Amid the recent rapid growth of search and new ways of shopping in the era of agentic and generative AI, Google introduced new protocols and tools for retailers and advertisers.
At the National Retail Federation show in New York on January 11, the AI technology giant revealed that it has partnered with e-commerce platforms like Shopify, Walmart, and Etsy to develop a Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP). The open standard supports the shopping experience using AI agents.
The new protocol comes amid a shift to online shopping, which consumers are increasingly turning to AI search engine Such as Gemini, GPT from OpenAI, and Perplexity, rather than going directly to retailers to find out what they need.
“The reality is that consumers are already taking advantage of AI to discover products,” said Liz Miller, analyst at Constellation Research. “Businesses need to follow customer trust if they don’t want to be left behind.”
Consumers are not only using AI tools, but AI tools are also becoming an integral part of the search experience. This means that merchants and advertisers themselves have to find a way to appear in search engines so that their business is not negatively impacted.
Universal Commerce Protocol
The protocol takes what Google already has in its listings and puts it into the vendor’s AI mode or Gemini model, providing autonomy. AI Agent to buy from those listings, said William McKeon-White, an analyst at Forrester.
“This protocol seems to be specifically focused on helping agents interact with retailers,” he said. “It seems like it’s just giving agents the tools they need to make the right purchase and get to the right integration.”
He said it will be interesting to see how much freedom agents will have to do things like find lower-priced options or compare retailers.
A feature of UCP is Direct AI Checkout google ai mode And Gemini App. It allows users to make purchases without visiting a retailer’s website.
According to Google, UCP works closely with other generative AI standards, such as Anthropic’s Model Context Protocol and Google’s Agent Payment Protocol (AP2). Google launched AP2 last September; This allows AI agents to make purchases on behalf of both consumers and merchants. With AP2, Google is working with payment vendors like MasterCard and PayPal, while with UCP, it works with e-commerce websites and users can make purchases from the sites without leaving AI mode or Gemini.
“The promise of the UCP standard is that it provides a means for any merchant to get discovered on Google Surface,” Miller said.
Google is not the only vendor to provide such promises. Last September, OpenAI released its own agent commerce protocol in partnership with e-commerce payments vendor Stripe. The OpenAI protocol also enables buyers to purchase in ChatGPT from participating merchants.
Merchants and Advertisers
Even though many AI vendors are offering diverse ways to find merchants within generic AI systems, Google has the edge because of its experience in building commerce backbones, Miller said.
The challenge for merchants, he said, is to ensure they diversify and not rely solely on Google or OpenAI’s protocols.
“They will also need to ensure that the content on their site is searchable by the LLMs themselves, which means businesses and brands will need to Answer Engine Optimization And the generic answer optimization strategy is in place,’ Miller said. These approaches create content based on questions that might be asked in AI search engines.
other equipment
In addition to UCP, Google also introduced other tools. One is Business Agent, which lets shoppers chat with brands in search. The agent is live with retailers like Lowe’s, Michaels, Poshmark, and Reebok.
The second tool is direct offer. This enables advertisers to offer special deals to buyers who are ready to purchase a product in AI mode.
The new tools present benefits as well as risks for Google, advertisers and merchants, Miller said.
“Merchants need to consider whether they can afford to opt out of this model, just as merchants and advertisers need to consider whether they can afford not to engage in sponsored results,” he said.
Google probably faces even greater risk if a product purchased in AI mode does not live up to expectations, which could reduce confidence in LLM. “Consumers have already repeatedly said they will move away from agent/machine-driven solutions after a failure,” Miller said. “What they’re really saying is that there’s more room for empathy or forgiveness when a human being is involved.”
This means that there must be an effective mix of agent behaviors, data accuracyAnd the quality of the shopping experience, McCown-White said.
“If too much agent behavior is enabled, it may result in unexpected results, additional deals, or unexpected and incorrect product purchases,” he said. “If listing information is incorrect, this can quickly impact a purchase. If the experience is poor or distorted by too many suggestions or too many ads, customers may abandon the experience Google is designing.”
