Klarna Bets on Worldline Partnership to Sustain BNPL Growth

Europe-focused payments services company Worldline has launched a partnership with flexible payments provider Klarna.

The collaboration is designed to boost access to Klarna’s payment options at online and in-store points of sale serviced by Worldline, the companies said in a Tuesday (May 19) news release.

“Worldline will integrate Klarna more deeply into its technology stack, and acquire transactions, making it much simpler for businesses to offer Klarna to their customers,” the release added.

The rollout will start this year with Worldline integrating Klarna into Global Collect, its online payment solution for eCommerce players in the travel and digital space.

That will be followed by Worldline opening Klarna to its small business customers using its GoPay platform, with a latter stage of the agreement seeing Worldline bringing Klarna’s payment methods, including the Swedish company’s buy now, pay later (BNPL) services, to in-store point of sales (POS) terminals.

“This is a huge step in our mission to make Klarna flexible payments available to everyone, everywhere,” said David Sykes, Klarna’s chief commercial officer. “Partnering with Worldline, Europe’s largest card acquirer, gives us an incredible opportunity to connect even more businesses with our platform and support consumers everywhere to pay smarter.”

The announcement comes days after Klarna reported earnings showing quarterly revenue of $1 billion, a 44% year-over-year increase.

As PYMNTS wrote, this was driven by “consumers leaning on buy now, pay later for everything from groceries to larger-ticket purchases.”

Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski said during an earnings call that the company’s strategy is based on building a larger payments ecosystem that goes beyond traditional BNPL. While Klarna is still “spend-centric,” BNPL “means we start small with every new customer. A $100 transaction repaid in weeks. That’s how we get to know each other.”

Research by PYMNTS Intelligence shows BNPL has “become the ultimate low-friction access tool” for Gen Z consumers. More of these consumers report using BNPL than those who say they use credit cards, with 42% saying they’ve used it at least once.

“When faced with a purchase, the primary driver for choosing BNPL is speed and instant approval,” PYMNTS wrote, citing research showing that 55% of Gen Z consumers cite speed and easy approval as their chief reason for using BNPL, a number that is disproportionately higher than other age brackets.

This is especially true for the 57% of users who depend on BNPL to fund purchases they would not otherwise be able to cover up front.

“In an economy where 48% of Gen Z have turned to credit options to make ends meet following job loss or income reduction, BNPL shifts from a checkout convenience into a short-term liquidity bridge, helping users manage income gaps,” PYMNTS added.