The hottest new trend in the world of e-commerce is AI or agentic shopping. ChatGPT already had a shopping experience in April last year and followed up with a shopping research tool in November. A few weeks later, Amazon also introduced conversational shopping features based on the new Alexa+ assistant, building on the foundations of the Rufus chatbot.
Just a few days ago, Microsoft also integrated its own shopping and checkout system into Copilot. Google is now entering the arena with an extensive range of partners to enable shopping on Gemini and also in the AI overviews. The first step in this direction is the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP), a new standard that covers everything from product discovery and purchasing to after-sales support.
What does that even mean?
Let’s say you search Google for “leather strap bag with silver chain.” When the product recommendations are displayed in AI mode, you will see a “Buy” button below the product list. Tap on it and you’ll go straight to the checkout window where you can pay with Google Pay.
If you click on a product but don’t have an account on the Seller Platform, you can use the Google Account sign-in feature and register as a customer with a single click. All payment details and shipping information are retrieved from Google Wallet.
Additionally, the entire shopping experience is handled in the Gemini app or in AI mode on the desktop. You don’t even need to open an app or website. And in the future, PayPal payments will also be possible.
What’s next?
Google’s partnerships with e-commerce platforms and payment service providers are quite extensive. The company says it will offer the agent shopping experience to users around the world.
“UCP was co-developed with industry leaders such as Shopify, Etsy, Wayfair, Target and Walmart and supported by more than 20 others across the ecosystem, including Adyen, American Express, Best Buy, Flipkart, Macy’s Inc., Mastercard, Stripe, The Home Depot, Visa and Zalando,” Google adds.
Google says it is also working to enable loyalty point rewards with the new shopping experience, accessible in Gemini on mobile and in AI mode in Google Search.
