# Agentic commerce for your store: reading path > A reading path on agentic commerce for online stores: what you can use today and what is only announced across ACP, UCP, AP2 and MCP, in order. URL: https://clione.ai/learn/agentic-commerce/ Lang: en First what an agent is and what it buys, then how it finds your catalog, then the language that talks to your store, and last the payment, the stage that has opened up the least. In each stretch, the path keeps two things apart: what a store can use today, according to the page of whoever maintains it, and what that same page presents as announced. The path has five stretches. 1. **Steps 1 to 5 · What it is and who buys.** [Agentic commerce](/glossary/agentic-commerce/) is buying in which an agent acts for the shopper, and the store is still the seller. It rests on [agentic AI](/glossary/agentic-ai/), the [AI agent](/glossary/ai-agent/) that carries out tasks, the line between an [autonomous and an assisted agent](/glossary/autonomous-vs-assisted-agents/) (who approves each action) and the [shopping agent](/glossary/shopping-agent/), which works for the customer and knows only what you publish about your store. 2. **Steps 6 to 11 · How an agent finds you.** Discovery is the first stage, and the only one that needs no payment protocol. It starts with [AI product discovery](/glossary/ai-product-discovery/) and [purchase intent](/glossary/purchase-intent/), goes on to the [machine-readable catalog](/glossary/machine-readable-catalog/) and ends at the three routes with a name of their own: the [ChatGPT product feed](/glossary/chatgpt-product-feed/), [ChatGPT Shopping](/glossary/chatgpt-shopping/) and Shopify's [agentic storefronts](/glossary/agentic-storefronts/). Almost everything a store can use today is here. 3. **Steps 12 to 17 · The language between agents and stores.** Before the buying protocols there are layers of plumbing that are worth not confusing. [Tool calling](/glossary/tool-calling/) is what lets a model ask for an action; [MCP](/glossary/mcp/) and the [MCP server](/glossary/mcp-server/) standardize how tools are offered to it; [A2A](/glossary/a2a/) and its [Agent Card](/glossary/agent-card/) set how agents introduce themselves and talk to each other. The [protocol gateway](/glossary/protocol-gateway/) is the name some vendors give to the intermediary that translates between them. 4. **Steps 18 to 22 · The buying protocols and [delegated payment](/glossary/delegated-payments/).** This is where most of what is announced sits. [ACP](/glossary/acp/) is maintained by OpenAI and Stripe under the Apache 2.0 license, and ChatGPT was the first platform to implement it; [UCP](/glossary/ucp/) was introduced by Google on January 11, 2026, with Shopify, Etsy, Wayfair, Target and Walmart, and covers the whole buying journey; [AP2](/glossary/ap2/) answers a different question, how an agent proves that the person authorized the payment, with the signed [mandate](/glossary/ap2-mandate/) as its central piece, and it is one way of solving [delegated payments](/glossary/delegated-payments/). In all three, the store is still the seller. 5. **Steps 23 to 26 · Buying.** [Agentic checkout](/glossary/agentic-checkout/) is the payment stage; [Instant Checkout](/glossary/instant-checkout/) is its version inside ChatGPT; the [agentic browser](/glossary/agentic-browser/) is the other design, in which the agent goes through the store's website; and [coupons for agents](/glossary/coupons-for-agents/) close with a practical detail that the protocols treat as an extension of payment. ## What a store can use today and what is announced Each stop is judged against the page of whoever maintains the piece, not against a third party's write-up. This is what those pages say, read on October 7, 2026. - **ACP and the ChatGPT feed.** Today: the protocol is open and any business can implement the specification; each platform manages how businesses take part, and OpenAI is the first to implement it, with ChatGPT. Also today: the ChatGPT product feed is open to approved partners, who request access through a form. - **UCP.** Today: the specification is published and covers catalog, cart, payment, identity and order management; lodging reservations are in draft and food delivery is listed as "coming soon". Announced on January 11, 2026: that UCP would "soon" power checkout on eligible listings in Google's [AI Mode](/glossary/google-ai-mode/) and in the [Gemini](/glossary/gemini/) app for eligible U.S. retailers, and that Google would expand the scope "in the coming months" with capabilities such as discovering related products or applying loyalty points. - **Google's Business Agent.** Today, for eligible U.S. retailers: a branded agent that the merchant turns on in [Merchant Center](/glossary/google-merchant-center/). Announced in the same text: that the agent could be trained on the retailer's data and process purchases, and dozens of new Merchant Center attributes for conversations, which Google planned to roll out first to a small group of retailers. - **AP2.** Today: version 0.2.0, published on April 28, focused on flows without the person present; its initial version supports credit and debit card payments. Announced: e-wallets, instant transfers and digital currencies are on the roadmap, and standardization continues in working groups of the FIDO Alliance. - **MCP and A2A.** Today: both have a published specification, the July 28, 2026 one for MCP and 1.0.0 for A2A. They are not buying protocols, so there is nothing to turn on in a store: they are the layer the others travel over. UCP declares itself compatible with A2A, AP2 and MCP, and ACP is published with a traditional API or with MCP. - **Shopify.** Today: agentic storefronts are on by default in eligible stores and carry the catalog to ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, Gemini, Microsoft [Copilot](/glossary/copilot/) and Meta; the merchant chooses channel by channel under Sales channels, in the Agentic section. It is the shortest route for a store already on Shopify. One pattern repeats at every stop: what is available is letting the agent read and recommend your catalog, and what is still announced, or open only to approved partners, is the agent completing the payment. That is why a store's first job is not choosing a protocol: it is making its catalog complete and consistent on every channel that reads it.