Executive Summary

Klarna—the largest global buy now, pay later (BNPL) company—is currently the face of the sector’s challenges, which include profitability concerns, rising delinquencies, and mounting regulatory scrutiny. Merchants, competitors, and investors are asking whether this BNPL leader can pivot to sustainable growth.

We examine how Klarna stacks up and how its services could evolve. To answer this, our analysts ranked Klarna’s US BNPL offering against a checklist of 49 features. These features were selected based on their ability to differentiate BNPL providers. We conducted a proprietary survey of 1,192 BNPL shoppers in July 2022 to identify consumer demand for each feature. The data reveals a detailed picture of the most in-demand features that Klarna boasts—and those it lacks.

Read on for the story behind Insider Intelligence’s data, including:

• Klarna’s innovative features: Exclusive consumer demand data for 49 innovative BNPL features, and a checklist of those offered by Klarna.
• Top five capabilities and feature gaps: Analysis of the five most in-demand features inside (and outside) Klarna’s arsenal.

Key Question: What are the most in-demand features that Klarna offers—or lacks?

KEY STAT: Increased competition from newer entrants will cause Klarna’s year-over-year (YoY) user growth in the US to cool between 2022 and 2023 to almost one-third of 2022’s rate.