Amazon is reportedly planning to build the World Product Graph, a database of every product sold online, including items Amazon doesn't sell itself, according to Reuters.
- Amazon is reportedly planning a "World Product Graph," a database of every product sold on the internet, including products Amazon doesn't sell.
- The goal is to keep shoppers and AI agents on Amazon's site instead of sending them to Reddit or Google to research products.
- The database is also meant to improve the Alexa for Shopping assistant (formerly Rufus), which an internal document says gives many wrong or incomplete answers.
- The project may never ship. An internal document lists a release date of October 1, 2027, while Amazon says it is just an outdated draft.
Table of Contents
A database for every product on the web
According to Reuters, Amazon is considering building a database of every product sold on the internet. Even items Amazon doesn't sell directly would be included. That information would then be served right on Amazon's own site. The project is called the "World Product Graph."
The logic is straightforward. Amazon wants shoppers to leave its site less often to research products on Reddit or Google. Even when someone is looking for an item sold elsewhere, they could still end up finishing their journey on Amazon.
The same reasoning applies to AI agents. If Amazon holds the largest shopping dataset, agents will likely rely on its product index rather than other sources. In that case, people who shop through chatbots would also end up on Amazon's pages.
Data to patch the AI assistant's weak spots
Links to products from outside retailers have already started appearing on Amazon through the "shop direct" feature, which launched last year. The company also has its own AI shopping assistant, Alexa for Shopping, previously called Rufus.
The World Product Graph is also meant to address that assistant's limitations by feeding it more data. According to Reuters, an internal Amazon document admits that "Many Rufus answers are factually wrong or incomplete." The document also notes that running user searches through AI is currently quite expensive.
Richer data is expected to make the system more accurate. Amazon could also switch to cheaper models.
No guarantee it will ship
Whether the project will launch is still unclear. The internal document says the plan "depends on discovering how brands organize their products on their own websites." That could mean Amazon would have to collect data from other retailers' sites.
Reuters reports that it is unclear whether or when the plan will be carried out. Still, the document does list a release date of October 1, 2027.
In a response to Reuters, Amazon said draft and outdated documents often reflect only part of the picture. According to the company, a brainstorming document like this doesn't necessarily represent its current plans.
If it becomes reality, the World Product Graph shows that competition in online shopping is shifting from winning users to winning the role of data source for AI. For shoppers, a centralized index could be convenient. Accuracy will be the real test, though, since the internal document itself points to Rufus' wrong answers. It's worth remembering that this comes from an unconfirmed internal document, and Amazon has said it doesn't necessarily reflect current plans.
Source: The Verge
Reviewed by: Hero Association
