Google launches its ‘universal’ online shopping cart ahead of the holidays

Google has introduced its "Universal" online shopping cart, ahead of the holiday shopping season, to simplify the process for users to stay organized and save money while purchasing items online. This feature, first previewed at Google's I/O event in May, is now being rolled out in the United States across the Gemini app and Google Search.

The "Universal" digital cart allows users to save products from various retailers in a single unified space, accessible across different Google platforms like the Gemini app and Google Search AI Mode. You can add multiple products using the Gemini app and Google Search AI Mode, and they will all be saved to the same cart.

Google also plans to integrate this Universal Cart with Gmail and YouTube, although the timeline for these integrations has not been announced. Users will receive notifications regarding price drops and restocks for items saved in their cart, freeing them from individually checking each retailer's website. The cart can display relevant promotional codes found alongside the saved products.

You have the option to pay for items using Google Wallet or transfer them to the merchant's own cart for checkout with the retailer directly. Google Wallet can also analyze the perks provided by each saved credit card to help users choose the best payment method.

This launch comes as AI-assisted shopping competition intensifies, with rivals such as OpenAI and Meta already launching agentic AI assistants capable of shopping online on the user's behalf. Shopify has also opened its platform to enable more AI agents to browse and purchase from Shopify listings. The move is driven by the belief that the future of online shopping involves having a robot handle most of the work.