Klarna, the payments and shopping platform, announced today new features and updates that aim to give users a more personalized shopping experience.
This includes “Ask Klarna,” a personal shopping assistant where users can speak to real fashion experts; “Creator Shops,” a customized storefront for content creators; an AI-powered discovery shopping feed; and a resell functionality, among other new tools.
The suite of new features – which are rolling out to select regions like the U.S., the UK and Germany — comes as the Swedish fintech company continues shifting its focus away from only being a buy now, pay later platform and more toward becoming an overall shopping destination for its 150 million users.
Separately, Klarna also rolled out a redesigned interface for its app. The Klarna app will now have new tabs: Shop, Purchases, In-Store, Budget and You. The company hopes the update will help consumers discover new products and manage their purchase history more efficiently.
“Over the last 18 years, we’ve transformed into a global shopping destination with smart tools for consumers around the world,” Sebastian Siemiatkowski, co-founder and CEO of Klarna, said in a statement. “The new tools we’re launching today will create richer, more enjoyable experiences for everyone along the shopping journey and create tremendous opportunities for retailers to grow their business.”
With Ask Klarna, the company has enlisted a group of trained shopping experts to help consumers with their purchases via chat or video call within Klarna.com and Klarna’s mobile app. Klarna’s personal shoppers can offer advice and inform them about products from thousands of brands and stores.
The feature utilizes technology from social shopping platform HERO, which Klarna acquired in 2021, to bring product reviews, real-time advice and informative content to its users.
According to a recent Klarna survey, 85% of U.S. respondents said they want a service where they can speak with product experts to get more information about products. The company also noticed that consumers are less confident when it comes to buying more expensive items online, Klarna’s chief marketing officer, David Sandstrom, told TechCrunch.
“When people buy high-ticket items, there is still uncertainty when doing that digitally,” Sandstrom said. “If you want to buy a luxury handbag, especially if it’s not for yourself, there’s just not enough confidence about that purchase. You want to speak to someone.”
Currently, Ask Klarna is limited to luxury fashion items but will soon expand to other pricier items such as TVs, smartphones, drones and other electronics.
“Any kind of high-ticket item where we see that consumer confidence is lacking. That is where we want to insert this feature,” Sandstrom added.
Notably, the new personal shopper service is entirely free for users. Plus, you don’t have to be a top 1% spender to qualify for the service, which Sandstrom says some other fashion companies are doing with their online shopping assistants.
For the moment, the company doesn’t have plans to monetize—at least not yet, that is.
“The business model is probably going to be evolved going forward, depending on how popular it is… We’re gonna see where this takes us,” Sandstrom told us.
At launch, Ask Klarna is only available for U.S. users. It will roll out to the UK and Germany later this year.
Last month, Klarna announced its new ChatGPT plugin, which also gives users product recommendations. So, whether you want to ask a human or OpenAI’s chatbot if a trendy designer handbag is worth spending thousands of dollars on, Klarna now allows you to do both.
Speaking of AI, the company has found another way to integrate the tech into its platform. Klarna has a new, personalized and AI-powered discovery shopping feed to help consumers find items that are more relevant to them based on their preferences.
“Our new AI-powered discovery shopping feed is the next evolution of the Klarna app becoming the starting point for every purchase. This builds on a ton of initiatives we’re working on in the AI space, to provide a greater level of personalization to consumers that was once thought impossible,” Siemiatkowski added.
The revamped feed will still have the recently launched search and compare tool at the top of the screen, so users can continue looking up which products are on sale, what the lowest price is, shipping options and what’s in stock.
Alongside the search and compare tool, Klarna also launched its Creator app last year to help influencers connect with brands. The app also allowed content creators to track their performance, earnings and sales.
There are currently 12,000 vetted creators on the platform, according to Sandstrom.
Now, the company is letting creators launch their own storefronts on Klarna.com, so their followers can click through the shop, watch their shoppable videos and buy recommended products.
Similar to influencer shopping app LTK, Klarna’s new Creator Shops feature also lets creators share their personal shop across their social media accounts as well as post content that includes links to every item in the photo or video– which, in turn, increases their chance of earning revenue.
“The Klarna Creator Platform has opened up a new world of opportunities when it comes to affiliate content,” said content creator Lydia Tomlinson in a statement. “With my new Creator Shop, I have the perfect place to showcase everything I’m wearing, using and loving. Now my followers can easily find and shop my latest looks all in one place, saving them the hassle of wondering where to buy.”
Creator Shops are only available on Klarna.com but will soon launch in the Klarna app. The feature has yet to launch in the U.S. yet has rolled out to creators in the U.K., Sweden and Germany.
If you have clothing that’s been sitting in your closet untouched, Klarna is offering to help speed up the process of reselling it–but only if you used Klarna to buy it. The company is introducing a resell feature that enables Klarna shoppers to resell products that they no longer want.
In the Klarna app, users can tap on the “Resell” button next to an item from their order history. Users are then directed to a third-party re-commerce platform. Klarna pre-fills the listing with product details, description and images, which can often take up a lot of time. Users can set the price of the item.
The resell feature launched earlier this year and is currently only available for Swedish users. Klarna has partnered with resell platform Tradera, and is set to launch soon with more partners across the world.
Later this year, Resell will roll out to the U.S., the U.K. and Germany.
Klarna is also further helping brands with ad creation, audience targeting and campaign optimization. Ads Manager is a newly launched platform for retailers that allows them to access Klarna’s first-party data and target the right shoppers.
Merchants can publish ads right onto Klarna’s personalized shopping feed.
There are about 450,000 brands on the platform, including Steve Madden, Nike, Lululemon, Marc Jacobs, Michael Kors and more.
Klarna’s latest update introduces a personal shopping assistant and new creator tools by Lauren Forristal originally published on TechCrunch
