As AI reshapes online discovery, merchants of all sizes are grappling with how to handle decreased traffic to their websites — and PayPal wants to help. The company has launched a new advertising product called Storefront Ads that turns ads across the open web into a fully functional storefront.
Fueled by the PayPal transaction graph and powered by PayPal and Venmo’s payment rails, Storefront Ads turns recommended products into “buy now” opportunities right within the ad unit itself. Once the transaction is complete, users who make a purchase from the ad will be immediately returned to wherever they left off.
“Agentic commerce risks siphoning traffic and diluting retailers’ brand experiences,” said Mark Grether, SVP and GM of PayPal Ads in a statement. “Additionally, shopping is no longer something consumers do; it’s something that comes to them. 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.“
Storefront Ads is expected to debut this summer in the U.S. as IAB-standard units and then evolve into brand carousels and sponsored listings. The ads will be powered by the PayPal transaction graph — a unique repository of real cross-merchant purchase signals that drive relevant advertising. With more than 430 million consumer and merchant accounts spanning approximately 200 global markets, this transaction graph has the potential to help PayPal map a variety of purchase data to relevant media placements.
Advertisement
“We’re excited by the opportunity to advance frictionless, content-driven commerce,” said Kate Monaghan, EVP of Integrated Investment and Retail Partnerships at Horizon Media. “The more steps in the path to purchase, the more drop-off we see — PayPal’s new shoppable ad capability brings conversion closer to the moment of inspiration and helps eliminate that friction.”
To learn more about commerce media, check out our full guide here.
