Splitit and Google Prepare Installment Payments for AI Shopping Agents

Splitit aims to make flexible payment options part of agentic commerce through its support of Google’s Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP).

Splitit joins Google and dozens of retail giants in supporting this open standard for agentic shopping journeys, the company said in a Thursday (March 5) press release.

The company’s card-linked installment payments platform will enable merchants to capture sales that would otherwise be lost due to shoppers’ budget constraints, according to the release.

“As AI agents increasingly discover products for consumers, they need payment solutions that deliver certainty,” Splitit Head of Business Development James Wray said in the release. “Splitit’s card-linked installments remove approval uncertainty and friction, allowing merchants to turn browsers into buyers.”

Ashish Gupta, vice president and general manager, merchant shopping at Google, said in the release: “We’re grateful for the support from partners like Splitit, whose endorsement of the Universal Commerce Protocol demonstrates the industry’s commitment to building more consumer choice and merchant success into the foundation of agentic commerce.”

Google announced the Universal Commerce Protocol in January, saying this agentic commerce standard is designed to help agents and systems operate together across consumer surfaces, business and payment providers.

UCP was developed in collaboration with Shopify, Etsy, Wayfair, Target and Walmart, and endorsed by many other companies, Google said at the time.

Splitit Head of Product Collin Flotta wrote in a blog post updated this month that traffic from generative AI tools to U.S. retail sites surged during the holiday season. While this AI-driven traffic was high-quality, it converted at lower rates than traditional channels because checkout completion hasn’t fully shifted to AI platforms.

“That gap creates an opportunity for merchants who own the full journey on their own sites,” Flotta wrote.

Splitit CEO Nandan Sheth wrote in the PYMNTS eBook “Halftime 2025: Charting the Future of Payments” that Splitit’s platform enables merchants to offer seamless financing experiences without surrendering the customer relationship.

Sheth added that buy now, pay later (BNPL) has become “second nature for consumers” and that this has led to new expectations.

“Consumers want transparency. Issuers want control. Regulators want responsibility,” Sheth wrote. “Splitit meets all three.”

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