Commerce has announced its support for Google Universal Commerce Protocol, marking an important step toward enabling direct buying experiences across Google AI surfaces. The move is significant for the MarTech and ecommerce ecosystem as Universal Commerce Protocol aims to standardize how merchants connect with conversational AI and agent driven shopping journeys at scale.
Commerce, the parent company of BigCommerce and Feedonomics, said it is endorsing the new open source protocol as a foundation for the future of AI enabled commerce. Universal Commerce Protocol establishes a shared language that allows agents and systems to work together across the full shopping lifecycle, from discovery and purchase to post purchase engagement. By reducing the need for merchants to build custom integrations for every AI agent, the protocol is designed to simplify access to customers across a rapidly expanding AI ecosystem.
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As discovery shifts away from traditional keyword search toward conversational answer engines, buying intent is becoming more explicit and immediate. Shoppers increasingly interact with AI tools when they already know what they want, creating a critical moment for merchants to remove friction and enable instant purchase. Universal Commerce Protocol is designed to support this shift by embedding buying opportunities directly into AI driven experiences.
“AI is rapidly reshaping commerce. Merchants need to make it easy for shoppers to go from discovery to purchase, or they risk losing sales,” said Sharon Gee, senior vice president of product for AI at Commerce. “At the same time, keeping product data structured and enriched for AI can be resource intensive. Our ongoing work with Google ensures merchants are not only present but competitive in AI driven environments where consumers are searching and shopping.”
As part of the rollout, Universal Commerce Protocol will soon power a new checkout feature within Google AI Mode in Search and the Gemini app. This will allow shoppers in the United States to buy directly from eligible retailers and Commerce merchants at the point of research, without leaving the Google experience. Importantly, merchants will remain the merchant of record, preserving ownership of the customer relationship and transaction data.
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Google views industry alignment as essential to scaling agent led commerce. “For agentic commerce to scale, it’s critical for the industry to align on a common set of standards,” said Ashish Gupta, vice president and general manager of merchant shopping at Google. “We are proud to have Commerce endorse the Universal Commerce Protocol as the foundation for that future.”
The endorsement builds on the existing partnership between Commerce and Google, particularly through Feedonomics. Commerce said its Feedonomics powered data enrichment layer plays a central role in preparing merchants for AI commerce by structuring and optimizing product data to align with Google schema. This process dynamically enhances titles, attributes, and taxonomy, helping improve visibility, matching, and conversion across Google platforms.
As AI driven shopping accelerates, Universal Commerce Protocol represents a strategic effort to unify standards across discovery, transaction, and fulfillment. For merchants and marketers, Commerce support for Universal Commerce Protocol signals how open frameworks, high quality data, and AI readiness are becoming essential to competing in the next phase of digital commerce.
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