<\/p>\n
Google announced a comprehensive shopping cart that could soon be available across the search giant\u2019s app ecosystem. The forthcoming Universal Cart may change how shoppers think about checking out.<\/p>\n
Merchants and consumers generally expect a direct relationship between a cart and an ecommerce site.<\/p>\n
Amazon\u2019s shopping cart might be an exception. Like all marketplace shopping carts, it can hold products from any number of third-party sellers, but it remains a single cart associated with a single ecommerce site.<\/p>\n
Google\u2019s announcements<\/a> on May 19 suggest that this one-to-one association may not continue.<\/p>\n Specifically, Google introduced three commerce-related features during I\/O, its premiere developer conference.<\/p>\n Combined, the features constitute agentic commerce components, wherein products from disparate merchants reside in an agent-managed layer above or outside sellers\u2019 own sites.<\/p>\n Google said it would release Universal Cart in the U.S. in the summer of 2026. Click image to enlarge.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n In Google\u2019s model, merchants still own the transaction, but not the purchase intent or product discovery<\/a>.<\/p>\n To be certain, there are apparent advantages. Having Google remind shoppers about items in a cart might improve conversions. Yet it could also change how shoppers interact with merchants.<\/p>\n Some folks treat carts like wishlists. A shopper will add an item or two, leave, and return later. Or, perhaps, he will share the cart with a spouse before making a purchase. Others will save products while comparing alternatives, or leave items in the cart until payday. In each case, shoppers return directly to the store to consummate transactions.<\/p>\n Retailers understand this behavior and have spent years trying to support and capitalize on it.<\/p>\n If shoppers treat agent-managed carts like those of retailers, purchase intent could shift. Retailers would still fulfill orders and collect payment, but not originate the transaction.<\/p>\n In some ways, this has always been the promise of agentic commerce<\/a>. Shopping shifts from websites to systems. Google\u2019s announcements make that possibility feel considerably closer.<\/p>\n With Google\u2019s Universal Cart, shoppers can add products while searching, chatting with Gemini, and, eventually, while using YouTube or Gmail.<\/p>\n Once a shopper adds a product, the cart stays active, using AI to monitor<\/a> prices, offers, and inventory, thus guiding the buying decision.<\/p>\n Merchants remain the merchant of record, even if the cart exposes shoppers to competing products or offers.<\/p>\n For example, imagine a shopper outfitting her newly remodeled kitchen. She adds a KitchenAid mixer after searching Google. Later, while watching YouTube videos, she saves a Le Creuset Dutch oven from another retailer and a Japanese santoku knife from an affiliate email.<\/p>\n The cart is still working that evening, even while she watches movies. It may suggest an alternative knife set with better reviews and faster delivery.<\/p>\n When she\u2019s ready to buy, the shopper finds that Universal Cart has remembered, compared, recommended, and coordinated her order.<\/p>\n While Universal Cart is the visible part of Google\u2019s agentic shopping strategy, Universal Commerce Protocol<\/a> (UCP) is evidently the underlying infrastructure.<\/p>\n A store\u2019s Merchant Center feeds provide product info to Google. UCP tells Google how to interact with the merchant to support shopping, checkout, and fulfillment.<\/p>\n Agents Payments Protocol<\/a> (AP2) will appear in Google products \u201cin the coming months,\u201d starting with Gemini Spark, a new persistent AI agent.<\/p>\n In practice, Spark appears poised to automate and monitor shopping tasks for shoppers, while Universal Cart stores and coordinates shopping activities.<\/p>\n Spark maintains a shopper\u2019s Universal Cart by comparing products, prices, and inventory.<\/p>\n Then, once the shopper establishes rules such as a spending limit, preferred retailers, or explicit approval, AP2 authorizes and completes the purchase.<\/p>\n Thus Universal Cart remembers, UCP connects, Spark decides<\/a>, and AP2 pays.<\/p>\n Agentic commerce is still in its infancy, but growing. Google\u2019s I\/O announcements foretell a different shopping cart and a new path for merchants to earn sales.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\nGoogle I\/O<\/h3>\n
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Cart Use<\/h3>\n
Universal Cart<\/h3>\n
Infrastructure<\/h3>\n
New Experience<\/h3>\n