Canada Becomes Next Frontier for Google’s E-Commerce AI Agent Rollout
Google is expanding people’s ability to shop through its AI chatbot Gemini in Canada, offering direct checkout in partnership with major Canadian retailers Lululemon Athletica Inc. LULU, Shoppers Drug Mart, La Maison Simons and selected Shopify Inc. SHOP-T merchants.
A new instant-checkout feature, launched earlier this year in the U.S. and Australia, will let customers make purchases directly without leaving the Gemini app or Google’s AI search mode.
The news, announced Wednesday, marks the latest expansion of the role of artificial intelligence agents in people’s shopping habits. Google’s new AI shopping feature, similar to those offered by other tech companies, requires a user’s permission to make the final decision to purchase.
For example, if a user asks Gemini for advice on finding a winter coat in a certain style, colour and size, the AI agent could recommend options from participating retailer Simons, and the user could choose to buy that item without having to visit the Simons website.
“It’s the customer that will decide what interface they want to interact on,” said Frederick Lecoq, Simons chief digital and marketing officer.
For retailers, the growing use of AI agents represents an opportunity and a challenge: As people turn away from traditional search in favour of asking chatbots to help them browse for what they need, retailers are scrambling to ensure that their products are surfaced in the AI-generated search results – a process known as generative engine optimization, or GEO.
But as AI agents begin to go further, offering consumers the option to build a shopping cart and checkout on third-party apps, brands face a new challenge in maintaining a connection with their customers and building loyalty. Tech giant Meta Platforms Inc. META, for example, has recently expanded the capabilities of its AI agent, Muse, to check out on people’s behalf if they give it permission.
Shopify has been striking other partnerships with AI agents. The e-commerce platform now allows shoppers to approve purchases and check out with its Shop Pay function in Muse, Claude Duet, Grok Bot and Instinct. The company is also considering how people could authorize AI agents to finalize their purchases without having to approve each one. Users would have to set their preferences for what agents are permitted to do on their behalf in those cases, Shopify vice-president of product Rohit Mishra wrote in an e-mail to The Globe and Mail.
Not all e-commerce companies are keen to allow AI agents to disrupt that connection to customers. For example, after Meta launched shopping through its Muse agent in September, Amazon.com Inc. AMZN blocked the AI agent from shopping on its site.
“If you rewind back 25 years ago, a lot of retailers were saying the same thing about websites,” said Nick Engel, senior vice-president of global digital experience at Lululemon, referring to some retailers’ reluctance to build e-commerce sites out of fear that it would draw people away from their physical stores. But he added that as people use AI agents to research purchases more often, “allowing them to take that next step and make the transaction, to me, it makes a lot of sense.”
There is some evidence that people are embracing chatbots more widely. According to a recent Mastercard survey, 41 per cent of Canadians are open to using AI to shop online, and of those respondents, more than half would consider letting agents make purchases for them.
And as the crucial holiday season approaches, the use of chatbots is likely to increase. A survey conducted in October by Google and Angus Reid found that 59 per cent of Canadian respondents plan to use AI to help find holiday gifts. The next couple of months will be an important time to examine how shopping behaviours are evolving, said Eric Morris, Google Canada’s managing director and head of retail.
“We see AI, broadly, as an expansionary moment for search,” Mr. Morris said. “The year-over-year growth rate in search is at its highest level in the last five years.”
Google’s new instant-checkout feature will be somewhat limited at the outset in Canada. Initially, it will allow shopping for only one item at a time, meaning users will not be able to build a cart with multiple products (often a requirement to meet a retailer’s free-shipping threshold) unless they click through to visit the store website.
However, Google has already expanded the checkout feature to allow the purchase of multiple items in the U.S., and similar plans are in the works here. The company also plans to bring in other capabilities that are already available in the U.S., such as price-alert tools.
“Those features are to come, as is the ability to expand beyond just the launch retailers that we’re announcing today,” Mr. Morris said.
This article was first reported by The Globe and Mail
