Google today announced a new open standard, called the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) for AI agent-based shopping, at the National Retail Federation (NRF) conference.
The standard, developed with companies like Shopify, Etsy, Wayfair, Target, and Walmart, allows agents to work in different parts of the customer buying process, including discovery and post-purchase support. The main idea is that the standard can facilitate different parts of the process instead of requiring connections with different agents.
Google says it also works with other agent protocols, such as the Agent Payment Protocol (A2P) – which Google announced last year — Agent2Agent (A2A), and Model Context Protocol (MCP). The company specifies that Agents and Businesses can pick and choose protocol-specific extensions that suit their needs.
The company said it will use UCP to list Google-eligible products in AI mode in its Gemini search and app so shoppers can check directly from US-based retailers when researching products. Users will be able to pay using Google Pay and send shipping information stored in Google Wallet. Google says it will support PayPal as a payment option.
“That’s one of the fun parts about agency,” said Shopify CEO and founder Tobi Lutke. “It’s really nice to find someone with a special interest and find the right product for them. Like, I would never search for this product, but somehow I found myself on the other side. Serendipity like this is the best trade.”
Notably, Shopify is also rolling out a similar integration with Microsoft Copilot for shopping today so customers can easily check out in the chat flow.
In another consumer-facing change, Google said it will now allow brands to offer special discounts to users when they’re searching for product recommendations while using AI mode. For example, if you’re looking for a rug using a query like “I’m looking for a modern and stylish rug for a high-traffic dining room. I host a lot of dinner parties, so I want something that’s easy to clean,” the brand can set up a campaign in a way to offer discounts at that time.
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The company also provides users with new data attributes in Merchant Center so that sellers can better display their goods on the AI search surface. A rich company PayPal and OpenAI also strive to make sellers more discoverable in AI chatbot results. Startups like that encouraging companies also working with merchants to make their products appear in AI answers.
Google now also allows merchants to integrate AI-powered Business Agents on their websites to answer customer queries. The company notes that retailers like Lowe’s, Michael’s, Poshmark, and Reebok have used this product. Competitors like Meta and Shopify already explore AI-powered tools for businesses for customer support and outreach.
The search giant also announced Gemini Enterprise for Customer Experience (CX), a suite to handle shopping and customer service for retailers and restaurants.
Companies like Google, Amazon, Walmartand OpenAI has released new standards and products to incorporate AI into every shopping experience, both on the consumer and merchant side. A month ago, Adobe noted traffic driven to seller sites by generative AI increased by 693.4% during the holiday season, although the report did not specify how much of this traffic translated into sales.