Klarna Lands Amex Deal

Klarna, the largest of Europe’s online “buy now” companies, said Tuesday (Sept. 29) that it has added one of the marquee names of payments to its roster: American Express.

As noted by TechCrunch, the triumvirate is now complete as the company had already solidified relationships with Visa and MasterCard. And that sets the stage, the site noted, for a continued push to make a dent in the United States. The company has already said it reached an agreement with Overstock in early September, marking its first foray into North American eCommerce, with the overall strategy aimed at increasing mobile phone and smart device usage.

At the end of the year, the company signaled its intent to move aggressively into the U.S. with a beachhead established in Columbus, Ohio.

The buy now feature looks to simplify the purchase process for buyers with demonstrated high credit and desirable purchase behavior, with mobile shopping at the forefront, and as TechCrunch notes, the claim to fame is that the simplified interface helps convert browsers into shoppers at rates that grow “by orders of magnitude,” according to Klarna. The click function allows the consumer to proceed with a transaction without having to enter card data at the time and point of sale. The option comes to pay after the transaction, using the Klarna service or by entering a card’s information.

As Klarna gains some visibility in the U.S. through American Express, the payments company benefits, too, as TechCrunch posits. Amex will gain traction in countries, mostly located in Northern Europe, that do not tend to see much in the way of credit card transactions. In non-cash use, credit cards are about 41 percent of transactions in Europe, versus 65 percent in the U.S., research from CapGemini showed.

[bctt tweet=”As Klarna gains some visibility in the U.S. through American Express, the payments company benefits, too.”] 

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