In my final put up, I referenced how there’s now a rising cut up between the “human” internet and the “agentic” internet, the place AI brokers have gotten a further viewers/profile alongside the “conventional” human guests we now have been optimizing for for years.
This shift is now changing into extra aggressive, particularly in terms of the transactional internet within the type of agentic commerce. 2026 will see the accelerated adoption of this methodology, the place retailer house owners will now need to cater to and optimize for each the human and agentic customer concurrently.
The current launch of Common Commerce Protocol (UCP) from Google underlines the push in the direction of this integration of AI and ecommerce experiences.
What Is Agentic Commerce?
Agentic commerce is when brokers full purchases autonomously on behalf of customers. Now, a human can have interaction with a big language mannequin platform, the place the agent will browse and buy from a web site on behalf (and with approval) of the human. Not solely is the agent performing because the gatekeeper for info achieve and influencing selections, however they’re additionally performing because the gatekeeper for the transaction itself.
This can be a step past delegating an LLM to behave as a advice agent or a way of validation, however now transfers authority to truly transact.
Enter ACP (Agentic Commerce Protocol)
On Sept. 29, 2025, OpenAI and Stripe introduced their partnership and, inside this, launched ACP, an open customary that defines how AI brokers, retailers, and fee suppliers work together to finish agentic and programmatic purchases.
On the identical day, OpenAI detailed platforms that have been instantly capable of profit from agentic commerce, together with Shopify and Etsy, with others following go well with utilizing the protocol, together with Walmart and Instacart.
From a CMS perspective, Shopify hit the bottom working by enabling ACP for over 1 million retailers from the day of the announcement. WooCommerce has adopted go well with extra not too long ago by asserting it is going to be a part of Stripe’s launch of Agentic Commerce Suite, which can enable much more retailers the power to promote merchandise by way of varied AI-based platforms.
However ACP was launched three months in the past, and as we now know, issues transfer quick…
UCP: Google’s Reply To The Immersive Agentic Commerce Expertise
Google simply introduced the launch of Common Commerce Protocol, which widens some boundaries utilized by ACP by tackling a broader downside, offering any AI floor (like Search AI Mode or Gemini) a standard language to find retailers, perceive their capabilities, and orchestrate full journeys from discovery by way of order administration, in addition to engagement past a purchase order (additionally made seamless utilizing Google Pay). That is additionally completed by integrating with different present requirements, together with APIs, Agent2Agent (A2A), and the Mannequin Context Protocol (MCP).
| Side | ACP (OpenAI) | UCP (Google) |
|---|---|---|
| Major focus | Agent‑led commerce in ChatGPT and ACP‑conscious brokers. | Unified rail for a lot of brokers/surfaces speaking to retailers. |
| Journey Protection | Product feed, checkout, success, delegated fee. | Discovery, checkout, reductions, success, order administration, funds. |
| Driver | OpenAI + Stripe & ecosystem companions. | Google + retailers/platforms (Shopify, Etsy, Walmart, and so forth.). |
Right here, Google provides to the probabilities of the commerce expertise, the place SEOs can undertake each ACP and UCP with a view to accommodate each platforms and ecosystems.
This may solely grow to be extra immersive as 2026 progresses. Google has a fantastic benefit of realizing rather a lot about particular person customers, and options similar to AI options inside Gmail illustrate Google can make the most of and perceive rather more context about people with a view to present an much more frictionless expertise.
Why This Issues For SEOs
As SEOs, we’ve spent over a era optimizing for people, albeit for varied personas or ICPs. Whereas we’re nonetheless required to do that, we should now embrace the agent as a further consideration. This does pose one other problem: that AI brokers don’t browse pages however as a substitute question APIs, parse product feeds, and consider structured knowledge.
As such, we have to optimize for this. Perhaps I can provide it a reputation…
ACO: Agentic Commerce Optimization
I don’t wish to set off you by introducing one more acronym to what appears to be a earlier 12 months of recent acronyms, however for the sake of this put up, let’s fake that ACO is one thing you’ve been advised to do now, in addition to search engine optimization, though that is nonetheless search engine optimization.
What would I want to think about and optimize for for profitable ACO?
- Crawlability: Brokers nonetheless observe hyperlinks, take journeys, and perceive IA.
- Format: Content material must be concise with much less fluff, however sufficient to make sure distinctive worth has been added, and that it offers consistency all through the positioning as an entire.
- Structured Information: Brokers will grow to be extra reliant on present requirements, particularly if they’re open supply.
- Model Authority And Sentiment: Populating your merchandise properly is, after all, paramount, however with out constructive model sentiment, you will have the problem of convincing the agent to quote you as a part of that discovery, then need to persuade the human who can have that suggestions introduced to them. Third-party views will grow to be a bigger contribution in the direction of a number of the brokers’ grounding procedures earlier than any agentic commerce begins.
Sounds acquainted, proper? Whereas ACP is a connector between your web site and the platforms that enable brokers to make use of it, and CMSs are on the market to make that connection as seamless as attainable, this isn’t only a swap the place, when switched on, is mechanically optimized.
ACO = search engine optimization.
Schema.org Is The Glue
Final month at Google Search Central Reside in Zurich, Pascal Fleury went into element about structured knowledge for Purchasing, the place we are able to see that, whereas “schema.org is the glue that holds [structured data] collectively,” there are nonetheless different trade requirements, similar to GS1, that will add much more granular element to merchandise that won’t solely assist inform brokers on actually particular particulars but additionally perceive that you simply’re a fantastic supply of knowledge to proceed ingest from.
Product schema, pricing, availability, evaluations, FAQs, delivery choices, and different logistics, loyalty schemes – all of this structured knowledge will want shut optimization. If it’s lacking or incorrect, you’re invisible to agent-mediated discovery.
Check The Brokers
Even earlier than your retailer is ACP-enabled, check how brokers understand your merchandise. Ask platforms about merchandise in your class. Do they floor your model? How do they describe your merchandise and complementary choices? What info are they presenting, from each first-party and third-party views? And extra importantly, what’s lacking that you simply anticipated to be current?
Then, allow. What are the variations? Examine the outcomes.
What Can I Do About It Now?
ACP
For WooCommerce and Wix, you’ll sadly want to affix Stripe’s waitlist for ACS. Shopify customers even have to affix their very own waitlist. Till then, we must wait till full rollout, however count on this to speed up in Q1 of 2026.
In the event you work with a web site the place you must combine ACP immediately into your CMS, any early adopters will maybe profit from early discovery, whereas the opposite CMSs catch up and competitors is decrease. So right here, whereas this may require extra sources, it is possible for you to to make the most of what ACP has to supply whereas most wait for his or her CMS platform to create the answer for them.
UCP
That is extremely recent info, however I recommend that a while to grasp it intimately, in addition to experiment the place attainable utilizing their documentation and GitHub repo, I do know that’s how a whole lot of my time will likely be spent within the subsequent few weeks.
Extra Sources:
Featured Picture: Koupei Studio/Shutterstock
