Mobile checkout abandonment is the silent revenue killer every digital founder battles.
We spend thousands optimizing the user interface, yet the moment a customer has to switch apps or fill out a form on a small screen, the transaction is at risk. Debenhams Group has just launched a pilot that might fundamentally change how we think about this friction.
Instead of trying to force users to their website, they are moving the entire shopping experience inside the payment provider.
The Shift: Commerce as a Conversation
Debenhams is piloting “Agentic AI”—essentially an intelligent assistant—directly within the PayPal app. This makes them the first UK retailer to test a checkout flow that keeps the user entirely inside a third-party ecosystem from discovery to purchase.
Here is why this matters for business leaders:
- No Redirects: The customer never leaves PayPal.
- Natural Language: Users don’t search for “blue shirt.” They tell the AI, “I need an outfit for a summer garden party under £100.”
- Instant Trust: The payment and shipping details are already saved in PayPal. One click, and it is done.
Why This Strategy Makes Sense
It comes down to meeting the customer where the liquidity is. Debenhams noted that 16% of their sales already flow through PayPal. By placing the inventory discovery exactly where the wallet lives, they compress the sales funnel dramatically.
If you are a founder, consider this: Is your proprietary app or website actually a hurdle?
Debenhams is betting that third-party platforms (where traffic already exists) might be better at converting high-intent shoppers than their own storefronts.
The Infrastructure Behind the Move
An AI agent is only as good as the data it accesses. If the AI sells a product that is out of stock, the customer experience collapses.
To support this, Debenhams partnered with Peak AI to ensure real-time visibility on stock and pricing. This is a crucial lesson for any business integrating AI: Data lineage comes first. You cannot automate interaction if your backend data isn’t pristine.
The Takeaway
We are moving from “Search” to “Service.” The future of e-commerce isn’t about better search bars; it is about automated agents that understand intent and execute the transaction for the user.
This pilot signals a potential shift away from destination shopping (visiting a website) toward distributed commerce (buying wherever you happen to be online). Keep an eye on your analytics—the “website” as we know it might just be becoming the backend.
