Buy now, pay later company Klarna is launching its Creator Shops platform, which allows influencers to monetise their content through affiliate links and setting up their own “shop” pages on Klarna.com, is expanding to the US.
The program, which launched earlier this year in Europe, is essentially a “Shopify offering for creators,” said Klarna’s chief marketing officer David Sandstrom, which allows them to link to products from Klarna’s thousands of retail partners through their own dedicated “storefront” on Klarna’s app, which influencers can share with followers via their social media platforms.
“It helps creators to set up a shop and makes it as quick and smooth as possible, so they can focus on what they’re really good at, which is creating content, being curators and connecting with their fan base,” said Sandstrom. “The merchants, the products, the commercial contracts, payments, all of that is a done deal.”
Along with the expansion of Creator Shops, Klarna is also launching its Ad Manager platform, which allows retailers to advertise to Klarna customers on its platforms, in the UK and Sweden.
Klarna first entered the influencer marketing space last year with the launch of its Creator Platform, which allows retailers to identify potential influencer partners. The company sees the space it as a way to enhance the shopping experience for their customers and retail partners.
“Influencers are basically crushing traditional retailers when it comes to the experience around shopping,” he said. “Tapping into that content, being able to offer our consumer base that in our channels is is something that we need to do.”
However, Klarna, which best known for its BNPL offering, is entering a crowded space. Influencer monetisation players like LTK, ShopMy and Collective Voice (formerly ShopStyle Collective) all offer similar features to influencers, including their own dedicated online “storefronts.” Sandstrom believes that Klarna’s wide breadth of retail partners (over 500,000 merchants worldwide) and pre-existing consumer base of 150 million will help it recruit potential influencer partners.
“Creators right now are using multiple platforms, and at the end of the day, it’s about which platform offers the best service, the best utility, and the highest monetization, and I think we can compete on those,” he said.
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