Klarna Boosts Social Shopping With Shareable Wish Lists

Shopping platform Klarna is offering new ways to make the experience with its app more social during the era of social distancing, the company said in a release.

Using Klarna’s “Wish List” feature, consumers can set up, share and follow lists on the Klarna app. Shoppers can connect with lists curated by brands, influencers and Klarna’s shopping experts — and share them with family and friends, too.

Klarna said the Wish List feature lets users save and add products from any online store, as well as set up price-drop alerts for products.

“Shopping is undergoing a dramatic change as consumers are increasingly shopping online and from home, but still looking for community and validation,” said David Sandström, chief marketing officer at Klarna. “Online social connections are becoming just as important as real-life relationships, so being able to facilitate these types of interactions can be powerful and can bring even more inspiration and value to the shopping experience.”

According to the company, consumers can use the Klarna app to create shopping lists with such brands as Adidas, Sephora and TOMS. Klarna, which started out in Sweden, said it plans “in the coming weeks” to announce partnerships with popular influencers who will assemble lists of their product picks. The aim of this additional feature is to help retailers connect with customers.

“With the launch of this feature, we’re making shopping inherently more social and giving retailers yet another way to connect and engage with shoppers, who are known to look to family, friends and online sources for product recommendations,” said David Sykes, head of Klarna U.S. “For our retailer community, ‘Wish’ lists are creating an additional touchpoint where we can enable a deeper understanding of what consumers actually want from brands.”

PYMNTS tracks mobile apps for a variety of sectors, including alternative credit. At the top of the latest list is Klarna, which is currently promoting buy now, pay later (BNPL) alternatives. Previously this summer, Klarna introduced “a new shopping experience” with updated features for its mobile app, which included “exclusive deals” along with the app’s BNPL features. Klarna said it currently has one million monthly active users in the U.S.