AI shopping agents: how Meta, Walmart and Amazon differ for sellers

A small seller can prepare for all three AI shopping-agent channels now, but only Walmart has published detailed agent terms, and none of the three publishes complete seller onboarding or product-data criteria. As of 5 November 2026, Meta’s Muse is in early access in the US and Canada, Walmart’s Agent Gateway is an invitation-only beta, and Amazon’s Buy for Me and Shop Direct are US-only with no public seller sign-up. Product data is where sellers can prepare most, because the published standards that exist are mostly about catalogue feeds.

What changed in the last three months

Meta launched Muse, its personal AI agent, on 8 September 2026². Meta says Muse “actually does the work” on tasks such as sending an email or booking travel, and that it checks with the person before sensitive actions such as sending an email or making a purchase².

Meta’s newsroom post describes Muse for consumers and does not set out seller onboarding or product-data criteria². On 4 November 2026, ChannelX reported that ReFiBuy, a product-data vendor, had launched support for Muse in early access¹.

Walmart announced Agent Profiles, the Walmart Agent Gateway and terms for AI agents on 21 October 2026^3,4. Walmart said Agent Profiles would launch “in the next month”³. The Gateway begins as a beta “for companies and developers”³. For earlier coverage of Walmart’s move, see Walmart opens shopping to AI agents; Amazon blocks Meta’s agent.

Amazon’s Buy for Me launched as a beta in the Amazon Shopping app on 3 April 2025, for “a subset of U.S. customers”⁵. Shop Direct, which shows merchant products in Amazon search, opened to merchant product feeds on 11 March 2026⁵.

Access: who can get in today?

Meta Muse. Early access for brands and retailers is open in the US and Canada, “where Muse is available”¹. Participants work with ReFiBuy to review gaps, approve the first enrichments and set up Muse monitoring¹. That is a vendor service, not a platform route. No Muse seller onboarding route appears in the Meta sources we reviewed.

Walmart Agent Gateway. The beta is “limited, available by invitation only, and may be suspended at any time”⁴. The sources we reviewed give no public sign-up route.

Amazon Buy for Me and Shop Direct. Both are US-only⁵. No seller sign-up is described. C9 Group reports that stores “can be included without having asked”, and leaving means sending an email⁵.

Product data: which criteria are published?

Meta publishes no Muse-specific product-data criteria². A Shopware developer issue, which is third-party and not Meta documentation, says Meta accepts CSV, TSV, RSS XML and ATOM XML catalogue feeds⁶. The same issue lists requirements including the fields condition and brand, availability values of “in stock” and “out of stock”, and a link on the merchant’s own domain⁶. It also states that Meta “has not documented an ACP or UCP merchant integration for Meta AI Shopping”⁶.

ReFiBuy’s framework says “a personal agent matching a product to a specific person needs at least Level 2, conversational attributes”¹. This is a vendor guideline, not a Meta rule. Muse draws on Meta’s own product catalogue, Shopify stores and product pages across the web, according to ReFiBuy’s research¹.

Walmart’s Agent Gateway beta page promises “up-to-date product and fulfillment data directly from Walmart instead of website scraping”⁴. The sources we reviewed do not publish a seller-side product-attribute standard for Walmart.

Amazon takes product data “directly from publicly available information on merchant websites”⁵. C9 Group reports, citing one syndicator, that feed-submitted products “do not get the Buy for Me button yet”⁵.

Buyability and controls

Meta Muse. Muse “can checkout with Link built by Stripe”, and Link’s wallet “generates a one-time-use card so your real card details stay hidden”². Meta says Muse is “the first AI agent covered by Link’s purchase protections”². Shop Pay is “coming soon” as another payment option².

Walmart. Customers “must approve agent purchases by default”, and Walmart “may require additional approvals even for purchases within an agent’s spending limits”³. Walmart gives $50, $100 and $200 as examples of spending limits³. Agents “don’t receive customers’ payment-card information”³. Agents “that do not follow these terms will be blocked from Walmart’s site”³.

Amazon. The merchant “remain[s] the seller of record”⁵. The shopper confirms the delivery address, taxes, shipping and payment on Amazon’s checkout page before Amazon’s agent completes the purchase on the merchant’s site⁵. The order is limited to a single item and promo codes are not supported⁵. Amazon’s return policy and the A-to-z Guarantee “do not apply” to these orders⁵.

Fees and opt-out

Meta and Walmart publish no seller fee terms or opt-out terms for their agent channels in the sources we reviewed.

Amazon’s merchant FAQ, as quoted by C9 Group on 22 October 2026, says: “Merchants do not currently have to pay to be part of this experience and Amazon does not get a referral fee for Buy for me purchases”⁵. Merchants can leave by emailing shopdirect@amazon.com⁵. We did not open Amazon’s FAQ directly, so check the live page before making a decision.

Side-by-side comparison

Where each channel has a real advantage

Meta reports strong early adoption. On its third-quarter earnings call on 21 October, Meta said “more than 10 million people in the U.S. and Canada set up Muse within six weeks of launch”, as ChannelX reports¹. This is a platform claim, not seller-verified data. Meta also offers a direct checkout path through Link by Stripe².

Walmart has the most detailed published agent rules, covering customer approval, card handling and blocking for non-compliant agents³. Its beta page also describes product and fulfilment data supplied by Walmart itself⁴.

Amazon charges no fee today for Buy for Me⁵. Orders arrive through the merchant’s own checkout, and the merchant stays seller of record⁵.

Who each channel suits

Our view, based on the facts above:

• Meta Muse suits brands with a complete catalogue that want to test discovery now, especially those already on Meta or Shopify. The main caveat is that no seller criteria are published.
• Walmart Agent Gateway suits companies and developers who can get an invitation. Sellers who want to prepare early should build to Walmart’s published agent terms, since these are the most specific rules available.
• Amazon Buy for Me and Shop Direct suits merchants with a clean public website who accept seller-of-record duties for US orders and who want no fee today. Sellers who do not want automatic inclusion should check the opt-out before any launch.

There is no single winner. The channels are at different stages, and only Walmart publishes agent terms in detail.

What a merchant can check this week

• Audit your top 5% to 10% of SKUs, the set ReFiBuy recommends bringing to shopper-context enrichment before Black Friday¹.
• Check that your product feed includes the fields Meta’s feed requirements name, such as condition, brand and stock availability⁶.
• If you have your own product website, confirm its public product pages are accurate, since Amazon takes product data from them, and note the opt-out email shopdirect@amazon.com⁵.
• Prepare for single-item orders and merchant-of-record handling if you plan to take Amazon Buy for Me orders⁵.
• Check the Meta newsroom, Walmart newsroom and Amazon’s merchant FAQ every few weeks. Fees and access are not yet settled. The sources in this review were retrieved on 5 November 2026.