A Technical Guide To Prepare For Google’s UCP

In January, I wrote about the delivery of agentic commerce by means of each Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP) and Common Commerce Protocol (UCP), and the way this might influence us all as customers, enterprise homeowners, and SEOs. As we nonetheless sit on waitlists for each, this doesn’t imply that we are able to’t put together for it.

UCP fixes a real-life drawback for a lot of, minimizing the fragmented commerce journey. As a substitute of constructing separate integrations for each agent platform as we’ve been principally doing previously, now you can [theoretically] combine as soon as and can combine seamlessly with different instruments and platforms.

However be aware right here that, versus ACP which focuses extra so on the checkout → success → cost journey, UCP goes past this with six capabilities overlaying your complete commerce lifecycle.

This, in fact, will influence an web optimization’s ambit. As we shift from optimizing for clicks to optimizing for choice, we additionally want to make sure that it’s you/your shopper that’s chosen by means of information integrity, product alerts, and AI-readable commerce capabilities. Structured information has all the time served an essential function for the web as an entire and can proceed to be the driving pressure on how one can serve brokers, crawlers, and people in one of the best ways potential.

I allude to a potential new acronym “ACO” – Agentic Commerce Optimization – and the next might be thought-about the closest we are able to get to tips on how we undertake it.

UCP Isn’t Coming, It’s Right here

UCP was solely announced in January, however there’s already affirmation that its capabilities are rolling out. On Feb. 11, 2026, Vidhya Srinivasan (VP/GM of Promoting & Commerce at Google) announced that Wayfair and Etsy now use UCP so that you could buy immediately inside AI Mode, and was observed the next day by Brodie Clark.

UCP’s Six Layered Capabilities

On the day UCP was launched, Google explained its methodology.

From this, I outlined six core capabilities:

1. Product Discovery – how brokers discover and floor your stock throughout analysis.
2. Cart Administration – multi-item baskets, dynamic pricing, complicated basket guidelines.
3. Identification Linking – OAuth 2.0 authorization for personalised experiences and loyalty.
4. Checkout – session creation, tax calculation, cost dealing with.
5. Order Administration – webhook-based lifecycle and logistical updates.
6. Vertical Capabilities – extensible modules for specialised use instances like journey reserving home windows or subscription schedules.

UCP’s schema authoring information exhibits how capabilities are outlined by means of versioned JSON schemas, which act as the muse of the protocol. In relation to contemplating this as an web optimization, properties equivalent to provides, aggregateRating, and shippingDetails aren’t only for surfacing wealthy snippets, and so forth., for product discovery, they’re now what brokers question throughout your complete course of.

Schema Is, And Will Proceed To Be, Important

UCP’s technical specification makes use of its personal JSON schema-based vocabulary. While it doesn’t construct on schema.org immediately, it stays vital within the broader ecosystem. As Pascal Fleury Fleury said at Google Search Central Stay in December, “schema is the glue that binds all these ontologies collectively”. UCP handles the transaction; schema.org helps brokers determine who to transact with.

Make sure you’re on high of and populate product schema as a lot as you possibly can. It could appear to be web optimization 101. Regardless, audit all of this now to make sure you’re not lacking something when UCP actually rolls out.

This contains checks on:

• Product schema (with full protection): All core fields: title, description, SKU, GTIN, model, associated photos, and provides.
• Presents should embrace: Worth, priceCurrency, availability, URL, vendor. Add aggregateRating and assessment to make sure you have constructive third-party perspective.
• Guarantee all product variants output accurately.
• Embody shippingDetails with supply estimates.
• Group and Model: Assists with “Service provider of File” verification. If you’re not an Group, then fallback to Individual.
• Designated FAQPage: Guarantee you might have an FAQpage as these will be included alongside product-level FAQs and used as a part of its decision-making.

Put together Your Service provider Heart Feed

UCP will make the most of your current Service provider Heart feed as the invention layer. Because of this past the traditional on-site schema you present, Service provider Heart itself requires extra particulars which you can populate inside its platform.

• Return insurance policies (required to be a Service provider of File): Full all return prices, return home windows, and coverage hyperlinks. These might be used not simply inside the checkout and transactional areas, however once more a consideration for choice in any respect. Superior accounts want insurance policies at every sub-account stage.
• Buyer assist info: Not solely would preliminary info be supplied to the client, however there could also be methods by which entry-level buyer assist queries will be fully managed, thus growing buyer satisfaction whereas minimizing buyer assist agent capability.
• Agentic checkout eligibility: Add the native_commerce attribute to your feed, as merchandise are solely eligible right here if that is arrange.
• Product identifiers: Every product should have an ID, and correlate to the product ID when utilizing the checkout API.
• Product shopper warnings: Any product warning ought to assert the consumer_notice attribute.

Google recommends that this be completed by means of a supplemental information supply in Service provider Heart reasonably than modifying your main feed, which might forestall incorrect formatting or different invalidation.

Lastly, double-check if the merchandise you’re promoting aren’t included inside its product restrictions listing, as there are a number of that, when you do supply these issues, it’s best to think about find out how to handle alongside the skills of UCP.

Optimizing Conversational Commerce Attributes

Inside the UCP blog post announcement, Srinivasan launched a means for extra readability with conversational commerce attributes:

“…we’re saying dozens of latest information attributes in Service provider Heart designed for straightforward discovery within the conversational commerce period, on surfaces like AI Mode, Gemini and Enterprise Agent. These new attributes complement retailers’ current information feeds and transcend conventional key phrases to incorporate issues like solutions to frequent product questions, suitable equipment or substitutes.”

These present additional readability (and due to this fact decrease hallucinations) through the discovery course of as a way to be chosen or dominated out.

Not solely would this incorporate product and brand-related FAQs, however take this a step additional to additionally think about:

• Compatibility: Potential up-sell alternatives.
• Substitution: A possibility for coping with out-of-stock objects.
• Associated merchandise: Nice for cross-sell alternatives.

Moreover, this can be utilized to turn out to be much more particular, shifting past fundamental attributes to agent-parseable particulars. Now, if a product is “purple” on a fundamental stage, “darkish purple” and even one thing unobvious, equivalent to “Wolf” (actual instance beneath), could also be extra acceptable for finer element whereas nonetheless falling below “purple.” The identical will be thought-about for sizes, supplies (or a mix of supplies), and so forth.

Multi-Modal Fan-Out Choice

When executed effectively, optimizing for conversational commerce attributes will enhance the potential for choice inside fan-out question outcomes. When contemplating a few of these attributes, it’s price instruments, equivalent to WordLift’s Visible Fan-Out simulator, which illustrates how a single picture decomposes into a number of search intents, revealing which attributes brokers might prioritize when performing question fan-out. However how would this look?

For example, I used one product picture and browsed downward three horizons. Utilizing On’s Cloudsurfer Max for example (used with permission):

Utilizing only one product picture, that is what’s introduced on the floor:

It instantly observed that the product was On, and particularly from the Cloudsurfer vary. Nice begin! Now let’s see what it sees over the horizon:

Right here, you possibly can draw inspiration or course on how greatest to position your self for potential and certain fan-out queries. With this instance, I discovered it attention-grabbing that Horizon 2 mentions efficiency operating gear as a big class, then when performing fan-out on that confirmed the associated merchandise round gear generally. This exhibits how broad LLMs think about choice and how one can current attributes to draw choice.

UCP’s Roadmap Is Increasing Into Multi-Verticals

UCP is already planning to transcend one single buy however expands past retail into journey, providers, and different verticals. Its roadmap particulars a number of priorities over the approaching 12 months, together with:

• Multi‑merchandise carts and sophisticated baskets: Shifting past single‑merchandise checkout to native multi‑merchandise carts, bundling, promotions, tax/transport logic, and extra real looking success dealing with.
• Loyalty and account linking: Standardized loyalty program administration and account linking so brokers can apply factors, member pricing, and advantages throughout retailers.
• Publish‑buy assist: Assist for order monitoring, returns, and buyer‑service handoff so brokers can handle buyer assist post-sale.
• Personalization alerts: Richer alerts for cross‑promote/upsell, wishlists, historical past, and context‑primarily based suggestions.
• New verticals: Growth past retail into journey, providers, digital items, and meals/restaurant use instances through extensions to the protocol.

Every of the factors above is price additional studying and consideration if that is one thing your model might supply. Moreover, its plans to broaden past retail into journey, providers, digital items, and hospitality imply that, when you’re working inside any of those verticals, it’s essential be much more ready to make sure eligibility.

Social Proof And Third-Social gathering Perspective

No matter how effectively you could optimize on-site to arrange for UCP, all this information integrity nonetheless must be validated by trusted third-party sources.

Third-party platforms, equivalent to Trustpilot and G2, seem like often cited and trusted amongst many of the LLMs, so I’d nonetheless advise that you just proceed to gather these constructive model and product evaluations as a way to fulfill consensus, leading to extra alternatives to be chosen throughout product discovery.

TL;DR – Put together Now

When you personal or handle any type of ecommerce website, now’s the time to make sure you’re getting ready for UCP’s rollout as quickly as potential. It’s solely a matter of time, and with AI Mode spreading into default experiences, getting forward of the rollout is crucial.

1. Be a part of the UCP waitlist.
2. Put together Service provider Heart: return insurance policies, native_commerce attribute.
3. Guarantee your builders analysis and perceive the UCP documentation.
4. Populate conversational attributes: question-answers, compatibility, substitutes.
5. Audit and enhance any schema the place relevant.

That is shifting sooner than most earlier commerce shifts, and types that look ahead to full rollout alerts will already be behind. This isn’t a short-term LLM gimmick however is a part of the most important change within the ecommerce house.

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Featured Picture: Roman Samborskyi/Shutterstock