Google Launches "Universal Cart" in the US After Five-Month Delay
Google has begun rolling out "Universal Cart" in its search service and Gemini app in the US, a shopping cart that aggregates user purchases from different stores and tracks prices, inventory, and offers.
On October 15, Google began rolling out the "Universal Cart" feature in its search service in the United States and the Gemini app, but excluding the YouTube and Gmail apps, after previewing it at the I/O conference on May 19 and promising to launch it in the summer, according to PPC Land.
The cart aggregates items from different stores in one place, tracks prices and inventory, and highlights discount codes via Google Wallet.
Checkout is routed through Google Pay or the Universal Commerce Protocol, with Nike, Sephora, Target, Ulta Beauty, Walmart, and Wayfair named among the available stores for completing orders. Google stated that merchants "will remain the seller of record" for the products.
An inspection revealed only 26 detected implementations of the Universal Commerce Protocol across more than three million sites, demonstrating that the feature's infrastructure is still in its early stages.
What Do These Terms Mean?
Universal Cart: A unified shopping cart within Google that aggregates products from different stores in one place.
Universal Commerce Protocol: A technical protocol that enables linking a merchant's store to Google's purchasing ecosystem.
Seller of Record: The entity in whose name the item is sold and which bears legal responsibility for the sale to the buyer.
Google Wallet: A service for digitally storing payment methods, cards, and offers on a phone.
Weekly Newsletter
Read between the lines before everyone else. Decode the most important economic, tech, and decision-maker movements in the region.. in 5 minutes every Saturday.
