Klarna positions itself as more than BNPL with suite of AI-powered tools

For a while now, Swedish fintech Klarna has been positioning itself as a “retail bank, payments and shopping service” rather than as a ‘buy now, pay later’ (BNPL), as it has traditionally been known.

It has come out with a number of features expanding its scope, from Spotify Wrapped-esque ‘Money Stories’ to a platform aimed at connecting influencers and creators with retail brands, all with the aim of broadening its reach to a more all-around shopping experience.

The fintech also recently came out with a ChatGPT plugin, and in its twice-yearly product update is continuing to expand its personalised shopping tools and AI-powered features to further establish itself as not-just-another-BNPL.

On the AI side of things, the app is launching a discovery shopping feed, powered by Klarna’s in-house developed AI, to provide personalised product recommendations.

It is also launching ‘Ask Klarna’, a personal shopper service; a new resell feature; ‘Ads Manager’, a self-service platform for retailers; and ‘Creator Shops’, so creators can launch their own storefronts through Klarna.

“Over the last 18 years, we’ve transformed into a global shopping destination with smart tools for consumers around the world,” Klarna co-founder and CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski said.

“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 personalisation to consumers that was once thought impossible.”

According to Siemiatkowski, the new tools will create “richer, more enjoyable experiences” for customers and more opportunities for retailers to grow their businesses.

With 150 million consumers and 500,000 retailers, it will be interesting to see whether user or retailer habits change with the new suite of products, and how the tools will integrate into the broader BNPL offering.

Already more than half of consumers who go on the Klarna app each month don’t have an open active payment, and are instead there for all of its other tools.

Will the new features end up being a tool to attract more people to use the primary offering of BNPL, or will even more users start coming to Klarna without even having its pay later product in mind?

The new products are available in select regions and will expand throughout the year — the new Klarna app, shopping feed and ‘Creator Shops’ are available in the UK, with other features coming soon.