- Meta’s Muse launched on September 8, 2026 and can check out with Link by Stripe, asking the user before it buys. [1]
- Meta says Muse launched with the entire Shopify catalog and added Shop Pay, PayPal, and ten large retailers on September 24. [2]
- Shopify turns direct checkout on Meta surfaces on by default for eligible stores, and you can switch it off. [3]
- Muse orders carry no extra Shopify fee, but custom pixels do not run in that checkout. [3]
- Amazon’s terms require agents to identify themselves and stay out when asked, and Amazon has blocked Muse. [4][5]
- The Ninth Circuit ruled on August 4 that a user, not the AI company, accessed Amazon through Perplexity’s agent. [6]
Meta introduced Muse on September 8, 2026 as a personal agent that does things rather than answers questions. It runs on what Meta calls Muse Secure VM, a dedicated machine in the cloud with its own browser, and it can open that browser, fill out forms, and negotiate on a person’s behalf. [1] When it is time to pay, it checks out with Link by Stripe using a one-time card number, and it asks the person first before it makes a purchase. [1] Meta also says Muse does not share a person’s conversations or the data in their machine with Meta’s ad systems, so by Meta’s own account what the agent learns while shopping is not a new targeting signal. [1]
Within three weeks, two of the largest names in online retail had answered the question every merchant now has to answer about agents like this one. Shopify opened the door and switched the checkout on. Amazon closed the gate and pointed at its terms. Neither answer is wrong. Both were decided for most merchants before most merchants noticed.
What Shopify switched on
Meta says Muse launched with dozens of connectors and access to the entire Shopify catalog, and on September 24 it added Walmart, Best Buy, Sephora, Ulta, Wayfair and five other retailers, plus Shop Pay and PayPal for payments. [2] The Shopify half of that sentence is the one that changes things for independent brands, because it did not require them to do anything.
Shopify’s own help center is direct about it. Its agentic storefronts, which make products available to AI channels including ChatGPT, Google’s AI Mode and Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, and Meta, are active by default for eligible stores. [7] On Meta specifically, purchasing through a Shopify-powered direct checkout on Meta surfaces, including Muse, is activated by default for eligible stores, and you can deactivate it. [3] If you do, shoppers on Meta can still find your products but are sent to your own store to finish buying. [3]
The terms of that default are worth reading line by line.
- Direct checkout is shown only to customers in the United States, Canada, and Mexico, and your store must sell there. [3]
- There are no fees for selling in Meta’s direct checkout beyond your standard payment processing fees. [3]
- Custom pixels and product bundles are among the features that do not work in it. [3]
- Automatic discounts, discount codes, and Shopify Functions for shipping, discounts, and checkout validation do. [3]
- Required legal disclosures belong in the first 6,000 characters of the product description. [3]
- Orders from AI channels show in the Shopify admin with channel or referrer attribution. [7]
The pixel line is the one most growth teams will trip on. If your conversion tracking depends on custom pixels firing at checkout, an order placed inside Muse is an order your ad platforms never see, even though Shopify records where it came from. That is not a reason to switch the channel off. It is a reason to reconcile ad-platform conversions against the admin’s channel attribution, because the gap between them will now include a checkout you do not host.
What Amazon wrote instead
Amazon’s answer was already written. Its Conditions of Use contain a section of Agent Terms, defining an agent as any software or service that takes autonomous or semi-autonomous action on someone’s behalf. [4] An agent may not use Amazon at all unless it identifies itself at all times, and may not use it if Amazon has asked it to refrain. [4] The technical rules are specific: every request must carry Agent/ and the agent’s name in its user agent string, the agent may not mimic human keystrokes or navigation or get around CAPTCHAs, and it must answer truthfully when asked whether it is a human. [4]
When Perplexity’s Comet browser shopped on Amazon last year, Amazon stated the principle behind those rules in public.
We think it’s fairly straightforward that third-party applications that offer to make purchases on behalf of customers from other businesses should operate openly and respect service provider decisions whether or not to participate.
Amazon, statement on Perplexity’s Comet, November 2025 [8]
Amazon applied the same sentence to Muse. According to reporting in The Next Web, shoppers who sent Muse to Amazon in September began seeing a notice that continued access by an unauthorized AI agent violates Amazon’s Conditions of Use, and an Amazon spokesperson said agentic third-party applications such as Muse have the same obligations and that Amazon had asked Meta to remove Amazon from the experience. [5] Meta’s list of new retail connectors, published days later, names Walmart and Best Buy. It does not name Amazon. [2]
Why the fight moved to contracts
The legal backdrop explains why Amazon leans on its terms rather than on hacking law. On August 4, 2026, the Ninth Circuit vacated the preliminary injunction Amazon had won against Perplexity. [6] The court held that, on the facts before it, Perplexity did not use a tool to access Amazon’s computers: it was the user who accessed them, with the help of Perplexity’s agent, so Amazon was unlikely to succeed under the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act or its California counterpart. [6]
That ruling does not say agents may ignore a store’s terms. It says the anti-hacking statute is a poor fit for an agent acting on a customer’s instructions, which leaves contract as the main tool, and contract is exactly what Amazon’s Agent Terms are. If you sell through your own site, the same logic applies to you in miniature. Your robots file and your terms can say whether agents are welcome, and most storefronts already bar agents from the cart with rules that do not bind the agent itself. What binds is the relationship you choose to have with the platform the agent runs on.
The decision you already made
For a Shopify merchant, the choice was made by a default, and it is reversible in the admin. The case for leaving it on is simple: a customer who asked an agent to buy something you sell, and could complete it without leaving the conversation, is a sale you might otherwise lose, and Shopify charges nothing extra for it. [3] The case for turning it off is control: your checkout customizations, your pixels, and your post-purchase flow do not all travel into someone else’s app. [3]
The right answer depends on what your checkout does that Muse’s cannot. If it is mostly payment, leave the channel on and fix your measurement. If it is where you sell the bundle, show the upsell, or collect consent that your marketing depends on, turn direct checkout off and let Muse send the shopper to you. Amazon made its choice in public, with terms and a block page. Most Shopify stores made theirs by not opening a settings screen, and that is the one decision this month worth revisiting on purpose.
Sources
- Meta · Introducing Muse, a personal AI agentSeptember 8, 2026. Muse Secure VM, the browser, checkout with Link by Stripe, approval before purchases, and the statement that conversations and VM data are not shared with Meta’s ad systems.
- Meta · The biggest news from Connect 2026September 24, 2026. The entire Shopify catalog at launch, the ten added retailers, Shop Pay, and PayPal.
- Shopify Help Center · Selling on MetaDirect checkout on by default, the country limits, fees, unsupported features, and what happens when you switch it off.
- Amazon · Conditions of UseLast updated August 14, 2026. The Agent Terms: identification, the Agent/[agent name] string, no disguising as human, and leaving when asked.
- The Next Web · Amazon blocks Meta’s Muse and accuses Perplexity of misleading a courtSeptember 21, 2026. Secondary: the block notice shoppers saw and the Amazon spokesperson’s statement on Muse, neither published by Amazon itself.
- US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit · Amazon.com Services, LLC v. Perplexity AI, Inc., No. 26-1444August 4, 2026. The preliminary injunction vacated, and the holding that the user, not Perplexity, accessed Amazon’s computers.
- Shopify Help Center · Shopify agentic storefrontsActive by default for eligible stores, the AI channels covered, and channel attribution in the admin.
- Amazon · Read: Amazon’s Cease and Desist letter to PerplexityAmazon’s statement that agents should operate openly and respect a store’s decision whether to participate.
Frequently asked questions
What is Meta’s Muse?
A personal AI agent Meta introduced on September 8, 2026. It runs in the Muse app or in WhatsApp on a dedicated cloud machine with its own browser, can fill out forms and negotiate on a person’s behalf, and checks with the person before sensitive actions such as making a purchase.
Can Muse buy from my Shopify store?
If your store is eligible, probably yes. Shopify says purchasing through Meta’s direct checkout is active by default for eligible stores, and Meta says Muse launched with access to the entire Shopify catalog. Direct checkout is only shown to customers in the United States, Canada, and Mexico.
How do I turn it off?
Deactivate direct checkout for the Meta channel in your Shopify admin. Shopify says customers on Meta surfaces can then still discover your products but are redirected to your online store to complete the purchase.
What does Shopify charge for Muse orders?
Shopify says there are no fees associated with selling in Meta’s direct checkout, and you pay only your standard payment processing fees.
What stops working in Meta’s direct checkout?
Shopify lists unsupported features, including custom pixels and product bundles, and asks merchants to put any required legal disclosures in the first 6,000 characters of product descriptions. Automatic discounts, discount codes, and Shopify Functions for shipping, discounts, and checkout validation are supported.
Why did Amazon block Muse?
Amazon’s Conditions of Use now include Agent Terms that require any agent to identify itself in its user agent string as Agent/[agent name], not to disguise itself as a human, and not to access Amazon if Amazon has asked it to refrain. Amazon has said third-party apps that buy on customers’ behalf should operate openly and respect a store’s decision whether to participate.
Can Amazon sue an AI agent for accessing its site?
Not easily under anti-hacking law, after August 4, 2026. The Ninth Circuit vacated Amazon’s preliminary injunction against Perplexity, finding it was the user, not Perplexity, who accessed Amazon’s computers with the help of the AI agent. Amazon’s contract-based terms are a separate question the ruling did not settle.
Mikołaj Salecki
Writes about media, tech, and AI business for people who actually run digital. Former agency lead. Skeptic of frameworks that read better than they perform.
