• by Laurie Sullivan , Yesterday

Shopify and Google have co-developed an open standard that enables agents to support commerce.

Shopping across Google’s platforms will soon roll out supported by the standard, “Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP),” allowing Shopify merchants to sell directly in AI Mode in Google Search and the Gemini app.

More than 20 retailers and platforms will soon use the standard. Brands like Monos, Gymshark, and Everlane will soon sell directly on some of Google’s platforms, and merchants Keen, Pura Vida, and Kyte Baby are using Microsoft Copilot Checkout to reach their customers.

Shopify has also announced an update to Microsoft Copilot with a new embedded checkout experience — Copilot Checkout. These integrations, along with support for ChatGPT, are managed by Shopify Admin through Agentic Storefronts announced in December.

Vanessa Lee, vice president at Shopify, believes “agentic commerce has so much potential to redefine shopping, and we want to make sure it can scale to every product a customer might want to purchase."The announcement marks the start of the National Retail Federation (NRF) 2026 retail show.

Agentic commerce supports advertising by creating closer ties with brands. It collapses the traditional marketing funnel into one continuous conversation, from search and discovery to purchases.

The agentic platform may signal to the consumer that they are almost out of mouthwash, for example, providing what brands now call “post-purchase support and returns.” It turns advertising into an ongoing service.

Brands on any platform can now use Shopify’s infrastructure to sell products and services on AI channels, such as AI Mode, without the need for a Shopify online store.

UCP will allow agents to represent the checkout process. It means customers can submit discount codes, input loyalty credentials, select preferred subscription billing cadences, or confirm selling terms like final sale or pre-order timing in chat.

The protocol also works with any payment processor, including Shopify Payments. It is designed for all types of transactions, not just for retail commerce.

This architecture co-built by Shopify and Google adapts to any commerce stack running over any connection point and choice of transport such as REST, Model Context Protocol (MCP), Agent Payments Protocol (AP2), or Agent2Agent (A2A).

Furniture retailers that require a customer to select a specific delivery date and time -- for example, the UCP -- provide a standard way for that furniture retailer to specify to agents which information is needed from customers at checkout.