Overview
- On Thursday, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy told investors that few customers use third‑party shopping agents because the shopping experience is still not better than going directly to a retailer.
- Amazon has blocked Meta’s Muse from accessing its store, saying Muse would violate the site’s conditions of use and bypass the ad and product‑listing paths Amazon relies on for revenue.
- Meta says Muse has been set up by more than 10 million people in the U.S. and Canada and that shopping is its top use case, with over a quarter of users buying through the agent and average orders above $200.
- Amazon promoted its own shopping agent, saying more than 400 million customers used Alexa for shopping in the past year and that U.S. Alexa shoppers spend about 50% more per order.
- Retailers are split on access to agents—Shopify partners, Walmart, and Best Buy have integrated Muse while Amazon has not—and the dispute raises short‑term safety and privacy questions plus longer‑term fights over who controls discovery, data, and ad dollars.