Shopping without searching starts now

Hey AI Enthusiast,

Google just announced the Universal Commerce Protocol at the National Retail Federation conference.

It's an open standard for AI agent-based shopping. Built with Shopify, Etsy, Wayfair, Target, and Walmart.

The protocol lets AI agents handle the entire buying process. Discovery. Checkout. Post-purchase support. All without requiring separate connections to different systems.

You'll soon be able to check out directly from AI mode in Google Search and Gemini apps. Using Google Pay or PayPal. With saved shipping from Google Wallet.

Google is also letting brands offer discounts in real-time while users research products in AI mode.

This is Google's play for AI-to-AI commerce infrastructure.

But first, today's prompt and marketing lesson (then why this changes e-commerce...)

🔥 Prompt of the Day 🔥

Agency Growth Bottleneck Identifier: Use ChatGPT or Claude

Act as an agency consultant. Create one bottleneck identification framework for [YOUR AGENCY] that reveals what's blocking growth.

Essential Details:

• Current Client Count: [ACTIVE ACCOUNTS]

• Team Size: [EMPLOYEES/CONTRACTORS]

• Monthly Revenue: [CURRENT MRR]

• Growth Goal: [TARGET CLIENTS/REVENUE]

• Main Complaint: [WHAT'S NOT WORKING]

• Time Drains: [WHERE HOURS GO]

Create one diagnostic system including:

• Capacity constraint analysis (max client load)

• Process inefficiency detector (wasted time)

• Hiring need calculator (when to add people)

• Tool/automation gap identifier (what to automate)

• Pricing problem revealer (revenue per client)

• Lead flow bottleneck finder (pipeline issues)

• "Fix this first" prioritization (biggest impact)

Scale your agency systematically.

✅ Marketing Monday ✅

Stop Treating Launches Like Surprises

Most product launches fail because companies do all their promotion on launch day.

You spend months building. Then you announce it once. Get a small spike. Then nothing.

Launch day is too late to start marketing.

The Problem with Launch Day Promotion

You've been working on something for three months. Six months. A year.

Finally, it's ready. You post about it everywhere. Send an email. Share on social. Maybe run some ads.

You get some initial attention. Then it dies within 48 hours.

Why? Because nobody was expecting it. Nobody was waiting for it. You didn't build anticipation.

In marketing, teasing beats surprising.

What Actually Works

Start talking about your launch weeks early. Not the full details. Just hints.

Share behind-the-scenes development stories. Show progress. Let people see what's coming without revealing everything.

"We're building something that solves X problem." "Here's a preview of what we're working on." "Beta testers are already seeing Y results."

This does two things:

First, it builds anticipation. People start asking questions. They want to know more. By the time you launch, they're already interested.

Second, it gives you multiple touch points. You're not relying on one announcement to do all the work. You're warming people up over time.

Create Countdown Campaigns

I've tested this repeatedly. Countdown campaigns outperform surprise launches every time.

Three weeks out: Announce you're building something. Two weeks out: Share a sneak peek or demo. One week out: Open early access or pre-orders. Launch day: Full announcement to an audience that's already engaged.

By launch day, you've already built momentum. The launch becomes the climax, not the beginning.

Track the Difference

Compare your pre-launch engagement to your launch day numbers.

Surprise launches: Tiny pre-launch buzz. Big launch day spike. Fast drop-off.

Countdown campaigns: Growing pre-launch engagement. Bigger launch day spike. Sustained momentum post-launch.

The data is clear. Anticipation beats surprise.

Keep Momentum Post-Launch

Most companies treat launch day as the finish line.

It's not. It's the starting line.

Keep promoting after launch. Share customer results. Post case studies. Create content around use cases.

Launches aren't sprints. They're marathons disguised as sprints.

The companies that win keep talking about their product long after launch day.

What to Do Next Launch

Start your marketing campaign at least three weeks before launch.

Share progress updates. Build anticipation. Create a countdown.

Don't rely on one big announcement to do all the work.

By the time you launch, people should already know it's coming and be waiting for it.

Did You Know?

Airlines use AI that assigns seats based on passengers' likelihood to complain, spreading potential troublemakers throughout the plane to minimize disruption impact.

🗞️ Breaking AI News 🗞️

Google Launches Universal Commerce Protocol

Google announced the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) yesterday at the National Retail Federation conference.

It's an open standard for AI agent-based shopping.

Built in collaboration with:

• Shopify

• Etsy

• Wayfair

• Target

• Walmart

What It Does

The protocol lets AI agents handle the entire buying process without requiring separate connections to different systems.

Discovery. Checkout. Post-purchase support. All through one standard.

Google says UCP works with other agentic protocols:

• Agent Payments Protocol (AP2)

• Agent2Agent (A2A)

• Model Context Protocol (MCP)

Agents and businesses can pick and choose which extensions of the protocol fit their needs.

How It Works for Shoppers

Google will soon use UCP for product listings in AI mode in Search and Gemini apps.

Users can check out directly from U.S.-based retailers while researching a product.

Pay using Google Pay. Shipping information saved in Google Wallet. PayPal support coming soon.

Example: You're searching in AI mode for "a modern, stylish rug for a high-traffic dining room that's easy to clean."

AI mode shows recommendations. You can check out right there without leaving the conversation.

Real-Time Discounts

Google is also letting brands offer special discounts to users in real-time while they research products in AI mode.

So if you're looking at rugs, a brand can trigger a discount at that exact moment to close the sale.

This shifts promotions from static campaigns to dynamic, contextual offers based on what the AI knows about your search intent.

For Merchants

Google is giving sellers new data attributes in Merchant Center to feature their products better in AI search surfaces.

Google is also allowing merchants to integrate a branded AI-powered Business Agent within Google Search to answer customer questions.

Companies already using this:

• Lowe's

• Michael's

• Poshmark

• Reebok

Competitors like Meta and Shopify have been exploring similar AI-powered tools for customer support.

Gemini Enterprise for CX

Google also announced Gemini Enterprise for Customer Experience (CX). A suite to handle shopping and customer service for retailers and restaurants.

Why This Matters

Shopify CEO Tobi Lutke: "It's really good at finding people who have specific interests and finding the product that is just perfect for them. Like, I would have never searched for this product, but somehow it found me right on the other side. This kind of serendipity is where the best of commerce happens."

That's the shift. AI agents don't just respond to searches. They proactively match products to people based on intent signals.

Traditional e-commerce: User searches. Browses results. Clicks product. Adds to cart. Checks out.

AI agent commerce: User describes need. AI finds perfect match. Checkout happens in conversation.

The Infrastructure Race

Every major platform is racing to build AI commerce infrastructure:

• Google: Universal Commerce Protocol

• Amazon: AI shopping in Alexa

• OpenAI: Operator for purchases in ChatGPT

• Stripe: Agentic Commerce Protocol

Adobe reported that traffic to seller sites driven by generative AI grew nearly 700% during the holiday season.

The question isn't whether AI commerce is coming. It's which protocol wins.

Google's advantage: They control Search, Gemini, Google Pay, and Google Wallet. End-to-end integration.

The risk: Fragmented standards. If every platform creates its own protocol, merchants will need to integrate with all of them.

That's why Google is pushing UCP as an open standard. Get everyone on one protocol, and Google's infrastructure becomes the default.

What This Means for E-commerce

If you're a merchant, you need to start thinking about AI agent discovery.

Traditional SEO optimized for human search. AI agent commerce optimizes for AI recommendations.

That means:

• Getting covered in sources AI models trust

• Having clear, structured product data

• Being present where AI agents pull information

If an AI agent doesn't know your product exists, it can't recommend you.

The discovery layer is shifting from search results to synthesized recommendations.

And the checkout layer is shifting from your website to conversational interfaces.

This is the biggest change to e-commerce infrastructure since mobile shopping.

Over to You...

Would you check out directly from Google's AI mode or do you still need to see the full website first?

Hit reply and tell me.

To AI-powered commerce,

Jeff J. Hunter 
Founder, AI Persona Method | TheTip.ai

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