Gap partners with Google Gemini to offer AI platform checkout

Gap is partnering with Google’s Gemini to allow shoppers to check out directly within the AI platform, making it the first major fashion company to work directly with the tech company to fuel agentic commerce, CNBC has learned exclusively. 

The partnership comes as more and more shoppers move away from traditional search and toward artificial intelligence platforms for product discovery, forcing retailers to rethink their approach to marketing to ensure they’re staying competitive and not missing out on customer demand. 

“It’s not just keyword search anymore, right? It’s conversations, and so we need to be relevant to that,” Gap’s chief technology officer, Sven Gerjets, told CNBC in an interview. “Is it, you know, ‘I’m trying to figure out what to do for a wedding, what are the things I should be looking at?’ Or, ‘I’ve got a job interview, are there some styles I should wear?’ All of those things we need to become relevant to.” 

When shoppers are hunting for a new pair of jeans or the perfect oversized hoodie on Gemini, and the platform thinks some of Gap’s products could be a fit, customers will be able to buy products from Gap’s house of brands directly within the platform without having to be redirected to the brand’s website.

The information about the product that is surfaced to shoppers won’t be crawled from Gap’s website but will be details the retailer provided to Gemini in advance so it can control for accuracy, continue to collect customer data and have better control over the customer experience. 

If the shopper decides to buy the product, they’ll check out via Google Pay, and Gap will handle the shipping and any other logistics.

The retailer said it’s still testing the capabilities.

Gerjets said the company expects to deploy the service to customers “imminently.”

In addition, a new AI-powered sizing tool dubbed Bold Metrics and built by Gap will help customers find the right size when shopping online and will also launch soon to shoppers.

Gap’s partnership with Gemini and its gains in customer-facing AI tools give it a competitive edge at a time when winning in specialty retail is harder than ever. The overall fashion market has been growing increasingly fragmented and more competitive. 

As long as a retailer’s website has data that an AI platform can read, the company’s products will likely surface in chat results if the platform considers them a fit for a shopper’s inquiry, but there’s a lot of work that retailers need to do to ensure they’re showing up properly.

If a shopper is looking for a sundress on an AI platform, for example, and a company offers a relevant product, but the data isn’t readable by an LLM, the brand could miss out on the sale. 

Most major companies are using and implementing AI in a variety of ways, but so far, none of Gap’s primary competitors have announced similar partnerships with Gemini.

Gap’s approach to agentic commerce is a first iteration that’s expected to evolve over time, Gerjets said.

For now, customers won’t be able to link loyalty accounts or spend points on the transaction, he said. That could create some friction for regular customers, but Gerjets said the option could be added down the line.

“We’ll continue to evolve the experience and bring the things forward that the customers want, so that is definitely the roadmap and the future,” said Gerjets. “It’s a very first experience in, I think, a journey that we’re all on to really nail what agentic commerce is for the customers.” 

Gap’s partnership with Gemini comes after OpenAI made similar deals with companies such as Walmart and Etsy only to walk back plans to offer checkout directly within the app.

While the number of people using AI platforms for product discovery is growing, it’s still a small portion of overall shoppers, and the number of customers who will feel comfortable checking out directly within LLMs remains unclear.

Some shoppers may feel wary about putting their credit card information into the platform, while others may prefer to shop directly within a retailer’s app where their store credit card and loyalty points are stored. 

Given how long shoppers have been interacting with Google and the fact that it already has customer payment information stored within its system, some shoppers could feel more comfortable using Gemini for checkout versus newer AI platforms such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT. 

In some ways, Gemini’s platform is also more advanced. Google recently released new updates so real-time product data is available to users, preventing challenges such as out-of-stocks and pricing errors. Shoppers will also be able to add multiple items to their carts and connect loyalty memberships in some cases — two features OpenAI has yet to fully crack. 

Gerjets said OpenAI and Gemini also have two different protocols for agentic commerce. The “Universal Commerce Protocol,” which Gap is using on Gemini, was designed for merchants to have better control over the overall shopping experience, whereas OpenAI’s “Agentic Commerce Protocol” was designed more for discovery, Gerjets said. 

“This space is moving so quickly … We’re all evolving and learning together, and who knows what the space will look like in five years, who will be crowned the victor, or how fragmented the space will be?” Gerjets said. “For us, it’s important that we work with all of them, because we really want to meet our customers where they want to be.”