E-Commerce

Klarna rolls out its first social-shopping tool

It builds on the company’s vision to bridge the gap between “inspiration and transaction,” as CMO David Sandström puts it.
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Klarna

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Retail Brew delivers the latest retail industry news and insights surrounding marketing, DTC, and e-commerce to keep leaders and decision-makers up to date.

Klarna’s vision to bridge the gap between “inspiration and transaction,” as CMO David Sandström puts it, is starting to become a reality now rather than later. Today, the company rolled out its first social-shopping tool, which connects online shoppers with retail employees through live messaging and video.

  • The feature, called…Virtual Shopping, will be available to all of Klarna’s retail partners, which now total 400,000+ worldwide.
  • It’s also a way to leverage the expertise of associates and demo products on the spot.

Version 2.0: “If the first wave of e-commerce was convenience, the second wave is going to be about personalization, humanization, and experiences,” Sandström told Retail Brew. “The e-commerce experience is very transactional, very rational, quite lonely, and boring when we’re serving customers.”

  • More than three-quarters (78%) of US shoppers believe online retailers need to invest in new tech to create more personalized services, according to Klarna’s Shopping Pulse report.

Klarna said 300+ of its merchant partners have already been using the feature over the past few months. So far, it’s seen a 10x conversion rate on average, Sandström noted. Conversions are particularly higher in categories such as homeware, beauty, and luxury goods given the $$$ investment, added Adam Levene, director of social shopping at Klarna.

The big picture: The virtual shopping tool builds on Klarna’s acquisition of social-shopping platform Hero, for a reported $160 million, last year—as the company looks to move beyond BNPL.

  • Sandström hinted that more social-shopping will be coming over the next year, but didn’t share specifics.

“This is really…part of the portfolio of creating a better marketplace. Buy now, pay later is one of those products—social shopping is another of those products,” he said.—KM

Retail news that keeps industry pros in the know

Retail Brew delivers the latest retail industry news and insights surrounding marketing, DTC, and e-commerce to keep leaders and decision-makers up to date.