Google to Launch 'Global' Online Shopping Cart Before the Holidays
Google's AI-powered smart shopping cart has finally arrived, just in time to tempt users with Black Friday and seasonal holiday spending. The global cart tool, previewed at Google's I/O in May, is now rolling out in the United States across the Gemini app and Google Search to make shopping easier.
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Artificial intelligence shopping tool first comes to Google search and Gemini app.
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Save all the products you're browsing in one place. Image: Google
A news writer focused on creative industries, computing and internet culture. Jess started her career at TechRadar covering hardware news and reviews.
Google's AI Smart Shopping Cart is finally here, and it's just in time to tempt users into Black Friday and seasonal holiday spending. The global shopping cart tool that Google previewed at its I/O event in May is now rolling out in the US across the Gemini app and Google Search, aiming to make it easier to organize and save money when shopping online.
As the name suggests, it's a "universal" digital shopping cart that lets you store products from multiple retailers in one unified space and works across multiple Google platforms. This means you can find and add a bunch of products using the Gemini app and Google Search's AI mode, and they'll all be saved in one shopping cart. There are also plans to integrate World Basket with Gmail and YouTube, but Google has yet to announce a timeline for that.
Here's a demo of the checkout options for the global shopping cart, which shows that you can't check out multiple retailers at once. GIF: Google
Google will send you notifications about price drops and restocks of items saved in your cart, which saves you from checking each retailer's website individually, and can display relevant promo codes it finds in addition to the products you've saved. You can choose to pay for items in your shopping cart using Google Wallet, or transfer them to your merchant's shopping cart so you can checkout directly with the retailer. Along with Google Wallet, Universal Cart can also analyze the rewards offered by each of your saved credit cards and help you choose the best payment method when you shop.
The launch comes as competition in the AI-assisted shopping space heats up, with Google's rivals including OpenAI and Meta launching AI assistants that can make online purchases on the user's behalf. Shopify also recently announced that it is opening up its platform to allow more AI agents to browse and purchase Shopify listings. Big Tech players are entering the race with the bet that the future of online shopping will require a bot to do most of the work for you.
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