In this 3-Minute Insights episode, 8th & Walton’s Terry Clear discusses Walmart’s adoption of Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) in Gemini and what it means for suppliers.
Lainie: Welcome to Three Minute Insights. Our guest today is 8th & Walton’s Terry Clear, and we are discussing Walmart’s embrace of Universal Commerce Protocol, also known as UCP, and what this means for suppliers.
Terry, what specific capabilities will Walmart expose first through UCP in Gemini, and how will that affect or change the way that suppliers need to prepare their product data?
Terry: It’s going to add additional complexity, and Walmart is going to require even more precise data information related to your items.
Terry: Some of the stories that I have read about UCP, Universal Commerce Protocol, say that items with lower scores or less compliance will actually be deprioritized in the search results. So this is a way for e-commerce to begin to be on a single unified platform. This is really a good thing, but a lot of suppliers will have a lot of work to do with their item files.
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Lainie: How does this UCP strategy with Google position Walmart against competitors like Amazon and Target in agentic e-commerce?
Terry: Well, as you know, all this is very new, and we don’t know exactly how it’s going to play out. There are really a few different strategies at play here.
Terry: Walmart has partnered with Google and many other companies to develop this universal commerce protocol. There is also a competing agentic commerce protocol, and then Amazon is kind of keeping their own AI tool in-house and just keeping it for themselves. Many have suggested that between UCP, Universal Commerce Protocol, and a CP agentic commerce protocol, many suppliers will have to utilize both, much like a website or an app developer would have to develop for iOS and Android.
Terry: So this is not one single answer yet. It’s an evolving space, but just know that you suppliers are going to be required to tighten up your information around your items and really lean into this. We don’t know exactly where it’s going, but we’re going.
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