The Maze: Google began rolling out direct checkout in Canada on November 4. Shoppers can buy eligible products inside AI Mode, the conversational version of Google Search, or Gemini, Google’s AI assistant app. The first group includes lululemon, Shoppers Drug Mart, Simons and select sellers using Shopify’s online store software. Google hosts checkout. The retailer still makes the sale.
Source: Google Merchant Center Help. Google’s simulated checkout shows a Buy button, an order review with Google Pay, and the final order confirmation.
The Details:
The shopper can pay where they find the product. Google’s existing checkout button sends shoppers to the retailer’s site to complete the purchase. The new option opens checkout inside Google when an eligible listing has a Buy button. The shopper can then pay with Google Pay using the payment method and shipping information they already saved in Google Wallet. Google says it wants to cut the steps between finding a product and paying for it. Its Canada announcement gives no figures on how many shoppers have used the feature or whether more of them bought something.
Google hosts the payment step and the retailer handles the order. The Universal Commerce Protocol is an open standard that lets Google’s AI tools and retailers’ store systems exchange checkout and order information. The retailer remains the seller, and Google’s direct integration guide calls for participating merchants on that route to send order updates back to Google. The same guide describes a separate option that transfers a shopper’s cart to the retailer’s site. A cart transfer still delivers a visit to the merchant’s site. A sale through direct checkout can happen without one.
More Canadian merchants could join in 2027. Google plans to simplify setup through Merchant Center, the service retailers use to manage their product listings on Google. It gave no exact date or detailed criteria for that wider Canadian rollout. At launch, a Shopify store selling into Canada is only eligible if it is among the participating merchants, and direct checkout appears on eligible products. Google also says it plans to add features such as applying loyalty rewards in the coming months.
MarketMaze Take: Google is taking on more of the storefront without taking on the retailer’s role as seller. A recommendation inside Search or Gemini can now become an order in the same place. That gives Google a stronger role in the purchase and can save the shopper a trip to a second site. The trade-off for the retailer is one fewer chance to sell a bundle or introduce its loyalty program on its own checkout pages. How much that matters depends on what the customer would have done otherwise.
The test for a retailer is whether orders completed on Google grow total sales or shift orders from its own site. A rise in purchases inside Gemini could reflect either. That is a distinction any retailer can apply when a discovery platform starts offering checkout, wherever the feature rolls out.
