Amazon launched a free self-serve portal called the Shop Direct Merchant Workspace, where merchants can join Shop Direct, the program that shows products from other online stores in Amazon search and Alexa for Shopping and sends shoppers to the merchant’s site to buy. Merchants can upload the same product feeds they already use elsewhere, either directly or through providers like Feedonomics and Salsify, and check which items are currently live on Amazon. Merchants keep handling pricing, fulfillment, and returns, pay no fees, and can leave whenever they want. Shop Direct still includes merchants by default unless they opt out, and The Information reported last week that some merchants didn’t know their products were listed.
