Publisher Spotlight: Klarna

Tell us a little bit about Klarna.

Angus: Klarna is the world’s largest shopping app with over 90 million users worldwide and 250,000 retail partners, including H&M, Expedia Group, Samsung, ASOS, Nike and AliExpress. Our innovative shopping experience online and in-store provides shoppers value throughout the entire shopping experience while also making it possible to split payments into four instalments. This has led us to become one of the most highly valued private FinTech companies globally, with a valuation of US$46.6 billion. In terms of demographics, our users are equally split between women and men. Our active shoppers are aged between 25-34 years, but the numbers outside this bracket are constantly growing.

Over the past 5 years we have revolutionised our brand to encompass the full shopping experience from discovery through to purchase, with the benefit of flexible payment options. From price drop alerts to our flagship “pay-in-four” instalments – all within one app – we enable shoppers to track and manage their spending and, at the same time, provide insights to their CO2 impact.

What sets you apart from publishers in your category?

Angus: Klarna has built a brand that resonates with modern shoppers. We’re customer-obsessed and everything we do is with customers in mind. We provide features within our app, such as price drop alerts and exclusive Klarna deals, so customers are paying a price that works best for them. With the ability to create a One-time card in the Klarna app, shoppers are able to access pay-in-four at any merchant, without the need for the merchant to be integrated with Klarna. Our solution allows pay-in-four to be taken almost anywhere, in-store or online. Finally, the post-purchase experience with Klarna is best-in-class, giving customers the ability to manage payments, returns and delivery with just a click of a button.

How do you help advertisers add value and drive incrementality?

Angus: For us, incrementality is giving any brand, not just Klarna-integrated brands, the ability for users to pay-in-four, with our One-time card. There is a large percentage of users that would abandon their cart if a pay-in-four option was not available. At Klarna, we build products to address this challenge, minimising cart abandonment and maximising conversion

To further add value, we provide brands with priority placements within our app such as the browser tab sponsored banners, the deals carousel, in-app messages, curated shopping lists, and also through push notifications and EDMs. We can even run other forms of digital media on behalf of retailers – the options are endless.

We also have a product called Dynamic Ads which uses AI to take a product feed from any merchant, recognise products, categorise, classify and then creates bespoke and beautiful images. The images made are high-impact and instantly shoppable via insertion of relevant messaging and payment options. They are dynamic and refresh every 30 minutes, allowing merchants to display in-stock inventory, update messaging, create, test, analyse, iterate, improve and then amplify at scale across Klarna or other channels. This approach results in dramatic increases in click-through and conversion rates.

What excites you about the affiliate marketing industry and where it’s headed? What new innovations will we see from you this year?

Angus: The growth in the Australian market over the past 10 years has been very exciting to see, with brands paving way for affiliate marketing to become a permanent addition to their marketing strategies. Being able to witness the evolution first-hand is awesome.

With affiliate shifting from being a “dirty word” in the media world to being one of the top-performing digital channels for many brands is also remarkable. A lot of hard work has gone into educating the market through a collaborative effort from brands, networks, tech companies and industry groups.

At Klarna, we are always thinking outside of the box when it comes to what innovation comes next. We have exciting things already unfolding that will be rolled out over the next 6 months to expand our overall offering as a publisher partner. This includes online-to-offline (O2O), more Dynamic Ads features, influencer marketing and AR-based shopping technologies, and even more advances to our app. You’ll have to get in touch to find out more.

Why did you choose to partner with Rakuten Advertising?

Angus: Being in the industry for many years, you would always hear what the Rakuten Advertising team were up to. Whether it was signing an array of new brands, creating first-to-markets, the support the team provides to both advertisers and especially partners, or even sponsoring global sports teams – it was a no brainer for us to sign up to one of the largest affiliate networks in the world.

The general consensus from the market about Rakuten Advertising was around how the Australia team is transparent and proactive. They know what advertisers like and don’t like, what’s working and what’s not. Most importantly, they know what results advertisers want to see, which makes it a lot easier for a partner to optimise and improve to reach their goals.

Since the start of our partnership, we have seen strong initial results for our brands, especially in such a competitive Australian market, and have found all of the above to be true. We can confidently say that the Rakuten Advertising team have been amazing to work with, and we can’t wait to see what comes next.

Klarna is available in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, New Zealand, Norway, Spain, Sweden, the UK and the US. Contact us to partner with Klarna today. To hear more from our publishers in the future, subscribe to our blog.