Amazon memo outlines plan to own global product data

Amazon has drafted a plan to collect data on almost every product for sale in the world, including items it does not stock. The goal is to keep shoppers, and the AI agents that shop for them, on its own site, Reuters reported on November 13 after reviewing an internal document and speaking with people familiar with the effort. The initiative is called World Product Graph. It could help Amazon take on Google in product search and compete with Walmart in e-commerce.reuters.com

Amazon described the memo as a brainstorming draft. "Draft, outdated documents often paint an incomplete picture and the existence of a brainstorming document such as this one doesn't necessarily reflect our current plans," the company said, according to Reuters' report as republished by The Jerusalem Post. Amazon shares rose in premarket trading after the report, TipRanks noted.jpost.com+1

What the document describes

The memo is written as a PR/FAQ, Amazon's standard pitch format for new products, and gives an "aspirational" release date of October 1, 2027. Reuters could not determine whether the plan will actually be carried out, or when. "Amazon cannot be the go-destination for every shopping mission if customers must leave to research product relationships on Google, brand websites, and review sites," the document says.reuters.com

The data would come from two sources. Some brands would send product data to Amazon on an ongoing basis, and Amazon would also collect data from other retailers' websites on its own. Reuters could not determine whether Amazon would need permission from those sites in every case. According to the memo, Coca-Cola and Bayer have already signed up to share data, and Amazon held a "CEO-level" summit with Procter & Gamble about a trial.jpost.com

Fixing Rufus, fending off agents

The document also admits problems with Amazon's AI shopping assistant, Rufus, which the company renamed "Alexa for Shopping" in May. "Many Rufus answers are factually wrong or incomplete, but customers lack expertise to detect these errors," it says. It also calls the assistant's roughly 83 million weekly searches "expensive" to run. Amazon told Reuters those usage figures are "significantly outdated" and said the assistant is about 97% accurate worldwide.jpost.com

People familiar with the plan said a bigger goal is to deal with outside AI shopping agents. If Amazon held the most complete product data, those agents would have reason to search Amazon.com rather than rival sites, which would also protect its advertising business. Meta's Muse agent has reached more than 10 million users in the U.S. and Canada since it launched in September. Amazon blocked Muse from its site that same month, and it is still suing Perplexity over a similar issue.reuters.com

On Amazon's third-quarter earnings call, CEO Andy Jassy played down the threat, saying "few customers are doing much shopping this way yet". The vice president leading the project, Robert Tekiela, put it this way in the memo: "What's been missing is understanding – how do these products relate to each other, which one is right for me, and what else should I consider?"jpost.com