Walmart and Google have announced plans to bring Walmart and Sam’s Club shopping directly into Google’s Gemini app, aiming to turn AI-powered discovery into a smoother path from idea to purchase. The companies say the experience will let customers find relevant items inside Gemini and move into a familiar Walmart or Sam’s Club environment to complete shopping, with account-linked personalization and delivery options highlighted as key benefits.
The new experience is described as being built by Walmart and accessible within Gemini through Google’s Universal Commerce Protocol, which Google is also positioning as an open standard for “agentic commerce.” Walmart U.S. President and CEO John Furner said the shift toward “agent-led commerce” is a major evolution in retail, while Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said AI can improve the consumer journey “from discovery to delivery.”
What shoppers can do inside Gemini
Walmart says Gemini will automatically include Walmart and Sam’s Club products—both in-store and online—when they are relevant to what a customer is asking. One example the company shared is a customer seeking advice on camping equipment for spring, where Gemini could return items from the retailer’s inventory and keep surfacing products and services as the conversation continues.
In an interview cited by Fortune, Walmart U.S. Chief E-commerce Officer David Guggina said customers will be able to purchase items on Gemini’s browser or mobile app “in the coming months,” building a basket and buying directly on Gemini while Walmart handles the orders. Fortune reported that the selection is expected to include categories such as apparel, consumables, entertainment, and food products already available at Walmart and Sam’s Club.
Fortune also reported that customers can use Gemini to ask for tips and suggestions—such as which running shoes are most recommended—and receive item responses that may include Walmart and Sam’s Club products when relevant. The same report said even questions not explicitly tied to shopping could lead to product recommendations if Gemini assesses purchase intent, giving an example where a question about removing a wine stain from a rug could lead to links for related Walmart products.
Personalization, memberships, and delivery speed
Walmart says the experience is designed to help customers move from inspiration to purchase “all within the familiar Walmart and Sam’s environments.” If customers link their accounts, Walmart says it can recommend complementary items based on past online and in-store purchases, combine an order with items already in a Walmart or Sam’s Club cart, and provide membership benefits tied to Walmart+ and Sam’s Club.
On delivery, Walmart says customers and members can get in-store and club items delivered “right where and when they want it,” and it highlighted “hundreds of thousands” of locally curated products delivered in under three hours and “as fast as 30 minutes.”
Fortune added that fresh, frozen, and marketplace items will not be included in the initial offering, while the assortment is expected to expand over time.
Universal Commerce Protocol and in-chat checkout
Google’s Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) was described by Adweek as an AI protocol meant to become an industry standard connecting retailers’ AI agents and systems, and it said Google developed it with Walmart, Shopify, Etsy, Wayfair, and Target. Adweek reported that the first use case of UCP powers a native checkout button on Google’s AI Mode and Gemini products.
Adweek also reported that retailers can use UCP to personalize messages around suggested products in a chat-style conversation, including prompts for new shoppers to sign up for loyalty programs or personalized offers for existing shoppers. In the same report, Pichai was quoted saying the approach keeps the “full customer relationship” front and center and that the retailer can remain the “merchant of record” while shaping the relationship throughout the journey.
Walmart’s own announcement says the new experience will first launch within Gemini in the U.S., with an international rollout afterward.
Wider retail AI race and related moves
Adweek framed the announcement as part of how AI is reshaping search and shopping, describing a keynote featuring Pichai and incoming Walmart U.S. CEO John Furner at the National Retail Federation’s Big Show in New York City. Adweek also cited Similarweb research saying ChatGPT’s share among AI chatbots declined from 86.7% to 64.5% over the last year, while Gemini’s share rose from 5.7% to 21.5%.
In the same Adweek report, Pichai said the Gemini app has more than 650 million monthly users and nearly 15% year-over-year growth, and it also said Google’s Shopping Graph provides more than 50 billion product listings with real-time pricing, reviews, and inventory. Separately, Fortune reported that Walmart is also working with OpenAI and that a deal enabling shopping through ChatGPT is in “very early days,” according to Guggina.
Adweek also highlighted Walmart’s work on drone delivery, saying Walmart’s partnership with Google’s Wing is expanding to 150 more locations—including Miami and Los Angeles—for a total of 270 locations, building on service in cities such as Dallas, Orlando, and Atlanta. Adweek reported that in Atlanta, 50% of Wing customers use the service more than once and half of deliveries happen in 20 minutes or less, with Furner noting factors like regulations, aircraft weight, load, and speed.
