Klarna connects online shoppers to physical stores

Klarna is utilizing live video and messaging to bridge the digital and in-store shopping experiences.

The global payments provider and shopping platform is introducing Virtual Shopping from Klarna. Already live with over 300 brands including Levi’s, Hugo Boss, and Herman Miller, the solution connects online shoppers directly with human experts in physical stores through live chats and video calls.

Klarna’s goal for this new tool is to provide customers with a highly personalized and immersive omnichannel shopping experience. On the retailer side, the new Klarna store app enables associates to share photos and videos of items and demo products live directly from any location.

How Klarna Virtual Shopping works

• For shoppers: Customers connect with an in-store expert when they click the Virtual Shopping icon on integrated stores from the retailer’s websites. Once connected, they can chat, receive photos and videos, follow product recommendations, and have a two-way video chat. Klarna’s aim is to recreate the experience a customer would receive in-store. 
• For retailers: Retailers integrated with Klarna can add Virtual Shopping to their online stores. Once enabled, retailers can gain insights into shopper interactions and sales, which can help them to improve overall performance. To connect with online shoppers, in-store experts can now use the new, retailer-facing Klarna Store App for iOS and Android. Once connected, they can begin engaging with consumers by text, chat and video for interactions such as making personalized recommendations, scheduling in-store appointments, and staying in touch.

According to Klarna, its launch of the new virtual shopping platform builds upon its July 2021 acquisition of Hero, a social shopping platform designed to provide consumers with inspiration, advice and immediately shoppable content produced directly from retailers' physical stores. Available from a retailer’s website, Hero provides the instantly connective messaging and video chat technology underpinning the new platform.

Other digital shopping tools Klarna has acquired include Shoptail, an online comparison shopping service; and Toplooks, an AI-powered styling engine that allows retailers to create shoppable content by suggesting complementary items to consumers across their web and social channels. 

Klarna’s Virtual Shopping tools are already live today with over 300 brands, including Levi’s, Hugo Boss, and Herman Miller.

“At Klarna, we want to provide the world’s best shopping experience - whether that is online or in-store,” said David Sandström, chief marketing officer at Klarna. “In the past, online shopping has been missing a key element: human interaction. With Virtual Shopping, we replicate the brick-and-mortar experience of receiving personalized advice from an in-store expert and bring it to the online realm. This will empower our partnered retailers around the world to bring their online stores to life and build customer relationships that last.”

Klarna’s Virtual Shopping offering is live today in 18 markets, including the U.S., Canada, U.K., Australia, New Zealand, Norway, Denmark, France, Poland, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Sweden. The offering will extend to additional markets in 2022.