Google's Universal Cart is now live in the U.S. inside Search and the Gemini app, giving shoppers one cart that collects items from different retailers and watches their prices and stock in the background.
An item saved in AI Mode in Search sits in the same list as one added later from the Gemini app, so a handbag from Steve Madden and a sweater from Quince end up side by side. Google says the cart draws on the Shopping Graph, its catalog of more than 60 billion product listings, and sends a notification when a saved item drops in price or returns to stock.
Payments are where the cart leans on other Google products. Because it is built on Google Wallet, it can see the perks attached to a user's saved cards and suggest which one to use, and it surfaces relevant promo codes from inside the cart. Checkout runs on the Universal Commerce Protocol: shoppers can pay with Google Pay at merchants such as Nike, Sephora, Target, Ulta Beauty, Walmart and Wayfair, along with many Shopify stores, or pass the cart to the retailer's own site. In both cases the merchant stays seller of record, so order confirmations and customer support come from the merchant. Google lists no fee for shoppers.
The launch is late against Google's own timetable. When Google first showed the cart at I/O on May 19, it promised a U.S. rollout "this summer," with YouTube and Gmail to follow, and described the cart flagging incompatible parts for someone building a PC from several stores. The cart lands almost five months later, past that summer window, and only in Search and the Gemini app; YouTube, Gmail and the parts check are not part of this rollout.
The next markets come from Google's May plan: checkout built on the commerce protocol was set to reach Canada and Australia in the coming months and the U.K. after that, alongside YouTube in the U.S.
