Agentic Commerce: Will AI Choose Your SKU?

Picture this:

A shopper opens Google, types: “best date snack under $10, gluten-free, kid-friendly,” and an

The AI assistant filters, compares options, and completes checkout—without the shopper clicking through 10 different product pages.

That’s not sci-fi. Google is rolling out Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) as an open standard designed to support agentic commerce—AI agents that can move from discovery to purchase.

Walmart has also announced an experience that pairs Gemini with Walmart/Sam’s Club assortments, accessible within Gemini using UCP.

What’s at stake for suppliers

Agentic commerce changes who evaluates your product first.

It may not be a human shopper scanning a shelf or scrolling a grid.

It may be an agent evaluating:

• your product data (titles, attributes, ingredients, pack size)

• your availability (in stock, delivery promise)

• your price/pack logic (value per ounce, multipacks)

• your trust signals (reviews, ratings, compliance info)

In plain language: your product content becomes your sales rep.

The uncomfortable truth: your PDP might be your biggest liability

Average e-commerce conversion rates hover around 3%—meaning even small friction points matter. Forbes Advisor cites an average 2025 e-commerce conversion rate of ~2.91% (Dynamic Yield data referenced).

Now imagine an AI agent deciding between your SKU and a competitor’s. If your pack size is unclear, your ingredients aren’t structured, or your images don’t answer basic questions, you don’t just lose conversion…

You may never get selected in the first place.

Fictional scenario (clearly fictional)

Fictional example: A shopper asks an AI assistant for “medjool dates with no added sugar.” Your product qualifies—but your listing hides “no added sugar” in a paragraph, while a competitor lists it as a clear attribute with a front-of-pack photo.

The agent picks the competitor.

Not because you’re worse.Because you’re harder to parse.

What UCP means in practical supplier terms

Based on Google’s announcement and technical overview, UCP is positioned as a standard for enabling agentic shopping through standardized APIs and onboarding approaches. Reporting also notes that Google expects UCP to power eligible listings so shoppers can check out in AI

Mode in Search and in Gemini, with payment options like Google Pay (and future support for others).

So, for suppliers, the implication is simple:

Bad data will get punished faster. Good data will get rewarded more often.

The “AI-ready shelf” checklist (supplier version)

If you want your brand to show up (and win) when agents shop, focus on these:

1) Pack architecture clarity (no guesswork)

• Exact ounces/count on the title

• Case pack and inner pack consistency across retailer systems

• Multipack naming conventions (2-pack vs 2ct)

2) Attribute completeness

Agents love structured data:

• dietary flags (gluten-free, vegan, kosher, etc.)

• allergens

• sweetness (no added sugar vs reduced sugar)

• storage (shelf-stable vs refrigerated)

• country of origin (when relevant)

3) Image truth + speed

• clean hero image that matches what ships

• 2–3 supporting images that answer: size, ingredients, nutrition, use case

• avoid “marketing-only” photos that hide the label

4) Availability discipline

If your in-stocks and lead times are messy, agents will route around you.

This is where supplier operations and digital content stop being separate projects.

What you should do this quarter (before your competitor does)

• Run a top-20 SKU content audit across your key retailers

• Fix titles to include: brand + product + key attribute + size

• Normalize ingredients/nutrition fields where you can

• Align pack data between sales ops and e-commerce teams

And then do the most boring (and most profitable) thing of all:

Monitor. If an agentic experience changes how items are recommended, you want to catch shifts early—before velocity dips show up in the monthly scorecard.

Woodridge Retail Group perspective: suppliers who treat product content as “marketing fluff” are about to get surprised. Content is becoming operational. And operational content wins.