Google expands Universal Commerce Protocol with cart, catalog, and loyalty features for AI agents

Google has expanded the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) with three new feature sets to standardize AI-powered shopping across retailers.

New Capabilities

The Universal Commerce Protocol now includes:

Shopping Cart Function: AI agents can add multiple items to a store's cart in a single action, streamlining the multi-product purchase workflow.

Real-Time Catalog Access: Agents gain direct access to retailer product data including current prices, variant options, and real-time inventory availability. The data is pulled directly from each retailer's systems.

Identity and Loyalty Linking: Logged-in shoppers on UCP platforms maintain their loyalty memberships and benefits when shopping through AI agents—preserving rewards, status, and personalized offers from the original retailer.

Deployment Timeline

Google plans to integrate UCP into two primary surfaces:

• AI Mode in Google Search
• The Gemini app

The company is also updating Merchant Center to reduce friction for smaller merchants joining the protocol.

Ecosystem Support

Three major platforms announced plans to support UCP:

• Salesforce
• Stripe
• Commerce Inc

These integrations would allow merchants using these platforms to connect to the protocol without custom development.

Background

Google introduced the Universal Commerce Protocol earlier in 2026 as an open standard for AI shopping interactions. The initial launch included partnerships with over 20 companies: Shopify, Etsy, Wayfair, Target, Walmart, Visa, Zalando, and others.

The protocol is designed as an alternative to proprietary agent-to-commerce connections, establishing standardized data formats and interactions that work across multiple retailers and AI systems.

What This Means

These additions move UCP from a foundational browsing protocol toward a complete transaction layer. The loyalty preservation feature addresses a key friction point in AI shopping: customers risk losing earned benefits when purchasing through agents instead of directly with retailers. Real-time catalog integration ensures agents have accurate product information without relying on potentially stale web crawl data. The multi-item cart capability suggests Google is targeting complex purchasing workflows—bulk orders, household shopping, business procurement—not just individual product purchases. If adoption spreads across Merchant Center, UCP could become the de facto interchange standard for AI commerce, similar to how RSS standardized feed distribution.