PayPal Turns Online Ads Into ‘Buy Now Opportunities’

PayPal says it has developed a way to turn online ads into merchant storefronts.

“Storefront Ads” uses PayPal’s transaction graph and payment rails to turn “recommended products into ‘buy now’ opportunities within the ad unit itself,” the company said in its announcement Monday (July 16).

“Merchants of all sizes are faced with fewer and fewer consumers going directly to their websites in a world where agentic commerce is growing,” PayPal said. “With Storefront Ads, merchants can dramatically broaden their e-commerce reach across the open web — reaching consumers wherever they are, on desktop, mobile, or emerging digital environments.”

By melding checkout with a storefront embedded within the ad, shoppers don’t have to shift away from the content they’re viewing, the announcement added. Once they’ve made a purchase, they’ll be returned immediately to where they left off.

“Agentic commerce risks siphoning traffic and diluting retailers’ brand experiences. Additionally, shopping is no longer something consumers do; it’s something that comes to them,” said Mark Grether,  general manager for PayPal Ads.

“PayPal Storefront Ads gives merchants a powerful way to reach new customers and re-engage loyal shoppers by planting dynamic storefronts directly within the open web, creating a compelling, frictionless shopping experience anywhere,” he added.

PYMNTS looked at the impact of agentic artificial intelligence (AI) on eCommerce last month with Scott Hendrickson, chief revenue officer of the agentic AI merchant network firmly.

Social media feeds already woo users with one-click purchases of impulse goods they “didn’t know they wanted,” Hendrickson told PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster, citing TikTok Shop’s rise as indication that contextually embedded commerce can move high volumes of products.

“Agentic AI extends that concept to any venue where a shopper starts research, whether it’s an email thread, a mapping app, even a voice assistant in the kitchen,” that report said. “Wherever the conversation starts, the agent can surface suitable products, verify availability and finalize the order in-line.”

Meanwhile, PayPal said last week it is doubling down on AI and data-driven personalization to keep its edge as the digital payments landscape evolves.

“AI is changing commerce as we speak,” Diego Scotti, general manager of PayPal’s consumer group. said during a fireside chat at the Viva Tech 2025 conference in Paris.

Scotti explored how PayPal is dealing with the era of AI agents and rising competition, while building on its recent partnership with AI-powered search engine Perplexity, which positions PayPal as the embedded payment option for Perplexity’s new shopping capabilities.

“We are going to become the enabler of their AI commerce through PayPal, because of the data that we have” on consumers, Scotti said.