At its I/O 2026 conference, Google introduced Universal Cart, which it describes as a hub for shopping on Google. The cart works across merchants and lets shoppers add items while using Search, Gemini, YouTube, or Gmail. It then tracks deals, price drops, and restock alerts in the background. Google says it is rolling out across Search and the Gemini app in the U.S. this summer, with YouTube and Gmail to follow.
Google also plans to expand checkout powered by its Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) to Canada and Australia, and later to the U.K.
This announcement is about consumer shopping, and B2B buying has its own requirements, including negotiated contracts, customer-specific pricing, and approval steps. Our view is that the direction still matters for manufacturers and distributors: software is taking on more of the work of finding and comparing products, and it can only work with information it can read.
Actionable takeaway: review whether your product data, availability, and pricing rules are structured and accurate enough for a system to use without a person interpreting them.