Google is aiming to turn Gemini into a one-stop personal shopper with what it hopes will become a global standard for agentic AI commerce, and it's already persuaded major retailers to let Google handle transactions without sending users to their websites.

Google [1]announced a new Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) on Sunday, alongside some other agentic AI shopping features, that it said is designed to act as "a common language for agents and systems to operate together across consumer surfaces, businesses and payment providers."

What that essentially means, Google explained, is that agents won't need unique connectors in order to facilitate digital transactions, so Gemini's end-user shopping agents should communicate with other agentic AI more easily. It's yet another agentic AI protocol from Google, and the company says it's compatible with its other AI protocols, including Agent2Agent, the Agent Payments Protocol, and the Model Context Protocol.

[2]

In practice, that means online shoppers buying through retailers that opt to support UCP will soon be able to use a forthcoming checkout feature in [3]AI Mode in Search and the standalone Gemini app, "allowing shoppers to check out from eligible U.S. retailers right as they're researching on Google," the Chocolate Factory explained.

[4]

[5]

Speaking to the US National Retail Federation over the weekend, Google CEO Sundar Pichai made it clear what the game is all about: Google is tired of just being the highway on which most of the internet travels to ecommerce outlets and it wants in.

"Looking at retailers alone, we were processing 8.3 trillion tokens on our API in December 2024. A year later, we were processing over 90 trillion tokens," Pichai said. The natural evolution of that increase, he continued, is a highway one never has to leave in order to make purchases.

[6]

"Our goal is to build a future of retail where the opportunity space expands for everyone," the Google boss said before getting to the heart of the matter. "One where customers can use Google products they love as part of a seamless shopping experience."

Surprisingly enough, and in contrast to [7]other websites that have suffered as Google has gobbled up their content to keep visitors inside its ecosystem, major retailers are at least willing to let Big G handle more of the shopping experience through Google's own surfaces, rather than insisting every click end at their virtual storefronts.

According to the company, UCP was developed with input from major retailers including Shopify, Target, Walmart, and Wayfair, and is supported by major payment networks such as Mastercard, American Express, and Visa, with PayPal checkout slated to arrive "soon."

[8]

Google has even somehow managed to convince customers like hardware chain Lowe's, craft store Michaels, Reebok, and others to begin using its AI Business Agent, also announced on Sunday, which allows users to "chat with brands, right on Search." More advanced features - including training the agent on a retailer's own data - won't arrive until "the coming months," according to the company.

[9]Google is a monopoly. The fix isn't obvious

[10]Brit competition watchdog takes aim at Google, Apple's mobile ecosystems

[11]Judge who ruled Google is a monopoly decides to do hardly anything to break it up

[12]AOSP on a diet plan as Google halves Android code drops

As Google is "continuing to test ads in AI Mode," it's also working with retailers to embed user-specific discounts, dubbed "Direct Offers," into its never-leave-Google AI shopping ecosystem, delivering sales to "shoppers who are ready to buy" to help them close sales.

Whether or not the rest of the retail world will be thrilled with another Google strategy to keep users away from their websites is anything but certain. If retailers react in a similar manner to publishers, they're likely to be unhappy, though reducing website overhead by offloading shopping to a Google AI may be beneficial, provided they're willing to agree to Google's terms.

Of course, Google is also likely making the move to better compete with companies like [13]OpenAI and [14]Perplexity , both of whom have made inroads into AI-based online shopping - can't lose that slice of the pie, after all.

Google has been in touch to explain that it doesn't plan to take a cut of sales closed through its buy-on-Google agentic interface. When asked how it plans to make money from the new scheme, the company didn't bother to elaborate. ®

Updated at 2047 to include Google's statement that it doesn't plan to take a cut of sales through its new AI service.

Get our [15]Tech Resources



[1] https://blog.google/products/ads-commerce/agentic-commerce-ai-tools-protocol-retailers-platforms/

[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aWV9CzTVGpasd3I8RghLyQAAAtE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0

[3] https://www.theregister.com/2025/03/06/google_launches_ai_mode_for/

[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aWV9CzTVGpasd3I8RghLyQAAAtE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aWV9CzTVGpasd3I8RghLyQAAAtE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aWV9CzTVGpasd3I8RghLyQAAAtE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[7] https://pressgazette.co.uk/media-audience-and-business-data/google-traffic-down-2025-trends-report-2026/

[8] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aWV9CzTVGpasd3I8RghLyQAAAtE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[9] https://www.theregister.com/2024/08/15/google_monopoly_fix/

[10] https://www.theregister.com/2025/01/23/cma_google_apple_mobile/

[11] https://www.theregister.com/2025/09/03/google_doj_antitrust_ruling/

[12] https://www.theregister.com/2026/01/08/google_aosp_changes/

[13] https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/15/openais_chatgpt_popular_few_pay/

[14] https://www.theregister.com/2025/11/05/amazon_perplexity_comet_legal_threat/

[15] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/