Amazon is testing a new feature that will send mobile shoppers to brands’ own websites when they can’t find the item on the Amazon marketplace. “We’re now testing a new shopping experience in beta where we’ll show select products in our search results even if we don’t sell them in our store, and link to the brand’s website to make it easy for customers to purchase them there,” Amazon announced in a blog post on Tuesday.
“These items will show up alongside the hundreds of millions of products sold directly on Amazon,” it said. “Customers will be able to click on the link and go to the brand’s website to evaluate the product, see pricing and delivery options, and make purchases directly from that brand.”
However, Amazon will also display relevant products found in Amazon’s store alongside the “select products we don’t carry that are available directly on another brand’s website.”
“When a customer clicks on a product that is sold in a brand’s store off Amazon, they will receive a notification they are leaving Amazon, and will be redirected to the brand’s website.”
The testing is already live for a subset of US customers using the Amazon Shopping app (both iOS and Android devices).
For shoppers wanting to learn more, Amazon set up a page with a few FAQs, where it says it does not share any personal data with brand websites. “When you are redirected to a brand’s website, we do not share any information about you with the brand.”
Amazon also provided more information on pricing: “We get product information, including price, directly from brand websites to display in the Amazon Shopping app. This information is refreshed regularly, but may have been updated on the brand website since we last refreshed the information. You can confirm the price on the brand website before purchase.”
Amazon also set up a page with information for brands, including providing an email address for brands who wish to participate, or who wish to express their desire not to participate.
In a FAQ on the dedicated page for brands, Amazon said it does not gain any visibility into customer’s behavior on brand websites using the in-app browser. “We do not collect data about how a customer interacts with your brand website once they navigate to it via the in-app browser.”
TechCrunch likened the new, somewhat counterintuitive, feature to a fictional department-store Santa Clause in the movie “Miracle on 34th Street” who sent people to other retailers when his own store didn’t carry the product wanted by children.
“In the movie, the radical marketing strategy improved customer sentiment around Macy’s – and helped cement its status as the best place to shop. Amazon likely hopes its move will do the same, especially in light of the increased competition from other online retailers, including Chinese e-commerce apps like Temu and Shein,” the publication wrote.
It also shows that Amazon is concerned with shoppers heading to Google to search for items when they can’t find them on its own marketplace, where they would view ads served up by Google instead of by Amazon, an important revenue source. According to AdWeek, Amazon’s ad revenue was $56.2 billion in 2024, up from $46.9 billion in 2023, and it said Amazon projects ads will drive $69 billion in revenue in 2025.