Klarna is best known as a buy-now, pay-later (BNPL) service for ecommerce purchases.
But don’t be surprised if you see the Swedish payments company eventually launch its own retail media network, joining what has become a very crowded landscape.
“There are plenty of them, and I see more and more popping up,” says Klarna’s CMO, David Sandstrom, speaking on this week’s episode of AdExchanger Talks.
Which begs the question: How would Klarna stand out?
To a large extent, BNPL has become a commodity. Giving consumers the ability to split their payments over four installments is not trivial from a technical perspective, Sandstrom says, but it’s also a solved problem at this point.
As a payment provider, however, Klarna can observe the full funnel, from an ad impression down to an outcome.
Whereas Facebook, for example, can see what someone clicks, a retailer can see exactly what that person buys. Klarna has the same purview, Sandstrom says, so it can help merchants and marketers optimize their campaigns to drive purchases.
Klarna powers millions of ecommerce transactions daily across more than 150 million users. It has its own shopping app, partnerships with thousands of merchants and a desktop browser extension that supports flexible payments, even for online retailers that don’t have a direct partnership with Klarna.
“We have closed-loop attribution,” Sandstrom says. “People in our ecosystem – and in retail media in general – are there with a purpose: They’re there to buy something.”
Also in this episode: The pros and cons of BNPL, the importance of investing in customer retention, a tour of Klarna’s growing suite of marketing tools (including a new self-serve campaign management platform in beta) and who-woulda-thunk-it customer shopping trends. (Apparently, nail diamonds, velour tracksuits and wired earbuds are really in right now?)
