It may not have arrived in the UK yet, but Google’s ‘universal shopping cart’ will allow businesses scope to reach new customers and compete with larger brands in your sector.
When it launches early 2027, the ‘universal shopping cart’ could mean fewer abandoned purchases. This is good news for small businesses as shoppers will be able to keep products in the same cart as items from other retailers – meaning they’re less likely to forget about your products.
How does Google Universal Cart work?
Google’s Universal Cart works across Google Search, Gemini, YouTube, and Gmail – tracking price drops, stock availability, and deals.
It smartly remembers your loyalty points, while allowing shoppers to build a single cart across multiple retailers.
There’s no extra cost to small businesses, as Google’s system pulls data entirely from the Google Merchant Centre feed, which is free to use.
There’s also the added benefit of appearing within Google’s shopping experience – a trusted and well-respected e-commerce platform.
Read more: How to start an online shop
What small businesses should do now
Suffolk-based micro business, The Catnip Queen, sells its luxury organic catnip toys through Amazon, Shopify, eBay, and Etsy – but founder Matt Anderson says he is weighing up the benefits of using the Google ‘universal shopping cart’ in the future.
Anderson is making sure that he has a coherent direct-to-consumer pricing strategy across Amazon, eBay, and other sites in preparation. Creating a clear content strategy, for example, SEO-aligned blog posts and clean titles and attributes for his toys, sprays, and bundles in order to be effectively picked up by the Google Merchant Centre feed.
Checklist – prepare your online shop now
There are a number of general steps small businesses can take in order to prepare for Google’s Universal Cart:
- Fine tune product titles – if you’re unable to employ a copywriter to do this, there are plenty of AI-assisted writing tools online which can help you write your product titles for free. For example, ChatGPT or Claude.
- Make sure product descriptions are well optimised for search engines – if you’re unable to employ an SEO expert to help with this process, there are plenty of free SEO tools available online which can assist. For example, Semrush (which is free, but with strict daily limits) or Ahrefs (which has a free tier called Ahrefs Free).
- Use high-quality images – out of focus and low-res images aren’t effective in selling your product or service. It’s important to use the best high-quality images on your website and/or social media to showcase your product or service. It’s worth spending a little money on a professional photographer or graphic designer. You can use an online directory like Upwork to find one.
- Make sure pricing and stock information is accurate – check (and check again) that all your prices and stock information is listed accurately and up-to-date on your website. Incorrect information can lead to confusion and a bad reputation.
- Collect positive customer reviews – these reviews should be from verified websites like Trustpilot.
- Keep delivery costs and returns policies competitive – no customer wants to pay excessive delivery costs when buying a product. Keep these to a minimum and if they want to return a product have a simple, cheap, and easy returns policy.
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