Google announces Universal Cart: what it means for online stores

Google has recently announced the launch of Google Universal Cart – an AI-powered shopping ecosystem designed to help ecommerce businesses streamline product discovery and create a more seamless cross-platform shopping experience for shoppers.

For consumers, instead of having to jump between different retailer websites, create multiple accounts, and manage separate checkouts, it acts as a single shopping hub that follows the user across the internet. 

As AI becomes more integrated into ecommerce experiences, tools like Google Universal Cart could reshape how people shop online and how retailers attract and retain customers.

What is Google Universal Cart?

Google Universal Cart is an intelligent shopping cart that works across merchants and services, allowing shoppers to add items to their cart while browsing on Google search, chatting with Gemini, watching YouTube, or reading messages on Gmail.

Once a product is added to the cart, it works in the background to find deals and price drops, as well as providing insights on price history and alerting on item restocks.

It also uses intelligent reasoning to anticipate a customer’s needs and help solve problems before they arise. For example, if someone is building their first custom PC and adds parts from different retailers to their cart, the system will automatically flag any product incompatibilities (such as an unsupported motherboard) and suggest alternatives.

When it’s time to complete the purchase, Google’s Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) creates an easy checkout experience by letting shoppers pay instantly with Google Pay across participating retailers, or continue onto a merchant’s business website to finalise their order.

Universal Cart will be rolling out to the US on the search and Gemini app over the summer, but an exact date for its UK release is yet to be announced.

What opportunities could Google Universal Cart create for ecommerce businesses?

While Google Universal Cart isn’t available in the UK yet, it gives ecommerce businesses and online stores the opportunity to prepare for a more AI-driven shopping experience, particularly where smoother checkouts, better product data, and being visible across Google’s platforms could help drive more sales and repeat customers.

After all, 84% of retailers say they’d be open to letting AI complete purchases on a customer’s behalf, while nearly half of Millennial shoppers (49%) are comfortable with AI handling their entire shopping journey from start to finish.

Nicole Olbe, Managing Director at payment company Adyen, comments that customers are “moving past the ‘browsing’ phase of AI and starting to move towards the ‘buying phase’”.

“This shift will fundamentally change the checkout experience, and retailers must prioritise the underlying payment infrastructure to support both the security and the scale required,” she adds.

What’s more, tools like Google Universal Cart could tackle the pain point of cart abandonment for ecommerce businesses, particularly with slow websites causing 88% of UK shoppers to stop buying altogether, potentially costing businesses up to £38bn a year.

What are the risks of AI-powered shopping experiences?

Google Universal Cart aims to make online shopping faster and more convenient, but it also raises some important questions for ecommerce retailers around customer relationships and how much control they’ll have over the buying journey.

There are also growing concerns around privacy and security. According to data from Worldpay, 55% of global consumers cited identity theft and unauthorised purchases as their main concern when letting AI shop for them. This was followed by fraud (53%) and loss of financial control (51%).

There’s also the risk of losing direct customer relationships. Specifically, if shoppers start to rely more on Google’s AI to find, compare and buy products, brands may have less of a chance to build loyalty through their own websites and marketing.

Additionally, there will likely be more competition on price. As AI shopping assistants are made to find the “best” option quickly, this could mean that pricing, delivery speed, and reviews become more important than brand identity. 

Finally, merchants may have less control over the buying journey. Platforms like Google could become the main gatekeepers between customers and retailers, so online stores may have less influence over product visibility and conversions.

Still, ecommerce businesses that adapt and optimise for this change early – while balancing convenience, trust, and customer experience – could be in the strongest position to benefit from the next era of online retail.