Shopping Bots Fail to Find 'Made in USA' Products
A new report has found that Amazon and Walmart's shopping bots often avoid or can't access data on products 'Made in USA.'
The report, from a policy center co-founded by a former FTC chair, tested the shopping bots' ability to provide information about products made in the US.
Amazon's 'Alexa for Shopping' agent was able to provide a list of products 'Made in China,' but when asked to find items 'in the USA,' it returned a list of US products. A small tweak in the prompt was needed to get this result.
A similar test on Walmart's 'Sparky' showed that it could rank products from 'High confidence' to 'Low confidence/likely not US made.' The bot responded with a list of products when prompted to do so.
The report highlights concerns about the accuracy of country-of-origin labeling and the potential for false claims. Both Amazon and Walmart received letters from the FTC last year urging them to crack down on third-party sellers making false 'Made in USA' claims.