Shopify and Google Launch Universal Commerce Protocol for AI Shopping

"Shopify and Google are betting on agentic commerce, and to make it work, the two have jointly developed a new protocol that lets AI agents discover products, browse options, and complete purchases on a user's behalf-all from a chat. The new Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) is an open-source standard that permits agents to connect with any merchant. "Agentic commerce has so much potential to redefine shopping,"

"Universal Commerce Protocol works with any payment processor, including Shopify Payments. It allows AI agents to natively handle the entire purchasing flow on a customer's behalf-making transactions effectively hands-free beyond the initial prompt from the human. And within that chat, customers can enter discount codes, enter their loyalty credentials, specify their preferred subscription billing frequency, or confirm the selling terms. The protocol also gives merchants greater flexibility in the shopping experience, allowing agents to operate across any surface, interface, or commerce flow."

Shopify and Google developed the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP), an open-source standard enabling AI agents to discover products across merchants and complete purchases within chat. UCP integrates with any payment processor, including Shopify Payments, letting agents natively handle full purchasing flows and make transactions effectively hands-free after an initial prompt. Within chat, customers can enter discount codes, loyalty credentials, specify subscription billing frequency, or confirm selling terms. The protocol gives merchants flexibility to support agent-driven experiences across surfaces, interfaces, and commerce flows, while keeping agent actions bounded by merchant and customer-defined limits. Additional integrations include selling on Google Search, Gemini, and Microsoft Copilot and expanded access to Shopify Catalog.

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