Klarna, the Swedish buy now, pay later brand, is on a mission to make shopping online just as fun as buying in stores. The company is rolling out a new “virtual shopping” feature to its 400,000 retail partners that allows stores to replicate some of the consumer connections from a physical buying experience in the e-commerce realm.
“Although online is a very convenient way to buy things, it doesn’t really give you the experience that we use offline,” said David Sandström, chief marketing officer at Klarna, noting that many consumers want to touch and feel a product, ask questions about it and get advice on fit and styling. “A lot of the friction we’re seeing in the market, both with abandoned baskets or people making returns, comes down to the fact that the basic human interaction is missing online.”
Klarna recently ran its own shopping report that found that consumers prefer shopping in person primarily because of “the social interaction and level of customer service.” The survey found that 78% of U.S. shoppers think online retailers should invest in technology to recreate some of the physical personalized experience.