How big tech is taking over the shopping journey

Google announced Universal Cart at I/O 2026. The name sounds functional, almost boring. Look closer and you'll see what it actually is: a single platform trying to sit between every shopper and every merchant on the internet.

Universal Cart lets consumers add products while browsing Google Search, chatting with Gemini, watching YouTube, or reading a Gmail message. It tracks price history, monitors deals, and alerts users when something comes back in stock. Shoppers check out directly through Google using the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP), or hand off their cart to the merchant. Either way, Google is in the room.

This is not a shopping feature. It is an infrastructure play. And for consumer brands that have spent years building direct digital relationships with their customers, it changes the game in ways that are not obvious yet.

At Livewall, we design and build loyalty platforms and engagement experiences for retail and FMCG brands. What we're watching now is not a product announcement. It is a shift in where brand relationships live.

The protocols that matter more than the cart

Behind the consumer-facing experience, Google introduced two things worth looking at closely.

The Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) is Google's framework for merchants to connect their inventory to the Google ecosystem. Brands that integrate get surface visibility across all Google properties. Brands that don't risk becoming invisible to the growing share of shoppers who use AI layers to discover and compare products.

The Agent Payments Protocol (AP2) goes further. It is designed to let AI agents complete purchases on behalf of consumers, within limits set by the user. A shopper can effectively tell their AI assistant: "buy me the best running shoes under €100 without me needing to click anything." The AI picks, the AI pays.

When the AI becomes the buyer, the nature of brand competition shifts. You are no longer winning a human's attention at a moment of intent. You are trying to get into the set of brands an AI considers trustworthy and relevant for that person's specific context. The rules of that game are still being written, but the direction is clear.

The direct relationship is the only durable asset

For years, smart retail brands have invested in owned digital experiences: apps, loyalty programmes, direct engagement mechanics. We built a gamified loyalty activation for Wehkamp called Wanna Have Days, where shoppers returned daily to unlock discounts, seasonal content, and prizes. The mechanic worked because it created direct habit loops between consumer and brand. Wehkamp owned that relationship.

That kind of direct ownership is exactly what's at risk when an AI intermediary enters the purchase journey. If Google's Universal Cart or an AI agent is managing the discovery and consideration phase, the meaningful brand interaction happens inside someone else's platform.

The response is not to panic. It is certainly not to stop building great digital experiences. The response is to build things that create genuine brand attachment, the kind that survives intermediation. Consumers who have a real relationship with your brand will still seek you out, even when an AI is filtering their options for them.

What to build right now

There are three things consumer brands should be focused on.

First, build owned data relationships. Not retargeting audiences, not third-party behavioural signals. Real first-party data from consumers who have actively engaged with your brand and expressed genuine preferences. The brands that will navigate Google's intermediation are the ones whose customers know them directly.

Second, make loyalty mean more than points. Transactional loyalty programmes are straightforward for AI agents to compare and arbitrage. Emotional connection to a brand, a community, an experience, those are not so easily reduced to a price comparison. We design loyalty programmes that go beyond purchase history to build genuine behavioral attachment.

Third, own the experience wherever you can. Not every touchpoint needs to run through Google. The richer and more valuable the experiences you build on your own platforms, the less dependent you become on Big Tech's infrastructure.

Google Universal Cart is a warning shot. The brands that treat it as one will be significantly better prepared for what comes next.