FLASH: Perplexity+PayPal Launch Their 'Instant Buy' Collab Plus Adobe Releases Nov 1-23 Early Holiday 25 Read
Another checkbox for our Holiday 25 Agentic Commerce Tracker - we have details on launch partners, how to save 50% off one item and the Adobe data is đ„
Agentic Commerce Tracker for Holiday 2025
Hereâs where we are and days left to go:
â ChatGPT Surprise (ChatGPT Shopping Research launched Monday 11/24 - details and exclusive live walk-through/analysis here)
â Target App launches in ChatGPT
â Perplexity/PayPal âInstant Buyâ?
âWalmart on ChatGPT?
âSalesforce SCC on ChatGPT (watching Pandora, Adidas, Michael Kors and Loreal)
âMicrosoft Copilot agentic commerce - coming out for season or no?
â Any (more) surprises, if weâre gonna have (any more) big surprises, itâll be this week
Perplexity and PayPal Launch
Today (PayPal and Perplexity simultanously announced the launch of the new upgraded shopping experience on Perplexity powered by PayPal. Itâs a complete re-do 2 days before season which is one of the boldest moves Iâve seen after being in the ecommerce biz for ~30yrs.
Hereâs the Instant Buy sizzle video:
Details, Merchants and Features of the New Perplexity Instant Buy
Thereâs some interesting features in this one Perplexity is leaning in on:
Free for all - whereas âBuy with Proâ required the paid Perplexity Pro plan
Discovery that thinks the way you think - Perplexity throws a bit of shade on ChatGPT and says they arenât just regurgitating âgeneric top-ten listsâ which are notoriously a huge influence on ChatGPTs thinking
A shopping assistant that knows you - Here Perplexity leans in on memory - over time Perplexity learns your style (furniture, apparel, etc) and uses that. They throw shade at Google: stating they show you want you want, ânot what advertisers want to sell first.â
Donât dig through digital racks - Perplexity narrows down the choices to a handful of Product Cards for you and gives you all the specs and details needed to make your final choice. Here they throw Google Shopping under the bus: âEndlessly scrollable grids have never been the best way to buy throw pillows.â
Stay in the flow - Because they partnered with PayPal, if you already have PayPal features like PayPal Fastlane enabled already, youâre good to go.
Save 50% off one Item (up to $50!) by Using Instant Buy
To celebrate the launch and the start of the holiday shopping season, PayPal is introducing a special incentive for users to experience the future of AI commerce. Beginning 9:00 am ET on November 25, 2025, through 11:59 pm ET on December 1, 2025, customers who complete their first purchase using PayPal within Perplexity will receive 50% back, up to $50. This exclusive offer delivers a rewarding first shopping experience on Perplexity for those looking to benefit from the simplicity and speed of AI shopping. Read the promotion terms and exclusions here.
So the baller move here is to find something in the $100-120 zone you expected to buy for the holiday and get half off, but act before 12/1!
Launch Partner Merchants
The Perplexity/PayPal launch partner merchants are:
Abercrombie & Fitch
Ashley Furniture
Fabletics
Adorama
NewEgg
The Ashley Furniture CTO David Sink posted some details on LinkedIn:
Congrats to David and the team, Iâve been on a death match drive like this before and itâs simultaneously the hardest and most rewarding problem youâll tackle.
Perplexity and PayPal Instant Buy Live Demo
Unfortunately while I have ~10 perplexity accounts of various size and ages, none of them have access to this feature yet as of 8am 11/26/26 ET. Stay tuned for a special live demo post once one of our accounts has this turned on in the wild. Until then, hereâs a snapshot from the sizzle real so you can see the new Instant buy and âCompareâ feature
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Adobe Releases Nov 1-22 Early Read on Holiday 25
Editorial Note: I think of all the data we receive on Holiday 25 as âdirectionally helpfulâ to understand the âscope and shapeâ of the season. Some times we see a front end loaded holiday, other times we see see a âVâ shape (big kick off, lull, big last 5 days 12/15-12/20). Until the dust settles well into Q1, we wonât know what happened in itâs totality, but it is helpful to see what we can learn from these earlier pieces of data and triangulate back to this point from Q1 2026.
Adobe this am is releasing their data for the start of Holiday 2025 which covers Nov 1-23:
AI Datapoints
In the first 23 days, Agentic Commerce traffic is up 830% y/y
Top GenAI used categories: toys, video games, appliances, personal care/beauty and electronics.
Users that land on a US retail site from a GenAI citation convert at 30% higher rate than non AI traffic.
An updated survey reveals 32% of consumers have actively used AI shopping and 48% intend to. 81% report that AI enhanced their shopping experience
Non-AI Datapoints
Sales are trending up 7.5% y/y so far in the first 23 days
Early deals (savings up to 12%) are pulling forward some demand, but most consumers waiting for CyberFive where deals are expected to range as high as 29% peaking at CyberMonday.
BNPL usage grew 10.3% y/y (clearly taking share)
Early category winner is grocery up 11.5% y/y and cosmetics/beauty up 7.15%
Many home items are growing rapidly with some categories up 106% (refrigerators/home freezers) power tools (up 96% YoY), garage storage (up 94% YoY), washers/dryers (up 88% YoY), and smart home items (up 80% YoY)
More details are available here.
Coming UpâŠ
Weâll be keeping an eye out for access to Perplexity/Paypal Instant Buy and post a demo when we have access and also, of course, any last minute breaking news before Thanksgiving that drop in the next 12hrs. Weâre down to the end of the line, what is going to sneak in under the deadline here?!






Hi! I was able to get instant buy to show up by using the prompt: what are the best selling leggings on abercrombie and fitch?