At the National Retail Federation (NRF) conference, Google unveiled a groundbreaking open standard known as the 'Universal Commerce Protocol' (UCP). This innovative protocol is engineered to facilitate seamless integration throughout the entire shopping journey, encompassing product discovery, order placement, payment processing, and after-sales support, all orchestrated by AI shopping agents.

Developed in close collaboration with leading retailers and e-commerce platforms, including Shopify, Etsy, Wayfair, Target, and Walmart, this standard is designed to harmonize with the Agent Payments Protocol (A2P), Agent2Agent (A2A), and Model Context Protocol (MCP).

By enabling merchants and agents to selectively integrate extension modules tailored to their specific requirements, the UCP effectively liberates them from the constraints of traditional, fragmented systems, ushering in a new era of streamlined and efficient commerce.