Klarna, one of the world’s largest private fintech companies, unveiled its new super app today, consolidating its installment payment technology with shopping, product support, delivery and returns, according to a press release.
The new application will turn the company from a payment provider into the end-to-end retail space, allowing consumers to purchase and use their interest-free shopping feature across all online shops, connected to Klarna or not.
“Switching between apps is something we as consumers find more and more frustrating. Today we are announcing a major milestone on our journey to helping people save time and money and giving them more control over their finances,” Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski stated in the release.
“With the introduction of our new app, Klarna becomes an end-to-end shopping service that caters to many needs – from inspiration and discovery to seamless post-purchase experiences. Meanwhile, we’ve made transparent and flexible payments a possibility everywhere because we believe no one should ever have to pay credit card fees or high-interest rates,” he said.
The super app will provide its installment-based payment system at all online retailers, enabled by virtual one-time cards that are free to use at any retailer. Customers just need to add items to their basket, press a pink ‘pay with K’ button, create the one-time card and copy and paste their information into checkout.
The application will also offer curated content based on consumer interests, exclusive deals, price drop notifications, delivery tracking and spending overviews. The company plans to introduce further features as customer adoption increases, including collective loyalty cards, money-saving tools and live shopping events, according to Business Insider.
All of these features are intended to provide a stickier customer experience, increase revenue potential and help Klarna control the entire shopping pipeline. Many of the features are powered by acquisitions, including Klarna’s purchases of retail tech startup HERO and discount shopping platform Stocard in July.
The BNPL giant also just purchased Swedish comparison site Pricerunner for €930 million, an acquisition that will likely lead to direct implementation in the super app. While Klarna previously launched its own comparison feature this year, it was criticized for not being effective at finding products users were searching for, according to Sifted.
A recent global survey by Klarna found that 70% of consumers would choose a single shopping app that allowed them to perform multiple actions instead of switching applications, with over 68% stating simplicity and time savings as the two most significant benefits, according to Finextra.
The application is now available on iOS and Android mobile devices in the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Austria, Spain, Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark, Poland and France.