The news: PayPal debuted shoppable ads for publishers’ sites, which effectively turns web ads into storefronts. Users will be able to purchase advertised items with a few clicks through PayPal or Venmo’s payment gateway without leaving their content pages.

Rolling out in the US this summer as IAB-standard units, the format will expand to include brand carousels and sponsored listings. Launch partners include Business Insider (a fellow Axel Springer subsidiary) and Vox Media, which praised the seamless checkout and real-time engagement potential. Horizon Media has signed on as an agency partner.

How we got here: PayPal has been deepening its advertising footprint as part of its “transition year” to increase profitable growth. It launched PayPal Ads last year, a financial media network (FMN) that gives advertisers access to 400 million PayPal users and 90 million Venmo users.

It’s also leaned hard into seamless commerce and checkout experiences. This year,

• PayPal partnered with Perplexity to encourage AI-powered “conversational commerce.” PayPal will let users buy products surfaced during Perplexity sessions within the chat interface through PayPal or Venmo.
• It also partnered with Selfbook partnership for travel bookings embedded within the PayPal app.