By Jennifer Elias
Publication Date: 2026-01-11 15:00:00
The Google logo displayed on a smartphone alongside a shopping cart.
Rafael Henrique | SOPA Images | LightRocket via Getty Images
As retailers increasingly turn to artificial intelligence tools to lure shoppers and run key parts of their business, Google wants to make sure it’s in the center of the action.
At the kickoff of the National Retail Federation’s annual show on Sunday, Google announced the launch of what it’s calling the Universal Commerce Protocol. The company wants UCP to become an industry standard that retailers use for their AI agents and systems across tasks like discovery, buying and “post-purchase-support.”
Google says the open-source protocol creates a unified system spanning the shopping experience, from searching to payment, so that retailers don’t have to build their own tools and connect the various functions.
“It’s very important to have a standardized way so we can scale these things and everyone can be prepared for all the various steps to happen,” Vidhya…
