PayPal enables merchants including Abercrombie & Fitch to become discoverable within Perplexity

Abercrombie & Fitch held a Q3 earnings call this week, during which CEO Fran Horowitz announced a partnership with Cymbio and PayPal, making it one of the first brands in the world to be purchasable within AI chats like Perplexity.

"We're very excited about a new partnership with PayPal and Cymbio, our technology and marketplace sales partner that will enable agentic commerce and AI answer engines like Perplexity, where customers can seamlessly complete transactions directly within their AI conversation without even leaving the chat,” said Horowitz.

US users exploring Perplexity's shopping experience can transition from research to purchase, leveraging PayPal’s identity verification, purchase and seller protection, and payment processing, without leaving the answer engine. In addition to Abercrombie & Fitch, Ashley Furniture, Fabletics, Adorama and NewEgg are onboard, with more to come.

“We are building for the next era of commerce by connecting PayPal’s trusted payments and buyer protection directly to AI powered shopping,” says Michelle Gill, General Manager, Small Business and Financial Services, at PayPal.

“Our collaboration with Perplexity is the opening act of our innovation in commerce for the agentic era. This is the continuation of our decades long commitment to make AI driven commerce seamless and interoperable across every platform.”

“Shoppers and merchants demand a better e-commerce experience in the age of AI, one that’s as personalised as it is seamless,” says Dmitry Shevelenko, Chief Business Officer at Perplexity.

“We’re excited to partner with PayPal to bring instant checkout to our new shopping experience. PayPal’s decades of e-commerce leadership, including deep merchant integration, robust identity verification, and secure transactions give Perplexity users the complete experience needed to shop with confidence and give merchants a powerful new way to expand their consumer relationships in the age of AI.” 

RTIH AI in Retail Awards

RTIH proudly presents the first edition of its AI in Retail Awards, sponsored by 3D Cloud and EdTech Innovation Hub.

This is now open for entries. Deadline for submissions is Friday, 5th December. It’s free to enter and you can do so across multiple categories.

Check out categories and entry forms here.

As we witness a digital transformation revolution across all channels, AI tools are reshaping the omnichannel game, from personalising customer experiences to optimising inventory, uncovering insights into consumer behaviour, and enhancing the human element of retailers' businesses.

With 2025 set to be the year when AI and especially gen AI shake off the ‘heavily hyped’ tag and become embedded in retail business processes, our newly launched awards celebrate global technology innovation in a fast moving omnichannel world and the resulting benefits for retailers, shoppers and employees.

Our 2025 winners will be those companies who not only recognise the potential of AI, but also make it usable in everyday work - resulting in more efficiency and innovation in all areas.

Winners will be announced at an evening event at The Barbican in Central London on Thursday, 29th January. This will kick off with a drinks reception in the stunning Conservatory, followed by a three course meal, and awards ceremony in the Garden Room.