Google says Canadians using the Gemini app can shop with select retailers without leaving the app or its AI search mode.
The Story
Google has announced a partnership that will let Canadians make purchases from select retailers directly through the Gemini app or Google’s AI search mode, without exiting the app or search page.
The retailers named in the partnership include Lululemon Athletica Inc., Shoppers Drug Mart, La Maison Simons and some Shopify Inc. merchants.
Google says shoppers can ask Gemini or its AI search tool to find items with specific features or in a particular style or colour, and then buy options presented by the AI through partner retailers.
A Google demo showed a person telling Gemini that their face is dry, irritated and burns when most moisturizers are applied, then asking Gemini to suggest a gentle recovery balm that could be purchased from a local drugstore.
Google spokesperson Wendy Manton said in an email that retailers did not pay to access the feature and that Google did not pay the merchants for their participation.
Manton also said fees are not exchanged by either side when consumers make purchases using the feature, and that the program does not make products from the named retailers more likely to be surfaced by Google.
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