Universal Commerce Protocol: How Google is transforming the new sales ecosystem for chakana sellers

Google is revolutionizing the agency sales industry. At the NRF 2026 conference in New York, the company announced the implementation of an agency sales protocol, building on its previous PayPal integration and the new checkout method working with Google Wallet payment system.

Defining a new language for agency sales

Vidhya Srinivasan, Vice President and General Manager of Google Ads & Commerce, commented on the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP): “Instead of establishing individual connections for each agent, this protocol ensures seamless operation across all AI systems.”

UCP originally is an open architecture that sets a common communication standard among agents, systems, and e-commerce platforms. Consumers will be able to purchase products directly from retail merchants via the Gemini app or AI Mode browser search. The entire cycle—from discovery before purchase, through the buying process, to post-purchase services—is controlled through a single standard.

Broad collaboration and ecosystem building

Major e-commerce platforms like Shopify, Etsy, Wayfair, and Target collaborated in developing the protocol. The payment sector also responded actively: Adyen, American Express, Stripe, MasterCard, and Visa provided automatic support.

Shopify Vice President Vanessa Lee emphasized: “With decades of experience building checkout systems for millions of unique retail businesses, we have applied this expertise to develop UCP into a broad and robust sales standard.”

UCP is essentially the second agency sales standard developed by Google over the past two years. Last year, the company launched the Agentic Payments Protocol (AP2), which functions as a framework integrating user, merchant, and payment systems independently of the payment process.

Market dynamics and merchant needs

Crone Consulting leader Richard Crone explained that creating an agency sales market requires three key participants: consumers enabling product searches through AI agents, merchants making their goods discoverable by agents, and payment companies conducting fraud checks.

At the same time, Crone added important risks: “If checkout is done within Gemini, the retailer may lose the final point of contact. This, in turn, reduces cross-sell and upsell opportunities from 33% to 76%.”

Future steps and merchant positions

Google plans to add additional features to Gemini in the coming months, such as product recommendations, customer loyalty programs, and exclusive shopping experiences. Through UCP, Google and Shopify are collaborating to improve off-site sales, discovery, and conversion rates.

However, the main challenge for merchants is maintaining direct contact with existing customers. Crone said: “This concept of losing control over the seller leads to unexpected costs of intermediaries and channel conflicts. Do you allow someone outside your store to purchase using your inventory? This significantly reduces control and can turn the system into a simple warehouse or delivery center.”

These dilemmas highlight the tension between the speed of agency sales protocols and merchants’ reluctance to integrate with new systems. However, with technological advancements, adherence to these protocols is likely to become more valuable.