If your store runs on Salesforce B2C Commerce, the release Salesforce published on October 26, 2026 lets you sell inside Google's AI. Salesforce said merchants can now turn on checkout built on the Universal Commerce Protocol, so a shopper can find and buy your products in the Gemini app or in Google Search, including AI Mode, while your company stays the merchant of record. Google decides when each store goes live. Its guide for merchants asks for shipping, returns and a product feed set up in Merchant Center, then a place on a waitlist, and Google approves each integration before checkout appears.
Google announced the protocol on January 11, 2026, at the National Retail Federation's show in New York, as a standard it developed with Shopify, Etsy, Wayfair, Target and Walmart for buying through AI assistants with Google Pay. Brands have been switching it on one at a time since. Coach and Kate Spade launched checkout in Gemini and AI Mode on September 16, 2026, and Newegg followed on October 8. Salesforce's release puts the same option in front of the brands that sell through its commerce platform.
Three of the big commerce platforms have now decided how AI assistants reach the stores they host, and each decided differently. On Shopify, a setting called "Allow Shopify to manage for me" is on by default, and it shares a store's products with AI channels and turns on direct checkout for the channels that support it. On October 21, 2026, Commerce, the company that owns BigCommerce, turned on WebMCP for eligible BigCommerce stores, so an AI agent working in a shopper's browser can read the catalog and build a cart. On Salesforce, checkout inside Google stays off until you turn it on and Google accepts your store.
Gemini is one of the two assistants U.S. shoppers use most to research a purchase. In Product.ai's survey, fielded from August 27 to September 1, 2026, 63.5% of the 550 shoppers who had used an AI assistant to research a purchase in the previous 90 days had used Gemini, and 60.0% had used ChatGPT. The shopping assistants built by Amazon and Walmart were used by 27.5% and 22.5%. Product.ai sells a service that tests product claims.
Google puts the Merchant Center product feed among the first setup steps, and the quality of the product data an assistant reads shows up in sales. Shopify reported that in the second quarter of 2026, shoppers referred by AI assistants converted about twice as often when the assistant worked from structured Shopify Catalog data as when it relied on scraped or third-party feeds. Those shoppers already buy at a higher rate than other visitors. In Adobe's data on U.S. retail sites, visits referred by an AI assistant converted 48% more often than other visits in August 2026.
For a Salesforce merchant, the work before applying sits in Merchant Center: make sure the feed carries current prices and stock for the products you want sold in Gemini, and that your shipping and returns settings are complete, because those are the first things Google's guide asks for.
Common questions
Can Salesforce Commerce Cloud stores sell inside Gemini and AI Mode?
Yes. Salesforce's B2C Commerce release of October 26, 2026 lets merchants turn on checkout built on Google's Universal Commerce Protocol. Google approves each store before checkout goes live, after the merchant sets up Merchant Center and joins Google's waitlist.
Who is the merchant of record when a shopper buys inside Gemini?
The store. Google's guide for merchants says they remain the merchant of record for all transactions, and Salesforce says the same of the merchants on its platform.
Is checkout for AI assistants switched on by default?
It depends on the platform. On Shopify, "Allow Shopify to manage for me" is on by default and turns on direct checkout for the AI channels that support it. Commerce turned on WebMCP for eligible BigCommerce stores on October 21, 2026, and merchants can switch it off. On Salesforce B2C Commerce, the merchant turns on checkout on Google.
Which AI assistants do shoppers use to research purchases?
In Product.ai's survey fielded from August 27 to September 1, 2026, 63.5% of U.S. shoppers who had used an AI assistant to research a purchase had used Gemini and 60.0% had used ChatGPT. Amazon's shopping assistant was used by 27.5% and Walmart's by 22.5%.
Sources
Google for Developers: Getting started with Universal Commerce Protocol on Google
TechCrunch: Google announces a new protocol to facilitate commerce using AI agents
Business Wire: Tapestry on Coach and Kate Spade checkout in Gemini and AI Mode
Shopify Help Center: agentic storefronts and Allow Shopify to manage for me
Shopify: AI and organic search are doing different jobs, August 11, 2026