U.S. Consumers Now Loom Large for Sweden’s Klarna

The United States has become buy now, pay later provider Klarna AB’s largest market by revenue, the company announced Tuesday. BNPL use blossomed during the pandemic and continues to find favor as inflation concerns push consumers to make value-based spending decisions.

With 8 million monthly active users of the Klarna App, Klarna’s U.S. gross merchandise value increased 71% in December from December 2021. Klarna first began services in 2015 in the United States, having been founded in 2005 in Sweden. Overall, Klarna says there are 34 million U.S. users of its services. Klarna also says its app, introduced in 2019, has had 30 million downloads since launch.

SensorTower, a digital-analytics platform that tracks app downloads, says the Klarna app was downloaded 1.6 million times for both iOS and Android versions in January, based on data from 24 countries. In comparison, the Affirm Inc. app and the Afterpay app, separately and just for the United States and Canada, were downloaded 600,000 times each last month.

The Klarna app provides three ways to pay for merchandise. One is to pay immediately. Another is the typical buy now, pay later option of one immediate payment and three others spread over six weeks. The third is long-term financing.

The app enables consumers to shop a variety of retailer Web sites and pay with Klarna without leaving the app. More than 500,000 retailers globally are in the Klarna app. In addition to helping merchants get sales, the app also provides marketing services with ads and sponsored content, reporting tools, and virtual shopping. In October, Klarna launched its Creator Platform, a service to connect retailers with social-media influencers that also provide real-time metrics.

The highly competitive BNPL market has faced concerns it could be an invitation to consumer misuse. A December report from Capterra, a software reviews and selection platform, however dispelled that notion somewhat when it found 95% of those surveyed were confident in their ability to make their next payment on time.