GoKawiilGoogle is today announcing a raft of updates to Shopping, the most notable of which is likely its new Universal Cart. Universal Cart is a tool which aggregates all of your purchases under one roof and lets you shop from more places. In essence, you'll be able to add products to this cart from every corner of Google's mansion, including search, YouTube and Gmail. Once you've added a product to the cart, the system's agentic AI will get to work looking for the cheapest price, comparing price trends and letting you know where said desirable objects are in stock.
One key benefit of Universal Cart is that it's been designed to anticipate problems you might not have thought about. In the company's example, someone buying components for a custom PC might be pulling parts from a wide variety of retailers. If the Cart spots an issue, like two of the parts aren't compatible with one another, then it'll flag it before you hand over your payment information. If you use Google Wallet, the system will also know which merchants you like, have loyalty schemes with, and will try to flag any options for additional savings or points maximization.
And, when you are ready to hand over the cash, the system is designed to make the interface between Google Shopping and the retailer seamless. Naturally, it'll be even faster and more effortless if said retailer takes Google Wallet, such as Nike, Sephora, Target, Fenty and Steve Madden. Universal Cart is rolling out across the Google family this summer, you'll find it first in Shopping, Search and Gemini, with YouTube and Gmail arriving later in the year.
Other features announced today include the rollout of Google's Universal Commerce Protocol, which uses AI to smooth the gaps between online payment platforms and retailers. That's going to be coming to Canada and Australia in the coming months, with the UK due to follow afterward. In addition, UCP will be plugging in to YouTube in the US soon, as part of that platform's near-constant evolution into an online shopping channel.