PayPal introduced Storefront Ads, a new ad format that turns open-web display ads into fully functional storefronts with built-in checkout via PayPal and Venmo. The ads, which feature prominent “Buy with PayPal” or “Buy with Venmo” buttons, let consumers purchase products without ever leaving the page they’re on, aiming to reduce friction and boost conversions.
Mark Grether, SVP & GM of PayPal Ads, said:
“Agentic commerce risks siphoning traffic and diluting retailers' brand experiences. 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.”
By combining checkout through PayPal and Venmo's payment flow with a storefront that lives inside the ad, shoppers will not have to leave the content they're viewing. After making a purchase, they're immediately returned to exactly where they left off.
The new ad format is powered by the PayPal transaction graph, which the company describes as a “repository of real, cross-merchant purchase signals that drive relevant advertising,” containing over 430M consumer and merchant accounts spanning across 200 markets.
Storefront Ads are expected to debut this summer in the U.S. as IAB-standard units — which are standardized digital ad sizes defined by the Interactive Advertising Bureau — and then evolve into brand carousels and sponsored listings.
Personally, I love it!
Storefront Ads turn every webpage on the Internet into a marketplace for merchants who offer PayPal as a payment option. As a merchant, I'd much rather encourage customers to checkout right then and there, as opposed to leading them to an Amazon listing, where they may get distracted by other recommended items.
Lately it feels like PayPal has been at the mercy of e-commerce platforms and competing mobile wallets that prioritize their own one-click payment options over PayPal within their checkout experiences. However the launch of PayPal Ads in Oct 2024 opened a direct pathway for website visitors to go from 3rd party website to PayPal Checkout — without Shopify or other platforms serving as a middleman.
If PayPal Storefront Ads ever integrate with Honey, the company's browser extension that finds discount codes, PayPal will have created a full e-commerce ecosystem that takes consumers from discovery to checkout with a discount-code to close the deal.