The news: Klarna’s revenues grew 27% YoY to $1.042 billion per its Q2 2026 earnings.

Gross merchandise value rose 18% YoY to $36.6 billion. Transaction margin dollars surged 42% to $446 million.

Still, investors sent Klarna’s shares down over 20% after the company lowered its full-year outlook from $155 billion in GMV to between $149 billion and $151 billion. Klarna’s CFO and CMO also both announced that they were departing the company. 

Key metrics: 

• Klarna’s merchant network grew 54% YoY to 1.2 million, powered by distribution deals with partners like JP Morgan, Stripe, and Nexi.
• The Klarna Card reached 6.5 million active users across 16 countries, up from 1.3 million a year ago.
• And overall active consumers jumped from 111 million in Q2 2025 to 120 million.

Why this matters: As the US buy now, pay later (BNPL) industry matures, installment providers cannot rely on network expansion and customer acquisition to drive revenue growth. 

Instead, Klarna needs to convince its customers to spend more through its platform rather than the payment methods they use more often. This reflects an industry-wide shift: We forecast that BNPL payment value growth will decelerate from 22.5% this year to 7.7% by 2030.

Klarna is on its way to deepening user engagement: The company reported that average revenues per active customer (ARPAC) rose 24% YoY, supported by membership fee growth and strong Klarna Card and interest-bearing loan adoption.

Implications for BNPL providers: BNPL players need to encourage repeat engagement with their platforms for everyday and discretionary needs. 

As BNPL-enabled cards gain traction, BNPL players can cross-sell cardholders on competitive savings accounts as well as utilities like phone lines. The more cardholders are driven back to one central hub, the more likely they are to spend through that provider.

However, US consumers won’t concentrate their spending with BNPL providers without rewards on par with credit cards.

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