When the checkout moves into Google Search

Google made Universal Cart available to US users on 15 October, as TechCrunch reported. First shown at Google I/O in May, the cart works across Search and the Gemini app, collects products from several retailers in one place, alerts shoppers to price drops and returning stock, and suggests how to pay based on card perks. Checkout runs on the Universal Commerce Protocol, an open standard Google introduced this year so that AI agents and retailers can complete a purchase together.

• According to Google, the brand remains the merchant of record. Shoppers can pay with Google Pay in a few taps or move to the merchant’s site to finish.
• Search itself is starting to build pages for some questions. At I/O, Google showed mini apps generated for a single query, background agents that watch the web on a user’s behalf, and a follow-up box under each AI Overview that leads straight into a conversation in AI Mode, as SiliconANGLE reported.

In a CNBC interview on 20 October, Daniel Hulme, chief AI officer at WPP, discussed AI agents that may soon recommend and buy products on people’s behalf, which raises the question of who the customer then is, the person or their AI. For brands, more of discovery and purchase moves onto pages they do not design. The product data, reviews and offers an agent reads become the shop window. The website remains the place where a brand tells its story, but fewer shoppers may arrive there before they decide. (TechCrunch)