Retailer Gap announced it would be bolstering its AI commerce experience for online shoppers through new partnerships with Bold Metrics and Google.
The Bold Metrics collaboration will help customers better find the correct clothing size for them before purchasing, an issue the company says is “a major barrier” for online apparel retailers.
Bold Metrics is an AI company that specialises in solving the “fit issue” for online retailers, providing customers with a digital twin of themselves and taps into a brand’s data on clothing sizes to give them more accurate sizing. This minimises the likelihood of returns.
While the company’s endorsement of Google’s Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) – an open source standard that provides a common language for AI agents to discover products, management carts and complete checkouts – will let consumers purchase products in Google’s search feature AI Mode and its LLM Gemini.
The retailer said that in tandem, these two AI ventures reduce friction in two areas important to the brand – sizing and purchase completion.
“We are not pursuing AI for novelty,” said Sven Gerjets, Chief Technology Officer, Gap Inc.
“These partnerships are about solving real customer problems – helping shoppers feel confident about fit and making it easier to complete a purchase. They also reflect the holistic AI strategy we’ve built to scale intelligence across the enterprise in a disciplined way that drives measurable value over time.”
Universal Commerce Protocol
Adopting UCP means that Gap’s products will be visible and able to purchase directly in Google’s AI Mode and Gemini, letting consumers search for clothes and purchase them all in the same interface.
So, what is UCP? Universal Commerce Protocol is an attempt to build the infrastructure layer for a world where AI does a consumer’s shopping. The protocol establishes a common language so that instead of needing individual connections for every unique agent, all agents can interact with any retailer participating.
The protocol was developed in partnership with major retailers like Shopify, Etsy, Wayfair, Target and Walmart, and is endorsed by major partners like Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, AMEX and Zalando.
