Retailer Debenhams Group is the first commerce brand in the UK to roll out PayPal’s agentic shopping assistant.
The new tool will let customers ask for product suggestions, discover new items, and browse curated lists of products specific to a shopper’s needs.
Debenhams no longer exists as a physical store after collapsing into administration in May 2021. However, the brand still exists as an online-only store after being acquired by Boohoo Group, later changing its name to Debenhams Group.
Customers will be able to tap into Debenhams-owned brands like PrettyLittleThing, Karen Millen, boohoo and boohooMAN.
The new assistant understands shopping profiles, asks questions, and can act on behalf of customers – including purchases being made directly in the chat experience.
The tool is currently available to US shoppers, with plans to launch to wider US and UK markets later this year.
“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,” said Dan Finley, CEO at Debenhams Group.
Debenhams has previously entered a partnership with AI software company Peak AI to power its sales, inventory, and product pricing.
PayPal’s Agentic Offering
In August last year, PayPal announced it would be enabling agentic payments through its platform.
For consumers, this could look like an agent refilling household necessities or monitoring subscriptions.
PayPal said that it’s “uniquely positioned” to deliver agentic commerce because of its data-trust-rich network and secure orchestration.
On the PayPal interface, the payments company said that agent-use for purchasing shows up in three ways:
- Users with an active PayPal Wallet can leverage tokens for their agents to make purchases on their behalf.
- PayPal Wallet users without tokens can also enable general agentic payments.
- Guest users allow temporary agents to execute transactions.
This access means consumers with and without accounts can tap into agentic shopping through the company.
