At NRF 2026 Google introduced the Universal Commerce Protocol, an open standard for buying inside AI Mode and Gemini without leaving the conversation.
On January 11, 2026, in his address to the National Retail Federation, Google CEO Sundar Pichai introduced the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP). It is an open protocol for agentic commerce: buy buttons appear inside Google Search’s AI Mode and in Gemini, and payment goes through Google Pay within the conversation.
Merchants can make offers on the spot, such as new-member pricing or loyalty enrollment. The retailer stays the merchant of record and keeps the customer relationship.
Google says the protocol was co-built with Shopify, Etsy, Wayfair, Target and Walmart and is endorsed by more than 20 other companies. It is being implemented by names including The Home Depot, McDonald’s and Kroger, on top of a Shopping Graph of 50 billion product listings.
Conversational AI is becoming a point of sale, with discovery, offer and payment in one flow. For Ergonet, which works on machine vision and automation for commerce, it shows how the market is taking shape.
Source: Google