Google rolls out Universal Cart across Search and Gemini in the US

Google is rolling out Universal Cart in the United States across Google Search and the Gemini app, bringing a shopping product previewed in May to consumers.

The cross-retailer tool gives U.S. shoppers one place to save products found on either Google surface and return to the same list later. Google says Universal Cart carries shopping progress across its services, so products added while searching or chatting with Gemini remain in the cart when a user returns.

Google says the cart can notify shoppers when a saved product’s price drops or an out-of-stock item becomes available again. The company also says it can surface relevant promo codes and use card-perk information from Google Wallet to help users choose a payment method. Those convenience features are company claims; the launch materials do not provide independent tests of their coverage or reliability.

For checkout, Google says eligible purchases can be completed with Google Pay inside the cart, or shoppers can transfer items to a retailer’s cart for purchase on that retailer’s site. The company identifies the Universal Commerce Protocol, an open standard designed to connect shopping systems and retailers through steps including checkout, as the technology powering that checkout workflow.

Google says simplified checkout is available with merchants including Nike, Sephora, Target, Ulta Beauty, Walmart and Wayfair, as well as many Shopify merchants. It did not quantify how many retailers or products support in-cart Google Pay rather than a transfer to a merchant site.

The company says Universal Cart draws on its Shopping Graph, which it describes as holding more than 60 billion continually refreshed product listings. That scale figure comes from Google and has not been independently audited.

The cart rollout follows other changes to the Gemini consumer experience, including new limits on free Gemini model access.

Google introduced Universal Cart at Google I/O on May 19 and said at the time that it would roll out in the United States across Search and Gemini during the summer, with YouTube and Gmail to follow. The October launch establishes availability in Search and Gemini, but Google did not give an updated timetable for YouTube or Gmail.

Google has not said when the U.S. rollout will be complete or detailed account and device eligibility. Whether checkout happens inside Universal Cart or on a retailer’s site, Google says the merchant remains the seller of record and handles order confirmations and customer support.