Small business owners across the country are pushing back against Amazon's AI shopping tools, saying the company lists their products without permission.

“I typed in YamzWorld into the Amazon app and lo and behold there were all my products there with my pictures from my website as well,” Montes-Tarazas said.

While he receives payment for sales, Montes-Tarazas said the arrangement strips away his ability to build direct customer relationships.

“I do get the sale and I do get the money, but customers never get to interact with my website, they have no ability to sign up for my mailing list. They have no idea who I am as an artist or what I stand for,” Montes-Tarazas said.

    • JupiterSnarl@lemmy.worldEnglish
      52·
      4 hours ago

      Incorrect. They have a new “ai feature” that scrapes the internet for independent stores and copies their products, pastes them on Amazon and then sells them to Amazon customers. Their AI then goes and places the order with the original store. Read the article and the news - it’s widely reported in the last couple weeks. It seems like a “good thing for sellers and consumers” There are dozens of problems with this which are well covered elsewhere.

    • mushroommunk@lemmy.todayEnglish
      111·
      6 hours ago

      Nope, Amazon announced the feature, Shop Direct, that is exactly what the article is talking about. They now list things from other sites and complete the order from the other site for the customer, without the other site knowing at all.

      This is 100% Amazon data grift to try to justify their AI expenditure