schmamazon is stealing our website listings

Running a small business in 2026 is already a wild ride! And making more work for us small business owners and makers to protect our products. I found out the morning of December 29th, Amazon is scraping maker's websites, without our consent, for a new experiment called Buy For Me. When I scrolled Instagram I noticed more and more makers mentioning Amazon was listing their products without consent. It took me a couple days but I searched a. favorite design on their website and there it was. My products. Listed like I had chosen to be there. I hadn't. I immediately sent an opt-out email to branddirect(at)amazon(dot)com. It took them twelve days to reply, all the while my goods were up on Amazon without my consent. On the 12th, I received a  message claiming "we will no longer provide customers with links from this experience to your brand's website". They also claim to welcome feedback. Which I have a lot but am rewriting my response so it's concise and doesn't sound like an emotional reaction.

I'm sure some of you are asking, why is this an issue? It's more sales, isn't that what you want as a business? Here's the thing. Amazon has no integrity when it comes to respecting other businesses. Their bottom line is to sell and to be the only eCommerce option. That being said they have a reputation for seeing what sells from small businesses who use their site and recreate those items, sometimes poorly, under the Amazon Brand and sell them for less. Yeah. You read that right. Businesses who choose to sell on Amazon are often getting ripped off by them. Not only that, I own my products. It's my right to choose where to sell those products. I've been in business over 21 years. And in that time, I've denied many retailers from selling my goods. Either they're too close to a current customer or they have a shady reputation as a customer or a myriad of other reasons. Again, I own my work and am the only one who should be making decisions where it's sold, not some bot from a giant company, scraping information off my website. It's unethical and it feels like they're stealing my images and copy. 

For those still questioning my perspective, imagine something you've worked very hard  to own. Let's say your car for example. You saved up, worked hard and bought that car. You own that car, you love that car and use it daily. Then one day you notice photos and captions you posted online of your car are being used to list your car as a rental with a large corporation without your consent. How would you feel? Betrayed? Violated? Furious? Well, that's exactly how I feel.

I understand Amazon is here to stay. However, if you want small businesses and variety, we're all going to have to be more conscientious with our buying. This means taking a moment when shopping online to dig deeper. Even if you find the perfect something on a giant website like Amazon, see who made it and if they have a website. Or even a storefront. Searching to find the makers and companies behind the products we purchase is the only way to make sure we keep having makers and small businesses to support. Thanks for listening. I hope this brings a little awareness to your shopping.

If you're a brand that has had their website scraped by Amazon, Angie Chua, owner of BoBo Design Studio, is looking into a class action lawsuit. You can help by filling out this form.