Agentic Commerce: Why Did Debenhams Choose PayPal?

The digital storefront is moving beyond the traditional website.

Debenhams Group – the parent company behind PrettyLittleThing, boohoo, boohooMAN, Karen Millen and Debenhams – has announced a strategic partnership with PayPal to launch an AI-driven shopping experience.

The move makes the group the first retailer in the UK to allow customers to receive personalised recommendations and complete a full checkout process without ever leaving the PayPal interface.

Currently being tested with select customers in the US, the AI assistant is scheduled for a broader rollout in both the US and the UK later this year. The integration allows shoppers to engage with a chatbot to request product suggestions and browse curated selections from brands like Karen Millen and boohoo.

Once a selection is made, the purchase is completed within the chat, using PayPal’s saved account details for automated home delivery.

“With agentic commerce, shopping becomes a conversation, not a search. By embedding AI-powered discovery and checkout directly into the PayPal app, we’re helping customers move seamlessly from inspiration to purchase, while giving retailers like Debenhams Group a powerful new way to engage shoppers at scale," says Mike Edmonds, VP of Agentic Commerce at PayPal.

"It’s exciting to collaborate with an established UK retail group to bring this technology to market.”

The rise of agentic commerce

This partnership signals a shift from passive search to “agentic” AI. Unlike standard search bars, this assistant understands a shopper's profile, asks follow-up questions and acts on their behalf to find items that match specific tastes and budgets.

The integration deepens the utility of the PayPal app, evolving it from a payment gateway into a comprehensive commerce hub. Currently, 16% of the Debenhams Group’s sales are processed through PayPal.

By embedding the retail experience directly into the payment environment, both companies aim to capture a larger share of the mobile commerce market.

The experience has been co–developed by both parties and is already integrated with other AI tools in the US market, including Perplexity and Microsoft Copilot.

“At Debenhams Group, our goal is to help customers discover and be inspired by new products and brands, while making shopping as easy and enjoyable as possible," says Dan Finley, CEO of Debenhams Group.

"This kind of innovation has the potential to fundamentally transform online retail; in a way we haven’t seen since the shift to mobile shopping. We’re proud to be the first UK retailer to partner with PayPal on this experience, bringing a faster, more intuitive way to shop to customers across our brands.”

How agentic commerce is forged through partnerships 

Retail sees an increase in agentic agents after partnerships between fintechs bring agentic commerce closer and closer to everyday retail. 

Fiserv paired with Mastercard to ensure that Mastercard’s Agent Pay Acceptance framework is embedded into the payment processor at scale, bringing merchants of all sizes the opportunity to interact with agentic commerce.  

At the end of 2025, Visa partnered with Skyfire, Nekuda, PayOS and Ramp as part of Visa Intelligent Commerce. The partnerships are with agent-enabling partners that are executing end-to-end consumer and B2B purchases in closed transactions in the US. 

At the time, Rubail Birwadker, Head of Growth Products and Partnerships at Visa, said: “In 2026, AI agents won't just assist your shopping – they will complete your purchases, powered by Visa's global scale, standards leadership and unparalleled commitment to secure agentic commerce.”