UCP
3 articles
Universal Cart Just Added Hotels and Food Delivery. UCP Isn't Just Retail.
Google quietly stretched Universal Cart past retail this week. Booking and Expedia are going into AI Mode for hotel reservations. Food delivery is heading into Google Maps conversations. The same protocol that powers Nike, Sephora, and Target now covers nights, meals, and rides. If you assumed your category was further out from agentic commerce, May 20 reset the clock. TL;DR: At Google Marketing Live 2026, Google extended the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) beyond retail into hotels (
The Protocol War Is Over. UCP Won. Most Brands Aren't Ready.
On April 24, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, Salesforce, and Stripe formally joined the Universal Commerce Protocol Tech Council, doubling its membership from five to ten. Five of the biggest names in tech now sit on the body that decides how AI agents discover and rank products across the open web. Every "wait until the protocol shakes out" objection just collapsed. TL;DR: UCP's Tech Council just doubled in size, adding Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, Salesforce, and Stripe to the founding five (Goo
Ulta Beauty Goes Live on UCP. Beauty Was Always the Test.
Ulta Beauty is the first major US retailer outside Google's original launch partners to publicly turn on the Universal Commerce Protocol. The pick is not random. Beauty is the most attribute-dense category in retail, which is why Google picked it, and why merchants who can't keep up on product data are about to find out in public. TL;DR: Ulta Beauty will be shoppable inside Google AI Mode and the Gemini app over the next 30 days, powered by the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP). It is t