Google’s Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP), announced at NRF 2026, is the most ambitious attempt to create an open standard for AI-mediated commerce—covering the entire shopping journey from discovery to post-purchase support.
UCP covers four stages: Discovery (product search, availability, AI recommendations), Cart (creation, modification, cross-platform sync), Checkout (payment processing, shipping, confirmation), and Post-Purchase (tracking, returns, customer support). This end-to-end scope differentiates UCP from ACP’s checkout-only focus.
Technical Architecture
Open Source: Anyone can implement, no licensing fees, community contributions. Any Transport: Supports REST APIs, MCP (Model Context Protocol), and Agent-to-Agent (A2A). Modular Payments: Plug-and-play handlers for Stripe, PayPal, Adyen, and card networks. Merchant MoR: Merchant remains Merchant of Record—owns customer relationship and data.
Coalition & Monetization
20+ launch partners:Google, Shopify, Walmart, Target, Etsy, Wayfair, Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, Adyen, Amex, Instacart, Best Buy, Booking.com. Monetization through “Direct Offers”—retailers pay for visibility at the moment of purchase intent. Google’s familiar ad model extended to agentic commerce.
UCP’s bet: an open standard with broad coalition support becomes the default—and Google monetizes through ads, just like search.
Gennaro is the creator of FourWeekMBA, which reached about four million business people, comprising C-level executives, investors, analysts, product managers, and aspiring digital entrepreneurs in 2022 alone | He is also Director of Sales for a high-tech scaleup in the AI Industry | In 2012, Gennaro earned an International MBA with emphasis on Corporate Finance and Business Strategy.
