Artificial intelligence no longer just recommends products: it now compares them, saves them in a cart and, in some markets, pays for them. That is agentic commerce: an AI assistant acting as a shopper on the customer’s behalf. On 15 October 2026 Google launched Universal Cart in the United States, a cart that works inside Search and Gemini, and it is the clearest sign yet that online stores need to get ready to sell to AI as well.
With Black Friday 2026 on 27 November and Cyber Monday on the 30th, we at Akrolih have put together this guide for online stores in the Canary Islands and the rest of Spain: what has changed, what has not arrived yet and what you can do this week in your WooCommerce, PrestaShop or Shopify store.
What is agentic commerce?
Agentic commerce is a shopping model in which an AI agent carries out part or all of the process: it finds products, compares prices and reviews, watches for price drops, applies coupons and, if the user authorises it, completes the payment. The store is still the seller and is responsible for the order, but the shop window and the decision no longer live only on its website.
The difference from traditional ecommerce is who walks through the funnel:
| Step | Traditional ecommerce | Agentic commerce |
|---|---|---|
| Discovery | The customer searches on Google or social media | The customer asks the AI and it suggests options |
| Comparison | Open tabs and screenshots | The AI compares price, stock, shipping and reviews |
| Cart | One per store | A single cart with products from several stores |
| Payment | Checkout on the store’s website | Payment inside the AI or hand-off to the store’s cart |
What Google has launched: Universal Cart and the UCP protocol
According to Google’s official announcement, Universal Cart lets shoppers:
- Save products from different stores in a single cart from Google Search (including AI Mode) and the Gemini app.
- Get alerts on price drops and restocks for the whole list.
- Find promo codes and get suggestions on the best way to pay.
- Pay with Google Pay in a few taps at many stores, or move the products to the store’s own cart.
The cart is built on Google’s Shopping Graph, with more than 60 billion continually refreshed product listings, and checkout runs on the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP). Google introduced UCP in January 2026 as an open standard, co-developed with Shopify, Etsy, Wayfair, Target and Walmart, so AI agents can discover products, buy and handle post-purchase support with merchants.
Google is not alone. OpenAI already offers purchases inside ChatGPT in the United States with its own protocol, and the big marketplaces are moving the same way. The trend is clear: customers start and finish the purchase inside an assistant.
Does it affect online stores in the Canary Islands and Spain?
Today Universal Cart is only available in the United States, and Google has not announced a date for Spain. That does not mean you can ignore it:
- Google’s AI Mode has been available in Spain in Spanish since October 2025, and it already recommends products and stores.
- The data that agentic checkout will use is the same data that powers Google Shopping, AI Overviews and AI comparisons today: your Merchant Center feed and your website’s structured data.
- Google features usually reach Europe months after their US launch. Stores with their data in order when they arrive will have a head start.
In short: payment inside AI has not arrived yet, but AI product selection has. And this Black Friday it already influences which stores get recommended.
How AI chooses products
An AI agent does not see your website the way a person does: it reads data. To decide which products to show, it mainly cross-checks:
- Your Google Merchant Center feed: title, description, price, sale price, availability, GTIN, brand, shipping and returns.
- The product page’s structured data (schema.org Product, Offer, AggregateRating, MerchantReturnPolicy, OfferShippingDetails).
- The product page content: clear descriptions with sizes, materials, compatibility and uses that answer the questions people ask AI.
- Reviews of your store and products, on your website and on your Google Business Profile.
- Consistency across all of the above. If the feed says €49 and the website €59, the AI loses trust.
Google has announced it will add dozens of new attributes to Merchant Center to answer common product questions and list compatible accessories and substitutes. The more complete your catalogue, the more questions AI can answer with your products.
Agentic commerce checklist for Black Friday 2026
This is the list we are applying to the online stores we manage. It is designed to be done in one or two weeks:
1. Merchant Center up to date
- Check Merchant Center diagnostics and fix rejected products or warnings.
- Use the sale price attribute with start and end dates instead of changing the price by hand.
- Set up returns policy and shipping for the Canary Islands and mainland Spain separately. For the Canaries, make delivery times and taxes clear.
- Add GTIN or EAN whenever the product has one.
2. Product structured data
- Check that every product page has Product markup with price, currency, availability and ratings.
- Validate your best sellers with Google’s Rich Results Test.
- In WooCommerce and PrestaShop, make sure your SEO plugin or module does not duplicate or leave the markup empty. We explain it in what schema is and what it is for.
3. Product pages that answer questions
- Rewrite the descriptions of your top 20 products around real questions: “is it suitable for…?”, “which size should I choose?”, “will it reach Tenerife before Christmas?”.
- Add a short FAQ section to each product page.
4. Consistent prices and stock
- Sync your feed several times a day during the campaign.
- Do not show out-of-stock products as available: AI penalises it and so do customers.
5. Fast checkout
- Enable Google Pay and Apple Pay in your payment gateway if you have not already.
- Cut checkout steps and remove unnecessary fields.
6. Reviews and Business Profile
- Ask recent customers for reviews before Black Friday.
- Reply to existing reviews: AI also reads how a store treats its customers.
Mistakes that stop AI from recommending your store
- Product descriptions copied from the manufacturer and identical to other stores.
- Sale prices that only appear in a banner, not in the product price.
- Blocking Google’s crawlers in robots.txt or with badly configured security plugins.
- Slow product pages or pages that do not work well on mobile.
- No visible returns policy.
Many of these mistakes already hurt classic SEO. We cover them in SEO mistakes to avoid in e-commerce.
Frequently asked questions about agentic commerce
What is agentic commerce?
It is a shopping model in which an AI assistant searches, compares and, if the user authorises it, completes the purchase on their behalf. The store remains the seller, but the decision is made inside the AI.
Is Google Universal Cart available in Spain?
No. As of November 2026, Universal Cart is only available in the United States, in Google Search and the Gemini app. Google has not announced a date for Spain.
Can my WooCommerce or PrestaShop store appear in AI shopping?
Yes, it can appear in AI answers and comparisons if its product data is complete and accessible. For built-in checkout, Google currently only mentions eligible US merchants and platforms such as Shopify.
What is the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP)?
It is an open standard that Google introduced in January 2026, co-developed with Shopify, Etsy, Wayfair, Target and Walmart, so AI agents can discover products, buy and handle post-purchase support with merchants.
What should I check first in my store before Black Friday?
That your Google Merchant Center feed matches your website on price, stock and promotions, and that every product page has structured data for product, shipping and returns.
Do I still need SEO if AI buys for the customer?
Yes. AI relies on Google’s index and Shopping Graph. A crawlable, fast store with well-ranked product pages has a better chance of being considered by AI.
Sell to your customers… and to their AI
Agentic commerce does not replace your online store: it changes who visits it first. More and more purchases will start with a question to an AI, and the AI will recommend the stores whose data it understands best.
At Akrolih we are one of the first agencies in the Canary Islands working on GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) alongside SEO, and we build and maintain stores on WooCommerce, PrestaShop and Shopify. If you would like us to review your store before Black Friday, ask us for an audit.
