South Africa, Jan. 7 -- The Shop Direct and Buy for Me tools are designed to help shoppers find products beyond its marketplace, but retailers argue the experiment exposes a deeper tension over data ownership, consent and who really controls the future of online shopping.

In February, Amazon unveiled a feature called Shop Direct, which allows shoppers to browse products sold on other retailers' websites directly on Amazon.

Some of those listings include a Buy for Me button, an AI-powered agent that can complete purchases on a customer's behalf by ordering items from third-party sites.

Amazon has described the tools, which are still being tested with a subset of US users, as a way to help customers "find any product they want and need,"...