Google will hand an AI shopper’s cart back to the merchant’s own site, and Mastercard built Trip.com’s travel agent on its merchant suite

Google’s checkout, which sells in Search, AI Mode and the Gemini app, can now hand the cart back to the merchant. On 16 September 2026 Ashish Gupta, Google’s VP and general manager of merchant shopping, wrote that merchants using the Universal Commerce Protocol integration hub in Merchant Center for UCP-powered checkout can turn on cart transfer to their own site and enhanced checkout flow testing, with analytics “and more coming soon” [1]. The features are rolling out gradually in the US, with Australia and Canada to follow early in 2027 [1] [2].

Google says UCP already runs direct checkout for hundreds of thousands of brands and retailers, and it named Tapestry, owner of Coach and Kate Spade, as one that integrated in time for the gifting season [1]. With cart transfer switched on, Google sends the shopper’s cart to the merchant’s own site.

The same post made AI performance insights generally available in Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand and the US. It compares a retailer’s share of voice with other brands in AI Mode and AI Overviews [1]. Google also opened a US beta that puts its Business Agent inside YouTube ads, and said that in testing with lululemon, the brand’s conversational attributes were used 50% of the time in relevant product recommendations in AI Mode [1].

Mastercard built Trip.com’s agent on its merchant suite

Mastercard and Trip.com showed TripGenie, Trip.com’s AI agent, searching, booking and paying for travel on Mastercard’s Agent Suite for Merchants, with Network International as acquirer, TradeArabia reported from Dubai on 16 September 2026 [3] [4]. It is a showcase at Arabian Travel Market. The partners expect a phased rollout and a commercial launch in early 2027, starting with selected services such as attractions and ancillary offerings [3].

Mete Güney, Mastercard’s executive vice president for market development in EEMEA, said the suite lets merchants “remain in control of their brand and customer engagements” [3]. Schubert Lou, Trip.com’s chief executive, described agents “operating securely and with the traveler’s authorization” [3]. Mastercard sells the suite through Mastercard Merchant Cloud, next to its fraud protection, authentication and tokenisation services [3].

PYMNTS, covering Google’s release the same day, quoted its own research predicting that “Merchants will try to steer shoppers to their own agents inside their own closed ecosystems” [2]. In the same research, 24% of consumers surveyed would let an AI agent shop and buy for them, and 14% would let an AI app hold their card [2].