AI Commerce Search, the successor to the Retail API, brings AI-powered product search and recommendations to e-commerce applications. The service delivers personalized results without requiring your own ML infrastructure.
What is AI Commerce Search (formerly Retail API)?
AI Commerce Search is the current name for the Google Cloud service previously known as Retail API, now merged with Recommendations AI. It is part of Gemini Enterprise for Customer Experience and combines product search with personalized recommendations based on user behavior and product catalog data.
The service consists of two core areas: search delivers relevant results with autocomplete, faceted navigation, and ranking optimization. Recommendations generate personalized product suggestions based on clicks, cart actions, and purchases. Both areas continuously learn from new interaction data.
Integration happens via REST API or client libraries into existing e-commerce platforms. The product catalog is imported, and user events are captured via JavaScript snippets or server-side tracking. A BigQuery connection enables deeper analysis of recommendation quality and conversion.
Core Features
- AI-powered product search with autocomplete and typo correction
- Personalized recommendations for individual users
- Ranking optimization based on conversion data
- A/B testing for different search and recommendation models
- Integration with Google Analytics and BigQuery
Typical Use Cases
E-commerce product search
Replacing a shop’s standard search with AI-powered search featuring autocomplete and automatic ranking optimization based on click and purchase behavior.
Personalized homepage
Displaying personalized product recommendations based on browsing history and purchases. New users receive recommendations based on bestsellers and trends.
Cross-selling in the cart
Displaying “Frequently Bought Together” recommendations during checkout to increase average cart value.
Benefits
- Google technology for search and recommendations without in-house ML expertise
- Faster time-to-value through pre-trained models
- Continuous automatic optimization through ongoing learning
- Automatic scaling with usage volume
Integration with innFactory
As a certified Google Cloud partner, innFactory supports you in migrating from the Retail API to AI Commerce Search, as well as with product catalog integration, event tracking setup, and conversion optimization.
Available Tiers & Options
Standard
- Search and recommendations in a single platform
- Personalization without in-house ML expertise
- Near real-time response to user behavior
- Requires clean product catalog and event data
- Costs scale with usage volume
Typical Use Cases
Technical Specifications
Frequently Asked Questions
What is AI Commerce Search?
AI Commerce Search is the current name for the service previously known as Retail API. It combines AI-powered product search with personalized recommendations for e-commerce applications and is part of Gemini Enterprise for Customer Experience.
What happened to the Retail API?
The Retail API was merged, together with Recommendations AI, into AI Commerce Search. Existing API endpoints largely continue to work, but new projects should follow the current product name and documentation.
What data is required?
The service requires a product catalog with attributes such as title, description, price, and category, as well as user events like views, cart actions, and purchases. Data quality strongly affects the relevance of results.
How long does setup take?
According to Google, a typical implementation takes about two to three months depending on complexity, while the core technical integration is often possible within a few weeks.
What does AI Commerce Search cost?
Billing is usage-based. Current prices should be checked against the official Google Cloud pricing page for AI Commerce Search.
Note: All product information on this page has been compiled with care, but is provided without guarantee and may be outdated or incomplete. Cloud services evolve rapidly — features, pricing, SLAs, and availability change frequently. Authoritative and up-to-date information can only be found on the official product page of Google Cloud (official documentation). This page does not represent an offer by Google Cloud.
