
Google has introduced a brand-new onboarding experience for the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) inside Merchant Center.
This is a big step toward “agentic commerce” where users can discover and buy products directly within AI experiences like Search and Gemini, without leaving the interface.
Key highlights:
• New UCP onboarding flow (rolling out gradually in the U.S.)
• Invite-only access for now
• Sandbox testing for checkout + integrations
• Merchant Center becomes the hub for managing UCP readiness
This signals where commerce is heading: AI-assisted discovery → instant checkout.



