Wayfair announced it will roll out a new checkout experience that will make off-site purchasing easier for shoppers, building on the Universal Commerce Protocol the company has been developing with Google.
Under the initiative, consumers can purchase directly from Wayfair when they shop Google product listings in Search AI Mode and on the Gemini app. As such, they can buy products without leaving Google as they continue browsing on the search engine. Wayfair will remain the merchant of record, the company indicated, to ensure consistent pricing, fulfillment and customer support. Wayfair pointed out it is a foundational partner that co-developed Google’s Universal Commerce Protocol, an open standard designed to enable easier, secure interactions between AI agents and retailer platforms.
As part of the company’s business development, Wayfair is advancing its own artificial intelligence-powered tech development, piloting the Muse tool, which generates ideas and images based on customer inquiries; and it is launching the visual search-focused Discover tab in the Wayfair app.
“Wayfair is investing in AI‑powered discovery wherever our customers are, whether that is on our own app or across external AI platforms,” stated Fiona Tan, Wayfair chief technology officer. “The Universal Commerce Protocol serves as the common language for this new ecosystem. It allows agents to bridge the gap between discovery and checkout, while ensuring we remain the merchant of record to guarantee the quality of the service.”
In a posting, Wayfair maintained Muse and Discover are important means of supporting customers as they shop for favored styles and furnishings. However, as AI agents increasingly guide consumers discovery across the open web, Wayfair wants to ensure off-platform interactions are as reliable as the ones happening on its own site. Doing so requires infrastructure and a common language for commerce. Wayfair noted it is proud to be a foundational partner co-developing Universal Commerce Protocol. The open standard helps guarantee that whether a customer is shopping with Wayfair directly or through an external partner such as Google, the experience is seamless, accurate and built on a trusted foundation, according to Wayfair.
