A Brand-New Sales Channel: The AI Assistant
Agentic commerce means that an AI assistant shops on the customer’s behalf. It finds the product, adds it to the cart, and checks out—all without the customer having to click around on a website. AI assistants like Gemini and Google AI Mode are becoming a new place where people shop, and with the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP), they can shop directly with you.
UCP is an open standard from Google that provides AI assistants with a common way to find products, build a shopping cart, and complete purchases. It builds on your existing product data—the same product information you already use for your Google Shopping feed.
Here’s how it works
- The customer asks their AI assistant to find and buy an item.
- The assistant finds your products with your current prices and real-time inventory status.
- The customer selects shipping, and the payment is processed.
- The order arrives in Shoporama as a regular order, ready to be packed and shipped.
You remain in control
You’re still the business behind the transaction. The money goes into your own account, the customer is yours, and the order appears as a regular order with the customer’s name, email, and shipping address. The assistant always displays your current prices and real-time inventory status—that is, whether an item is in stock or sold out. The actual stock quantity is never displayed—only whether the item is available for purchase. Your automatic promotions and sale prices are factored in, and if the customer uses a discount code, it can also be redeemed.
Payment: Stripe or payment link
If you have Stripe connected, the payment is processed directly while the customer is in the assistant. If you don’t have Stripe, the customer receives a secure payment link to complete the purchase. Both options work, but the experience is most seamless with Stripe.
Status: beta, ready for EU rollout
UCP is live in the U.S. via Google’s AI interfaces, and the rollout to Europe is expected in 2026. That’s why the feature is in beta with us. The good news is that Shoporama already supports the protocol, so you can enable it now and be ready from day one as soon as Google rolls it out in Europe. There’s no extra cost to get started.
Get started with one click
You can enable agentic commerce under “Payment” on the page with your payment gateways. There, you’ll find the “Agentic Commerce (UCP)” field, where you can turn it on or off with a single click.
If you’d like to read the full background and see the frequently asked questions, check out our blog post on agentic commerce.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need to know how to code to use it?
No. You can enable it with a single click in your Shoporama admin panel, and you can disable it just as easily.
Do I lose control over prices and inventory?
No. Your current prices and inventory status are displayed in real time, and the actual inventory count is never shown—only whether the item is available for purchase.
Who receives the money, and who owns the customer?
You do. The payment goes into your own account, and the customer is yours. The order appears as a regular order in Shoporama.
Does it also work with ChatGPT?
Not via UCP. ChatGPT uses a competing standard from OpenAI, while UCP covers Google’s interfaces—namely, Gemini and Google AI Mode.
How much does it cost?
Enabling UCP doesn’t cost anything extra. If you use Stripe for payment, the same fees apply as for all your other Stripe orders in Shoporama.