runs their servers.
The AI shopping race is just getting going. AWS is now Amazon's lead foot in the door.
Each store that signs on locks in years of AWS spend. That's the real prize for Amazon.
The race for AI shopping just got a new lane.
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