Sainsbury’s Brands Argos, Habitat, TU Add Klarna BNPL Options

Sainsbury’s is now offering shoppers in the United Kingdom the option of using Klarna’s buy now, pay later (BNPL) payment methods at the online checkouts of its brands Argos, Habitat and TU.

With the new partnership between the two companies, shoppers will have access to Klarna’s three interest-free BNPL payments, allowing them to pay immediately and in full with Pay Now, pay in 30 days with Pay Later, or pay over three equal installments with Pay in 3, Klarna said in a Friday (June 7) press release.

“More than 20 million Brits already use Klarna and now they can enjoy our flexible payment options at more of their favorite stores,” David Sykes, chief commercial officer at Klarna, said in the release.

PYMNTS Intelligence found that the option to split purchases into multiple payments is a highly sought-after digital feature, but U.K. merchants lag behind those in some other countries in offering this option.

While 34% of U.K. merchants offer a split payment option, 91% of merchants in Saudi Arabia offer it, according to the “2024 Global Digital Shopping Index: U.K. Edition,” a PYMNTS Intelligence and Visa Acceptance Solutions collaboration.

Twenty-seven percent of British adults used BNPL at least once in the six months leading to January 2023, according to the U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority. That figure was up from the 17% of British adults who said they had used BNPL when surveyed in May 2022.

Throughout the markets in which Klarna operates, the company saw a 29% increase in total revenue in the first quarter, up from the 13% rise it saw in the same quarter a year earlier, according to earnings results released May 30.

“This surge is driven by our expanding presence in the U.S., where we continue to onboard major retailers,” Klarna said at the time. “As the preferred choice for consumers’ everyday spending, commerce thrives on the Klarna network.”

In another partnership, Klarna said in April that it teamed up with luggage and travel accessories brand Away to offer interest-free BNPL options to that retailer’s customers in the U.K., the United States and Canada.

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