Publisher Spotlight: Klarna

Klarna is a leading global shopping app and payments provider. We speak to them about what they do, their successful launch in Australia, and their future plans.

Can you tell us about Klarna and what you do? 

Klarna is a shopping app that provides a flexible payment solution that allows users to pay in 4. We’ve built on our global success to provide consumers in Australia and New Zealand a smarter way to shop and pay. Currently, we are the world's largest shopping app with over 90 million users worldwide and 250,000 retail partners under our portfolio.

Over the past five years, we have revolutionised our innovative shopping experience to integrate both online and in-store shopping. As a result, our consumers have the choice of browsing products and brands, receiving price drop notifications, making purchases, managing returns, even seeing their personal CO2 emissions, and soon they will also be able to check their delivery status, all within one ecosystem. This helps us drive consumer demand at a global level, at scale.

As a leading shopping app platform, what is your vision?

We refer to ourselves as a shopping app that provides a flexible payment solution, which leads to our overall vision of being a one-stop shop for our customers and provide value throughout the entire purchase journey. We want to ensure that we promote brands that are relevant to users from a pre-purchase experience. Consumers appreciate making instant ‘then and there’ purchases, as well as do their research before making a purchase, and we want to be the best in this area.

Finally, we want to be consumers’ first preference, and ensure that they do not shop anywhere else, ensuring we are front of mind from a pre, during, and post-purchase experience. We’d want to think of ourselves as an extension of our merchants’, meaning that we’re committed to not only deliver results but plan and execute great strategies with our clients.

Do you see yourself as predominantly a Fintech or Shopping app? 

While we’re dedicated to excel in both categories, we are shifting from being a Fintech company to a one-stop shopping destination. Our current mission is to be a global shopping platform, and we want to be in a position where we are helping users define what their unique, individual shopping journey looks like. So everything we do is dynamic and personalised, which is the very foundation of our shopping app.

What did Klarna find unique about launching in Australia? 

This is an interesting question. We launched in February 2020, and unfortunately, the world shut down a month later! So we had to immediately pivot our launch strategy, which included shifting ‘above the line’ media bookings and focusing everything on digital. Having said that, our launch in the Australian market is seen internally as the most successful to date, so we are doing something right! The competition is fierce, but we have our unique selling points, and it will be really exciting to see what the market looks like a few years from now.

Specifically, what is it that you do that is innovative or disruptive? 

For over 15 years, we have aimed to provide the smoothest possible shopping and payment experience for our consumers, as we believe this, in turn, drives value for our retailers and partners alike. We have eliminated unnecessary complexities by offering services like ‘Pay in 4’ in the Klarna app that helps consumers seamlessly pay, manage and track their purchases. The Klarna app also helps brands and products get discovered through curated shopping lists, content articles, deals, and product recommendations.

With 149 million active customers globally and a global retail network of 435,000, we have truly redefined the future of shopping with our innovative flexible payment solutions that help people to shop and budget effectively.

What are your plans for the future in Australia? 

We have been very busy adapting our shopping experience to suit our consumers’ needs, wants, and expectations. The key is to stay proactive in new offerings, products, and experiences. We have also been busy in-market with recent global acquisitions that will help mould and enhance our merchant product offerings.

What role are Commission Factory and Awin playing in your expansion strategy? 

Commission Factory has been critical to our success in Australia, and has been an excellent partner to date! The scale that we can get using their technology is awesome, and better yet, it’s extremely easy to use. The Commission Factor team is very friendly, extremely knowledgeable, and always happy to help out when needed. We’d like to think we have an excellent relationship with them.

The Partnership team (you know who you are!) is fantastic and has acted as an extension of our team. Throughout our launch as a partner in Australia, their continued support was excellent, and they really make us feel like part of the team. In addition, we can also choose to either work with the Commission Factory account managers or with the brands directly, which was a great plus.

It’s positive to see the team supporting good causes from a charity perspective and running industry events. In the end, it’s not just about growing as companies, but helping the industry learn from each other, which is helping all of us out!

The Commission Factory team has really positive pre-existing relationships with brands, which they’ve built up over a long period of time. This made our onboarding easier as brands trusted their recommendations. When our account manager put us forward to a brand, that solid relationship made it easier for us to integrate, and start building our own relationships.

For advertisers with a program with Commission Factory, contact us for more information or you want to know more about Commission Factory, book an appointment with one of the sales team.