Research, guides and ecosystem updates
Original research on UCP adoption, the State of Agentic Commerce report, guides for each store platform, and the latest spec changes, written for developers and platform teams building for agentic commerce.
UCP for B2B: An Agent Buys on Net 30 Terms, Step by Step
UCP's 2026-08-25 release already covers business accounts and pay-later terms. We sent an agent to a wholesale test store: list prices and a refusal signed out, then trade prices and a Net 30 order once the account was linked, over MCP and A2A.
· 12 min read
How UCP's Ask Works: Questions Before and After a Purchase, Step by Step
UCP's Ask capability lets an agent ask a store a question and get the store's own answer. We followed one shopper on our test store: a question about a shop, a checkout that disagreed, and questions about the order after paying.
· 10 min read
The Wix UCP Guide: How Wix Stores Work With AI Shopping Agents
Every Wix store we check publishes a UCP profile without any setup. What it declares, what an AI agent can actually do with a Wix store today, and how to check yours step by step in UCP Checker and UCP Playground.
· 10 min read
How UCP’s Embedded Transport Works: The Store’s Checkout, Step by Step
UCP’s Embedded transport lets an app open a store’s own checkout page and talk to it while the buyer pays. We built both sides and followed one real order: the profile, the checkout binding, the handshake, the payment credential and ec.complete.
· 12 min read
How UCP over A2A Works: Checkout With a Store’s Agent, Step by Step
UCP has had an A2A binding since its first release. We built both sides and followed one real order through it: the profile points to the store's agent card, then three A2A messages take a bouquet from create to paid.
· 9 min read
UCP Food Ordering: Test a Pickup Order End to End
Follow one pickup order through a test noodle shop, call by call: search, a dish and its add-on, the buyer, a pickup shop and time, every totals line, a test payment and the order. What UCP 2026-08-25 already covers, and what the food proposals would add.
· 12 min read
UCP Return Policy Extension, Explained: Return Windows, Fees and Final Sale for AI Agents
UCP now has a standard way for stores to tell AI agents their return policy. The Return Policy Extension, merged on 23 October, gives return windows, refunds, channels and fees a fixed shape from search to order. Field by field, with the spec's own examples.
· 15 min read
Product video and 3D in UCP, step by step: the backport, a test store and a real agent
UCP's media variants were backported to 2026-04-08 and 2026-08-25 on 22 October. We added product video and a 3D model to a test store, validated them against both releases and sent an agent to shop.
· 13 min read
How UCP works: a real agent buys flowers, step by step
We sent a real AI agent to buy roses from a UCP store and recorded every call: discovery, negotiation, the checkout states, payment, a declined card and account linking, on UCP 2026-08-25.
· 10 min read
Google's UCP Integration Hub in Merchant Center: How to Get Your Store In
Google has started rolling out a UCP integration hub in Merchant Center for US merchants: checkout buttons in AI Mode and Gemini, cart transfer, native checkout and identity linking. What it offers, how onboarding works, what your store needs, and where stores stand today.
· 7 min read
UCP's Ask Is Merged: Six Review Questions and How the Spec Answered Them
The ask capability merged on 7 October as dev.ucp.common.ask, no longer shopping-only. The six design questions raised in review, and how the merged spec answers each: no side effects, plain-text answers, retries, per-turn authorisation, prompt injection and resource IDs.
· 8 min read
UCP Gets a Product Feed: Inside the Catalog Feed Draft
UCP has been live-only: agents ask a store's catalog and get today's answer. A working-group draft, PR #866, adds bulk catalog feeds for indexing ahead of time, with live search still the final word on price and stock. How it works, and what reviewers are pushing on.
· 10 min read