Google UCP: Universal Commerce Protocol for Agentic AI Shopping

Consumers already talk to AI to research products. In 2026, they expect to complete the purchase in the same conversation — no friction, no redirects, no re-entering data.

That’s agentic commerce: AI that discovers, compares, and buys on behalf of people.

The problem? Current infrastructure wasn’t designed for this.

The N × N Complexity

Every retailer needs to integrate individually with every surface — Google Search, Gemini, ChatGPT, AI apps. Every surface needs to integrate with every retailer. And all of them need to connect to payment providers.

The result is an integration bottleneck that delays adoption of agentic experiences and increases cart abandonment.

This is where the Universal Commerce Protocol comes in.

An Open Standard for Agentic Commerce

UCP is an open-source protocol developed by Google in collaboration with Shopify, Etsy, Wayfair, Target, and Walmart. Instead of custom connections for each agent, UCP establishes a common language.

The proposition is simple: eliminate N × N complexity by replacing one-off integrations with a shared standard.

The protocol covers the entire journey:

Product discovery
Consideration and comparison
Checkout and payment
Order management
Post-sale support

Three-Layer Architecture

UCP connects three types of participants:

Surfaces — where consumers interact with AI. AI Mode in Google Search, Gemini App, and other agents.

Businesses — retailer backend systems managing catalog, cart, checkout, and fulfillment.

Payments — providers like Google Pay, Shop Pay, and PayPal that process transactions.

Between these layers, UCP supports multiple communication protocols: REST APIs for traditional integrations, Agent2Agent (A2A) for communication between agents, MCP Protocol for extensibility, and AP2 for secure payments.

This flexibility allows companies to adopt UCP without discarding existing infrastructure.

Who Benefits?

Businesses maintain full control. They remain the Merchant of Record, owning customer data and the commercial relationship. They can display products in AI Mode and Gemini while maintaining their business logic. They have the option of custom (embedded) checkout when the flow is complex.

AI platforms enable agentic shopping without building individual integrations with each retailer. Standardized APIs simplify onboarding. Scale with less technical complexity.

Developers gain an open-source standard on GitHub with SDKs in multiple languages, complete documentation, and a collaborative community.

Consumers purchase without friction from favorite brands, preserve loyalty benefits, and gain security through payment tokenization.

Practical Tools for Retailers

Beyond the protocol, Google launched three tools integrated with UCP:

Business Agent — a virtual sales assistant that lets consumers talk to brands directly in Google Search. The agent answers product questions in the brand’s voice, personalized with proprietary data. Lowe’s, Michael’s, Poshmark, and Reebok are initial partners.

Direct Offers — new Google Ads pilot that presents exclusive offers to ready buyers in AI Mode. AI determines relevance and displays discounts as “Sponsored deals.” Partners include Petco, e.l.f. Cosmetics, Samsonite, and Shopify merchants.

New Merchant Center attributes — dozens of data fields to optimize discovery in conversational experiences. Includes FAQ responses, compatible accessories, and substitute products.

Security by Design

UCP separates payment instruments (what the consumer uses) from handlers (who processes), allowing scale across multiple providers without exposing sensitive data.

Three security pillars:

Tokenized payments — sensitive data protected by tokens, never exposed.

Verifiable credentials — secure communication between agents and backends with proof of identity.

Cryptographic proof — each authorization has proof of consent, creating an audit trail.

The retailer maintains full control: they’re the official seller, owner of customer data, and can opt for custom checkout when needed.

What’s Available Now

UCP is already live for checkout in AI Mode in the US. Businesses can integrate via Merchant Center using Google Pay as the initial payment provider. For organizations considering implementation, understanding AI risk management fundamentals is essential before deployment.

Business Agent is available for selected retailers. Direct Offers is in pilot. The Python SDK is on GitHub.

Coming soon: global expansion, PayPal as a payment option, multi-item carts, account linking for loyalty programs, tracking, and returns.

The Strategic Play

Google’s move isn’t just technical — it’s strategic.

By launching an open-source standard and gathering competitors (Shopify, Walmart, Target) around it, Google is building an infrastructure layer that could become as fundamental as HTTP for e-commerce.

If UCP becomes the de facto standard, Google positions AI Mode and Gemini as natural surfaces for agentic commerce. Retailers who adopt early gain presence in an emerging category. Retailers who wait may find the market already established.

There are parallels with what happened with AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) and Web Vitals — initiatives where Google defined standards that influenced ecosystem-wide behavior.

The difference? This time, major e-commerce players are co-developing from the start.

Where to Pay Attention

Three areas deserve close monitoring:

Adoption beyond Google’s ecosystem — Will UCP be adopted by other AI platforms or remain concentrated in Google products? If ChatGPT, Claude, and other agents support the protocol, it becomes market infrastructure. If not, it becomes Google’s competitive advantage.

Data and experience control — While UCP allows retailers to maintain technical control, in practice the consumer is on a surface controlled by Google. How much of the customer-brand relationship survives when the transaction happens inside AI Mode?

Monetization — Direct Offers already introduces an advertising model. What other monetization points will emerge? Transaction fees? Premium placement? The cost structure will define who really benefits from the protocol.

How to Get Started

For interested retailers:

Have an active Merchant Center account with checkout-eligible products
Fill out the interest form at developers.google.com/merchant/ucp
Access the GitHub repository for SDKs and documentation

UCP is a significant move toward an open standard for agentic commerce. Whether it becomes the universal language of conversational commerce or just another platform-dependent protocol is still in play.

What’s already clear: those who don’t understand this shift will watch from the sidelines while others define the rules.

Victorino Group tracks developments in AI infrastructure and agentic commerce. If you need to assess the strategic impact of UCP for your business, let’s talk.