Amazon is working on one of its most ambitious ideas yet: a record of virtually every product for sale anywhere in the world, including ones it does not sell. The plan, described in an internal document seen by Reuters, is called the World Product Graph. Amazon wants shoppers to start and finish their hunt for a new tablet or vacuum cleaner inside its own app, instead of drifting off to Google, a brand’s website or a review page first.
For all its size, Amazon still loses the first step of most shopping trips. Amazon began in 1994 as an online bookshop and grew into the world’s biggest online retailer, yet millions of shoppers still start their search elsewhere. Advertising is now one of its largest businesses, worth 56.2 billion dollars in 2024 and 68.6 billion dollars in 2025, behind only Google and Meta. That business depends on shoppers searching inside Amazon, so pulling them back earlier is worth a great deal.
A Catalog Beyond Amazon
The draft document sets out a sweeping idea. Brands and retailers would supply product information on an ongoing basis, keeping it fresh as models change. Amazon would also gather information from other retailers’ websites, building a picture of the market far beyond its own shelves. Reuters could not establish how Amazon would collect that data or when it would need permission, and those questions may prove the hardest part of the project.
The memo says Coca-Cola and Bayer have agreed to contribute data, and Amazon met Procter and Gamble executives about a trial. None of the three responded to requests for comment. For shoppers, it could identify the latest version of a tablet or a vacuum cleaner, compare models and colours, and offer suggestions shaped by their shopping history, building on Shop Direct and Buy for Me, which already let customers find other retailers’ products through Amazon.
Where Google Still Wins
Google still owns the first step of most shopping trips. A 2025 report from Morgan Stanley, cited by Reuters, found that 57 per cent of online shoppers began their product research on Google, compared with only 16 per cent on Amazon. Once shoppers know what they want, the picture flips: 41 per cent start on Amazon, ahead of Google at 23 per cent and Walmart at 18 per cent. Amazon wins the finish line, but Google wins the starting line. A wider catalogue could change that balance by letting Amazon answer the early questions people ask while they are still deciding.
Fixing Amazon’s Shopping AI
A second reason sits inside Amazon’s shopping assistant. The assistant, once called Rufus and renamed Alexa for Shopping in May, often gave wrong or incomplete answers, according to the draft. The draft put weekly searches at about 83 million, and argued better product data could let Amazon answer them with cheaper artificial intelligence models. Amazon said the usage figures were outdated and put the assistant’s global accuracy at about 97 per cent. Chief executive Andy Jassy has said more than 400 million people used it over the past year. Even so, the logic is clear: an assistant is only as good as the information it can draw on.
The Fight for AI Shoppers
The project is also a defensive move in a new kind of contest. Amazon executives worry rival AI agents could send shoppers towards retailers with better product information, people familiar with the plans told Reuters. A more complete catalogue could give those agents a reason to search Amazon first. Jassy has told analysts relatively few shoppers use AI agents to buy things so far, and the impact on advertising has been minimal, but Amazon is plainly preparing for a future in which that changes. Meta’s Muse assistant has drawn more than 10 million users in the United States and Canada since its September launch, and Amazon blocked it from its retail site that month. It also remains in a legal dispute with Perplexity over similar access, while Elon Musk has floated starting an Amazon competitor after a post on X said Amazon had blocked his Grok agent.
Will It Launch?
Whether the World Product Graph ever launches is still an open question. The draft lists October 1, 2027, as a target date, and Amazon is already reassigning staff to the project, which sits inside its Selection and Catalog Systems unit under vice president Robert Tekiela, one person told Reuters. Even so, Reuters could not establish whether or when it would launch, and Amazon said the draft was a brainstorming document that might not reflect its current plans. That caution matters, because a catalogue of every product on earth raises hard questions: will retailers hand over their data, will regulators allow one company to hold a map of the entire market, and what happens to shoppers’ data? Still, the thinking is revealing. Amazon spent three decades becoming the place where people buy things. Now it wants to become the place where people decide what to buy, and it is willing to map the whole market to get there.
