The news: Klarna rolled out tap to pay on iPhones and Androids across 14 European markets, expanding its reach for in-store purchases, per a press release.

Why this matters: With in-app tap to pay, Klarna stands to capture more volume in-stores—where the bulk of Europeans spend: We forecast that Western Europeans will spend $4.591 trillion at in-store retail locations this year. Klarna projects in-store retail accounts for 80% of European spend.

This builds on Klarna’s successful buy now, pay later (BNPL) debit card rollout—now boasting 4 million users globally.

NFC tech importance: While Apple has held onto its lead for in-store checkout, PayPal, Cash App, Google Pay, and Venmo are rapidly gaining traction, more than doubling their number of US users since 2023. 

After Apple was forced to open up its NFC tech in August 2024, rivals have been slowly enabling tap to pay directly from their own digital wallets. But no major wallets have rolled out the functionality in the US. (PayPal is piloting tap to pay in Germany.) Wallets could get even greater user adoption if they roll out tap to pay in the US—threatening Apple’s pole position.

Our take: Rolling out tap to pay in Europe shows Klarna’s ambition to secure seamless ways to check out for its users. However, US in-store retail spend is the real global prize for BNPL providers—we forecast a whopping $6,253.11 billion in US spend for 2025—and Klarna has yet to tackle a similar initiative stateside. 

With Klarna and Affirm already available in-store through Apple Pay in the US, BNPL providers have to weigh how much in-app tap to pay rollouts could gain traction among US consumers who are already accustomed to Apple Wallet—and what incentives could entice them to leave the Apple ecosystem.