During the pandemic, many retailers began to fast-track their digital investments, including anything that makes shopping online easier for consumers. One option growing steadily in popularity is the buy now, pay later option. Online financial services company Klarna offers this option for consumers and online merchants to help consumers budget their cash flow, providing an opportunity to shop online, buy an item, and split the purchase into payments. The company processes over two million transactions every day and has helped companies achieve higher conversion rates.
Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski joins the Retail Gets Real podcast to discuss the journey he faced as a young entrepreneur, how Klarna advanced in the payment world, the value of buy now, pay later for consumers and how retailers can leverage Klarna beyond payments.
At the start of the pandemic, Klarna introduced a new service that allowed consumers to use its web browser to shop on any retailer’s website and seamlessly use Klarna to purchase items. This innovative app came at a critical time for the global online marketplace, as digital became the primary channel to shop and retailers sought to optimize their ecommerce presence. As the pandemic went on, the Klarna team was able to track different shopping trends during COVID-19, starting with consumers purchasing groceries and toiletries, then moving to home improvement and electronics.
Klarna partners with thousands of brands worldwide, including Macy's, Ralph Lauren, Etsy, Sephora and many more, and Siemaiatkowski points out that collaboration is the key to successful partnerships. “Those relationships [with retailers] nowadays are not only with the payments team, but are actually more across the whole organization, because what we really love doing is iterating, and experimenting, and pushing the product forward with our retail partners.” The team is experimenting with live shopping with Macy’s and looking ahead to in-store opportunities.
Tune into this episode to hear Siemiakowski discuss digital shopping and the future of Klarna.
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