Google wants to build the go-to AI-powered shopping cart of the future. But whether shoppers will latch onto it is another question. In May, during Google I/O, Google announced the Universal Cart, a shopping cart with AI features that works across merchants and services such as Google Search, Gemini, YouTube and Gmail. Once shoppers add a product to their cart, it tracks deals and price drops, gives information on price history and alerts users when an items is back in stock. It will also warn shoppers if certain items in the cart are incompatible with the others and suggest alternatives.
When the cart launches, shoppers will be able to add products to their cart from any product listing they see in Google Search, or while chatting with Gemini, watching YouTube or reading emails in Gmail. Shoppers can check out with Google Pay or transfer their items to the merchant’s website to finish their purchase. Universal Cart will launch in Google Search and Gemini in the U.S. this summer and in YouTube and Gmail at a later date.
“Today, most people are shopping across multiple devices and retailers, all over the course of several days,” Suresh Ganapathy, senior director of consumer shopping product at Google, said in an email. “Once they find what they want to buy, it can be another few steps of research to make sure they’re getting a good deal. By working across merchants as well as across Google services, the Universal Cart will give shoppers a way to manage that type of disjointed shopping in one agentic hub.”
