Amazon Wants to Run Merchants’ Businesses Beyond Amazon

Amazon has unveiled its next ambitious strategy, aiming to become the platform where merchants run their businesses, not just sell on. This shift, revealed through two exclusive announcements to PYMNTS, signifies a significant move from being a marketplace to a merchant operating system. The company opened its Seller Central to orders and listings from competitors such as Walmart, eBay, Shopify, and TikTok, effectively allowing those platforms to manage transactions within Amazon's software.

Additionally, Amazon is enhancing its Amazon Seller Assistant, evolving it from a conversational AI tool to a persistent agent that monitors various metrics like inventory, pricing, advertising, demand, and compliance, all with merchant permission to take actions. This development indicates Amazon's strategic pivot towards becoming more than just a retail platform but a comprehensive tool for merchants to manage their entire business operations.

Such a move reflects the reality that more than 95% of independent sellers in Amazon's store utilize multiple channels, contributing to over 60% of sales within Amazon's marketplace. The strategic integration with Walmart, one of the largest retail channels, underscores Amazon's understanding of the multi-channel nature of modern commerce.

By facilitating a unified view of a merchant's operations across various platforms, Amazon aims to offer a more integrated and efficient solution to sellers, potentially transforming the traditional marketplace model into a more operational commerce ERP.