Google rolled out agentic commerce features that allow US shoppers to purchase items from Etsy and Wayfair directly within AI Mode in Search and the Gemini app, with Shopify, Walmart, and Target coming soon. Basically it's Google's answer to OpenAI's Instant Checkout, which launched in October.
To power the transactions, Google is utilizing its Universal Commerce Protocol, an open-source standard for agentic commerce it developed in partnership with Shopify and major retailers that launched last month.
Here's how it works:
- Shopper searches for an item on Google.
- If an Etsy or Wayfair listing surfaces in results, it may include a “Buy” button beneath the price.
- Clicking the Buy button reveals a popup that displays the item, shipping address, shipping rate, total price, and a Pay with Google Pay button.
- The shopper can then complete the purchase without ever visiting Etsy or Wayfair's site.
Brodie Clark, an independent SEO consultant, notes that the Buy button only triggers if you are signed into your Google account and that it already has your Google-linked payment method queued up in the experience. He wrote:
“Unlike ChatGPT's Instant Checkout feature, because you're already signed in to your Google account to see the feature, it is highly likely that your card is already attached to your Google Pay account. This means you can essentially pay for the product in only one click – compared to ChatGPT, which likely involves more clicks.”
Remember when Google offered a “Buy On Google” button?
Google initially launched the program, which was originally called Buy on Google and later renamed to Purchases on Google, in 2015 on mobile shopping ads in the US. It allowed shoppers to tap a “Buy on Google” button on a shopping ad and complete checkout inside Google without ever visiting the merchant's website. So like, basically what it's doing with Etsy and Wayfair through UCP.
Google abandoned the concept a few years later in July 2023, ironically just eight months after ChatGPT made its public debut, due to low user adoption, limited merchant usage, and because it wasn't as profitable as its product advertising endeavors.
Was Buy with Google ahead of its time? Or is the industry repeating history?
Are consumers ready to purchase an $800 leather sofa from Wayfair without even clicking on the listing?
As for merchants, they didn't seem ready to put Google or any other product discovery layer in between them and their customers a few short years ago. Are they ready now?
Do merchants actually want this, or is agentic hype creating FOMO in the market?
Will NOT participating in agentic commerce become a deliberate choice by some premium brands to differentiate themselves?
Still lots of unanswered questions.