New tech and tools for retailers to succeed in an agentic shopping era
AI agents are moving from concept to daily habit. Shoppers are researching, comparing, and buying with the help of assistants that act on their behalf. That shifts how support teams resolve questions and how sales teams close intent. Here's what matters now - and how to turn it into revenue.
A common language for agent-led shopping: Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP)
UCP is a new open standard that lets agents, retailers, and payment providers work together across the entire journey - discovery, purchase, and post-purchase. It plays nicely with existing protocols like A2A, AP2 and MCP, and was co-developed with leaders including Shopify, Etsy, Wayfair, Target and Walmart, with broader support from companies like Adyen, American Express, Best Buy, Flipkart, Macy's Inc., Mastercard, Stripe, The Home Depot, Visa and Zalando.
What you'll see first: checkout inside AI Mode in Search and the Gemini app for eligible U.S. retailers. Shoppers can pay with Google Pay using cards and shipping details in Google Wallet, with PayPal coming soon. Retailers remain the seller of record and can customize the integration. Global expansion and added features (related product discovery, loyalty rewards, custom experiences) are on the roadmap.
- Support: Align with your ecommerce team to confirm taxes, shipping, returns, and cancellations are agent-ready. Update refund/cancellation macros for agent-placed orders.
- Sales: Identify high-intent categories to prioritize for UCP-powered checkout. Build quick-reference answers for common objections (fit, compatibility, delivery times).
- Both: Test the end-to-end flow (auth, capture, refund). Track abandoned carts, approval rates, and AOV from AI Mode traffic.
Meet shoppers where they search: Business Agent
Business Agent brings a branded, on-Search chat experience that answers product questions in your voice. It launches with retailers like Lowe's, Michael's, Poshmark and Reebok. Eligible U.S. retailers can activate and customize it in Merchant Center - with the ability to train on first-party data, gain customer insights, offer related products and enable direct purchases (including agentic checkout) in the experience.
- Support: Define escalation rules and tone. Feed it your knowledge base, PDP data, policies and inventory status so answers are accurate.
- Sales: Script responses that move shoppers forward: sizing help, compatibility checks, substitutes if out of stock, and add-ons that make sense.
- Metrics to watch: Conversation-to-cart rate, assisted conversion rate, average order value from agent sessions, first-contact resolution, and handoff quality to human reps.
Be discoverable in conversational shopping
Merchant Center is adding dozens of new data attributes to improve discovery across AI Mode, Gemini and Business Agent. This goes beyond keywords to include structured answers to common questions, compatible accessories and smart substitutes.
- Turn your top 100 support tickets into concise Q&A entries per product.
- Map accessories and substitutes so the agent can suggest alternatives with confidence.
- Add care, installation and warranty notes as structured data - not just a paragraph on PDPs.
- Keep shipping SLAs, return windows and fees current and machine-readable.
Close intent with Direct Offers
Direct Offers is a new Google Ads pilot in AI Mode that lets retailers present timely incentives (for example, 20% off) when shoppers are ready to buy. Google's AI determines when to show an offer based on context and intent. The pilot starts with discounts and will expand to bundles and free shipping. Partners shaping the pilot include Petco, e.l.f. Cosmetics, Samsonite, Rugs USA and Shopify merchants.
- Sales: Build an offer matrix by margin threshold and category. Set limits to protect profitability and prevent overexposure.
- Support: Prepare clear policies for post-purchase price adjustments, stacking rules and returns on discounted items.
- Prove impact: Run holdout tests to compare conversion and CPA with/without offers. Track repeat rate and return rate for offer-driven orders.
Payments, security and trust
Agent-led checkout is built with security at the center. Shoppers can buy via Google Pay using saved Wallet details, with PayPal support coming. Retailers stay the seller of record, while AP2 ensures secure, standardized agent payments. For support teams, this means faster resolution on refunds, chargebacks and order changes - if your playbooks are ready.
- Test payment flows end to end: authorization, capture, void, partial and full refunds.
- Document dispute SOPs with clear SLAs, and set up a dedicated shared inbox for escalations.
- Surface shipping updates and delays inside agent conversations to reduce "Where is my order?" contacts.
- Make returns easy: preprinted labels, self-serve portals, and clear exchange options.
What to execute this quarter
- Join the UCP rollout with your ecommerce platform; validate catalog, tax, shipping and returns.
- Turn on Business Agent in Merchant Center; define voice, escalation paths and KPI targets.
- Enrich Merchant Center attributes for your top 50 SKUs with Q&A, accessories and substitutes.
- Pilot Direct Offers in two categories; set guardrails for margin and frequency.
- Train support and sales on agent-led orders, objection handling and cross-sell sequences.
If your team needs structured upskilling for AI-driven support and sales, explore practical programs by role at Complete AI Training.
The takeaway
Agentic shopping is moving fast. Teams that prepare their data, offers and service workflows will reduce friction, increase conversion and keep customers coming back. Keep it simple: answer questions clearly, make checkout effortless and follow through after the sale.
Your membership also unlocks:
