Debenhams Group is rolling out an AI shopping service in partnership with PayPal as retailers continue to explore how the technology can be used in the shopping experience.
The group, which contains the brands Debenhams, PrettyLittleThing, boohoo, boohooMAN, and Karen Millen, will allow customers to discover products, receive personalised recommendations and check out all within the PayPal app.
The US fintech giant has been testing its AI assistant in a pilot programme in its home market, with plans for a wider launch in both the US and the UK later this year.
Now through the new partnership, shoppers using the AI assistant on the PayPal app can browse Debenhams Group’s catalogue, with the agentic system acting as a kind of concierge.
“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. 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 Debenhams Group chief executive Dan Finley.
“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.”
The launch is part of Debenhams Group’s wider AI plans that include automated sales forecasting, stock and pricing and the launch of an internal AI skills academy.
“With agentic commerce, shopping becomes a conversation, not a search,” said PayPal’s VP of agentic commerce Mike Edmonds.
“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. It’s exciting to collaborate with an established UK retail group to bring this technology to market.”
Retailers are increasingly exploring AI shopping experiences. Last month the UK-based sportswear group JD Sports became one of the first major brands to allow purchases to be made directly from chatbots including Copilot, Gemini and ChatGPT.
