Amazon has reportedly considered a plan to collect and organize product information from across the internet, including products it does not sell itself. Reuters reported on November 13, 2026, citing internal documents and people familiar with the matter. The initiative is called the "World Product Graph." It aims to understand not only individual product details but also the relationships between products, such as the differences between older and newer models, to help shoppers compare items. Amazon told Reuters, however, that past planning documents do not necessarily reflect its current plans.
Amazon already operates "Shop Direct," which searches for products from outside stores and sends users to those stores' sites, and "Buy for Me," in which AI completes purchases of eligible products on the user's behalf. In both, the outside store handles selling and delivery, while Amazon is involved in product discovery and the purchase process. The newly reported plan can be seen as a move to further separate the range of products Amazon sells from the range of products it gathers and uses information about.
"World Product Graph": Understanding How Products Relate to One Another
Reuters's report is based on an internal Amazon business planning document known as a "PR/FAQ." The document lists a desired launch date of October 1, 2027, but no official release date has been set.
The plan envisions receiving product data continuously from brands and retailers while also crawling other stores' websites on its own to collect product information. From the collected data, Amazon would identify the latest models and color variations of products and understand how products relate to one another. For example, if the system could do more than list product names, and could identify which product is an older model and which is its successor, it could present shoppers with more useful comparisons.
Reuters, however, could not confirm whether Amazon will carry out the plan or, if so, when. It is also unclear how the website crawling would be done or what permissions would be needed to gather the information. The actual technical architecture, target regions, data update frequency, correction methods, and the conditions under which outside AI agents could use the information are likewise unknown. Official announcements and developer documentation for the current Shop Direct describe availability in the US, and no expansion to Japan has been announced.
In Today's Shop Direct, Stores Supply the Product Data
Amazon already runs a system that lets users find products it does not sell itself. Of Shop Direct, which began in 2025, the company said as of March 11, 2026 that it covered more than 100 million products from over 400,000 outside stores. It added that tens of millions of products are also eligible for Buy for Me. These figures reflect the scale of the services at that time, however, and do not indicate how much of the world's product supply they cover.
In its March announcement, Amazon said it syncs outside stores' product catalogs, prices, and inventory in real time through product feeds, and it previewed a portal for merchants. On November 4, it then announced "Merchant Workspace," which lets stores register and manage products themselves. Participating stores submit product feeds to submit and update product information in bulk, and can check their participation status and which products are listed. Registered products may appear in Amazon search results and in "Alexa for Shopping."
Stores can choose which products to make eligible for listing. Amazon says it charges no fee to take part in Shop Direct and that stores can withdraw at any time. Those are the participation terms of the current service, though, and it is not known whether the same terms would apply to information gathered by crawling websites, as in the newly reported plan.
According to the developer specifications, product information is submitted and updated using the Feeds API in SP-API, which also supports Google's product data feed format. Outside apps authorized by a store can also connect data on its behalf. Because existing data formats can be used, this may reduce the burden on stores' systems.
The specifications also include a mechanism for assigning a shared "item_group_id" to products that differ in color or size, so they are treated as a single variation group. Grouping color and size variants of the same product, however, is a separate technical challenge from understanding successor relationships between different products. The currently published product feed specifications do not necessarily show how the World Product Graph would be implemented.
Product Search, Purchase Assistance, and Delivery Are Separate Mechanisms
With standard Shop Direct, users are told they are leaving Amazon's site and are sent to the outside store, where they buy the product on that store's website. With products that support Buy for Me, by contrast, once the user confirms the shipping address, taxes, shipping fees, payment method, and other details on Amazon's screen, Amazon's AI completes the purchase on the outside store's site.
In both mechanisms, the outside store manages pricing and inventory, processes orders, and delivers the products. Stores also remain responsible for returns, exchanges, and customer service as before. Amazon's official developer documentation limits Shop Direct availability to the US store.
In short, Shop Direct handles discovery of outside products and sends shoppers to stores, while Buy for Me handles the purchase process for eligible products. The World Product Graph, by contrast, is a concept for collecting information, including on products Amazon does not sell, and understanding relationships between products. Whether it will go ahead is not confirmed.
| Mechanism | Scope of information/function | How purchases are made | Who sells and delivers | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Standard Shop Direct | Search and display of outside products | User goes to the outside store's site to buy | Outside store | Available (US) |
| Buy for Me | Purchase assistance for eligible outside products | After conditions are confirmed, AI buys on the outside store's site | Outside store | Available (US, eligible products) |
| World Product Graph | Information gathering, including products Amazon doesn't sell, and understanding relationships between products | Unknown | Unknown | Unconfirmed plan reported by Reuters |
What the current services show is that Amazon can act as a front door for consumers to find products without handling sales or logistics itself. If the World Product Graph is realized and the range of product information collected expands, Amazon could gain influence at the comparison and selection stages even for products it does not sell directly.
Accuracy of Data Matters for AI Product Comparisons
According to Reuters, the internal document cited problems with Amazon's AI shopping assistant Rufus, including answers that contain errors or are incomplete, as well as high operating costs. Rufus has been called "Alexa for Shopping" since May. The document also reportedly described a plan to use lower-cost AI models more efficiently by enriching product data.
Amazon responded that the usage figures in the internal document are significantly out of date. Citing its own data, it also said it has achieved about 97% accuracy worldwide. Reuters's article, however, does not explain how that 97% figure was evaluated or what it was calculated against. Because the evaluation timing and conditions differ from those of the problems pointed out in the internal document, this number alone cannot be used to judge current performance improvements or the effect of the new plan.
For AI product comparisons, accuracy and update frequency matter as much as the volume of information collected. Prices and inventory change often, so if AI refers to outdated information, users may be shown details that differ from the actual terms of sale. For the current Shop Direct, Amazon says it syncs prices and inventory in real time through product feeds, but it is unclear whether the World Product Graph could ensure equivalent update accuracy.
The plan also has an element of competition in AI-powered shopping services. The Verge analyzes that if a large-scale index of product data were built, outside AI agents could also draw on that information and, as a result, steer users to Amazon's product pages even without people searching on Amazon directly. Reuters also reports, citing people familiar with the matter, that protecting Amazon's advertising business is one aim of the plan.
What to Watch: Merchants' Right to Choose and How Information Is Updated
In the current Shop Direct, stores choose which products to make eligible for listing and can withdraw from the service if they wish. The World Product Graph, by contrast, envisions not only receiving data directly from stores but also collecting information by crawling websites. If both methods are combined, key questions will be how far stores can choose whether to take part in information gathering, and how they can request corrections or deletions of collected information.
Another point to check is how quickly changes to prices, inventory, and other details on a store's side are reflected in Amazon's search results and AI answers. Collecting product information widely does not necessarily mean accurate comparisons can be presented to users. What to watch next is whether the World Product Graph is actually adopted, and how the conditions for information gathering and the mechanisms for updates and corrections are designed.