Google has launched Universal Cart for shoppers in the United States. The feature, which went live Wednesday, Oct. 14, lets people add items from different stores to one cart and check out through Google.
Google first announced the tool at its I/O conference in May.
How it works
Shoppers can add products to the cart while they browse in Google Search or the Gemini app. The cart holds items from multiple retailers in one place. When you are ready, you check out with Google Pay, and Google passes the order to the stores.
The cart can also track price drops and restocks. Google says it draws on its Shopping Graph, a database of about 60 billion product listings. The company says the cart will later extend to other Google products, including YouTube and Gmail.
Which stores are in
Launch retailers include Nike, Sephora, Target, Ulta Beauty, Walmart and Wayfair, along with select Shopify merchants such as Fenty and Steve Madden.
Checkout runs on the Universal Commerce Protocol, an open standard Google released in January so that AI tools and stores can complete purchases together. Google has also built in rules for agentic payments, meaning an AI helper can only buy what the shopper approves.
Where else it is coming
Google plans to expand Universal Cart to Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom. It has not announced plans for the European Union. Brussels fined Google 460 million euros three months ago over how it displays shopping results.
Why it matters
Online stores have long worked to keep shoppers inside their own sites. A cart built into Search and Gemini changes that, because Google would sit between the shopper and the store at checkout. Retailers will want to see how much traffic and how many sales flow through it.
A Bizrate survey cited by eMarketer found that 59% of U.S. online shoppers see search engines as their top way to find products, compared with 12% who named AI chat tools.
