Google adds Gemini checkout for shoppers in Canada
A shopper in Canada can make a purchase from Simons in Gemini, but only for one item at a time.
On Wednesday, Google gave its AI chatbot Gemini a checkout tool in Canada, after the US and Australia this year. The partners are Lululemon, Shoppers Drug Mart, La Maison Simons and selected merchants of the Shopify platform. The shopper must give the last approval for each purchase, and at first a cart can hold only one item.
How it works
A shopper tells Gemini the style, colour and size of a winter coat that the shopper wants. The AI agent, a software tool that works for the shopper, shows items from a shop such as Simons. The shopper makes the purchase and does not go to the shop website.
The numbers
- A Mastercard survey: 41% of Canadians are open to AI shopping.
- Of those, more than half are open to agent purchases.
- A survey by Google and Angus Reid in October: 59% have a plan to use AI for holiday gifts.
- Eric Morris of Google tells that the growth of search is the most in five years.
What is not known
Morris tells that carts with many items, price alerts and more shops will come. Morris gave no date. After Meta started shopping with its Muse agent in September, Amazon did not let Muse shop on its site.
Insight: Shops must choose between an open door and a wall
Shopify lets shoppers give approval for purchases in four agents: Muse, Claude Duet, Grok Bot and Instinct. Amazon stopped one. Google told that ads stay when agents shop. This reads as a plan by each side to control the checkout screen and, with it, the connection to the customer. Monitor if Google puts sponsored offers adjacent to the Gemini checkout. Shops must select at this time which agents they let in.
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