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How Meta’s Muse Could Challenge Amazon’s Control of Online Shopping
Meta said more than 10 million people in the U.S. and Canada had set up Muse by October 21, about six weeks after launch.
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Key takeaways
- Meta said more than 10 million people in the U.S. and Canada had set up Muse by October 21, about six weeks after launch.
- The potential challenge is control: an assistant could recommend products and route purchases without sending shoppers through Amazon’s storefront or sponsored listings.
- Amazon blocked Muse over access and safety concerns; its CEO later called outside shopping agents inconvenient and promoted Alexa for Shopping.
AI Prompt
openai.comCreate a landscape editorial hero image for this Studio Global article: How is Meta’s AI shopping assistant Muse, launched in September and reportedly set up by more than 10 million people in the U.S. and Canada. Article summary: Muse’s potential threat is to move product discovery and purchasing away from Amazon’s storefront and into an independent assistant—weakening Amazon’s control over both shopping decisions and advertising exposure. Howeve. Topic tags: general, general web, user generated. Style: premium digital editorial illustration, source-backed research mood, clean composition, high detail, modern web publication hero. Use reference image context only for broad subject, composition, and topical grounding; do not copy the exact image. Avoid: logos, brand marks, copyrighted characters, real person likenesses, fake screenshots, UI text, readable text, watermarks, charts with fak
Meta’s Muse could challenge Amazon not simply by selling products, but by moving product discovery and checkout into an independent AI assistant. If shoppers rely on an assistant’s recommendations instead of browsing Amazon, the retailer could lose influence over both purchase decisions and the sponsored listings shoppers see. That is a plausible competitive risk—not evidence that Muse has already reduced Amazon’s sales or advertising revenue. 1
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What Muse’s early adoption says—and what it doesn’t
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that more than 10 million people in the U.S. and Canada had set up Muse agents by the company’s October 21 earnings call, around six weeks after the assistant’s September 8 launch. Zuckerberg also said shopping was Muse’s most common use. 7
The reported usage figures need context. Fortune reported that about one-quarter of adopters used Muse daily and that the average purchase was over $200; another report attributed to Zuckerberg the claim that more than a quarter of users shopped with Muse. 7
8 These are early, company-reported indicators of interest and purchase activity. They do not show how many people became repeat shoppers, how much spending shifted from Amazon, or whether Amazon’s own ad business was affected.
Why an AI shopping agent could matter to Amazon
Muse is described as able to browse, compare and buy products for users. 11 That creates a different path to a purchase: instead of visiting a retailer’s site and navigating its search results, a shopper may ask an assistant to find an item and act on its recommendation. If the assistant does not surface a retailer’s sponsored placements, that retailer could have fewer opportunities to influence the shopper through those ads.
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The effect depends on what shoppers actually do. If an assistant sends customers to a retailer to complete a purchase, the retailer may still get the sale and the customer relationship. If the assistant handles discovery and checkout elsewhere, the retailer could have less direct control over the journey. The supplied reporting describes the potential mechanism, but does not measure a resulting loss for Amazon. 11
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Why Amazon blocked Muse—and what Meta said in response
Amazon blocked Muse from shopping on its site in September. Reports describe Amazon’s position as a concern that an unauthorized AI agent violated its conditions of use; other reporting says Amazon raised concerns about the agent identifying itself and handling customer credentials. 12
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Meta, for its part, has said Muse cannot see users’ passwords or payment methods. 22 That addresses the credential-access concern as Meta presents it, but it does not settle whether Muse complied with Amazon’s access rules or identification requirements. The specific allegations should be understood as reported claims, not as independently established findings.
Jassy’s comments and Amazon’s advertising results
On Amazon’s October 29 earnings call, CEO Andy Jassy argued that few customers were shopping through outside agents because the experience was “still not great, nor more convenient than coming to a retailer directly.” Amazon also promoted Alexa for Shopping as its own assistant-led option. 2
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Amazon reported $19.6 billion in third-quarter advertising revenue. The reported year-over-year growth varies by source—11% in one account and 12% in another—and reporting said the result missed expectations. 33
35 A separate report put Amazon’s trailing 12-month advertising revenue at $78 billion; the supplied sources therefore do not substantiate the roughly $70 billion annual figure sometimes used to describe the business.
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The advertising miss and the debate over shopping agents are not proof of cause and effect. The available reporting does not establish that Muse caused the shortfall. Amazon’s current ad results can disappoint while the possibility of assistants redirecting future product discovery remains a longer-term strategic concern. 34
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Retailer partnerships create an alternative route to checkout
Muse’s reported retail connections include Gap, Walmart and Best Buy. 1 Shopify has also partnered with Meta on agent-enabled shopping. Shopify’s documentation says eligible stores can offer direct checkout on Meta surfaces, including Muse when available; that option is on by default for eligible stores, and merchants can turn it off so customers complete purchases on the merchant’s own site.
That gives participating merchants a way to reach shoppers inside an assistant experience. Amazon has taken a different approach by blocking Muse while promoting its own shopping assistant. The contrast is consistent with a contest over who controls product discovery and the checkout experience, though it does not establish Amazon’s stated motive for blocking Muse. 2
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The takeaway: a distribution question, not a proven Amazon hit
Muse’s reported setups and shopping activity make it worth watching, but they do not demonstrate that shoppers are abandoning Amazon or that Amazon’s advertising revenue is declining because of AI agents. The larger question is whether customers will increasingly delegate product search and recommendations—and which retailer, platform or assistant will own that moment. For now, the evidence points to an emerging competition for the shopping relationship, not a measured blow to Amazon’s business. 7
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What is the short answer to "How Meta’s Muse Could Challenge Amazon’s Control of Online Shopping"?
Meta said more than 10 million people in the U.S. and Canada had set up Muse by October 21, about six weeks after launch.
What are the key points to validate first?
Meta said more than 10 million people in the U.S. and Canada had set up Muse by October 21, about six weeks after launch. The potential challenge is control: an assistant could recommend products and route purchases without sending shoppers through Amazon’s storefront or sponsored listings.
What should I do next in practice?
Amazon blocked Muse over access and safety concerns; its CEO later called outside shopping agents inconvenient and promoted Alexa for Shopping.
Sources
cognativ.comAI Shopping Agents vs. Amazon: The Muse Fight | Cognativ
fortune.comAmazon shares sink as spending on AI overshadows growth in cloud unit | Fortune
fortune.comMark Zuckerberg says over 10 million people used Meta’s Muse—and demand was so high, he had to get Stripe to raise credit limits | Fortune
thenextweb.comMeta had to ask Stripe to raise limits as Muse shoppers ...