The news: Klarna is now a default payment option for WooCommerce merchants using WooPayments, per a press release.

Previously, merchants had to opt in to offer the buy now, pay later (BNPL) option.

Why this matters: Platform partnerships are a key growth strategy for BNPL providers right now. They solve the pain point of having to negotiate individual partnerships with every merchant, which can be costly and time-consuming.

And Klarna has been pushing this growth avenue: It also became a default payment method on Worldpay in October. This WooCommerce expansion will now bring Klarna to a bevy of new checkout pages—there are more than 4.7 million live stores running on the WooCommerce platform.

Our take: This partnership is a win for Klarna as it preps to go public. But for WooCommerce, the tie-up could have unexpected results.

Not all merchants may want to offer the BNPL option, and now, they no longer have the choice. The transaction cost of accepting a BNPL payment can be more expensive than accepting a card payment, and smaller merchants with tighter margins may not want to accept these higher costs. The tie-up could therefore tarnish some of WooCommerce’s merchant relationships.

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