Klarna is keen to lose the association it has built with its main product, the Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) model. Instead, the Swedish fintech firm wishes to move towards becoming a global retail bank and a one-stop shop for e-commerce.
The BNPL model can receive a lot of criticism. Critics feel that it can encourage careless spending, accruing large fees to pay later with little consideration. As the largest company within the sector, Klarna often bears the brunt of such criticism. David Sandstrom, the chief marketing officer at Klarna, is keen to draw attention to their other ventures such as their credit card and automated checkout. The brand is growing, and they are introducing a range of tools that will aim to make online shopping easier. He explained: “We built the company on making the e-commerce market work better, and every single strategy and service is part of that.
“Our consumer research shows that online shopping is incredibly lonely. There is no peer-to-peer recognition, no quick advice or voting on an outfit – we want to build that.
“This step into shoppable content is a way to make the market function better and we are extremely excited about that.”
With ambitions to become the world’s first global retail bank, this could be the first major overhaul of the image that the fintech brand undertakes in the future.