Shaping a circular future: Klarna debuts several new conscious shopping tools

NEW YORK, Sept. 19, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Klarna, the AI powered global payments network and shopping assistant, today announced the launch of several new products and services aimed to promote circularity and encourage smart shopping. With these updates, Klarna continues to evolve beyond payments to become a starting point for every purchase for 150 million consumers and 27 million app users worldwide, whether they already know what they want or are looking for inspiration – all while prioritizing environmental impact.

"Klarna is dedicated to transforming shopping into a more circular, sustainable experience by facilitating more informed decisions and providing our 150 million consumers with tools to discover more environmentally responsible products," said Salah Said, Head of Sustainability, Klarna. "With the launch of these new products, including a new conscious shopping dashboard, added sustainability filters in our search and compare tool, and an enhanced CO2e tracker with data for over 122 million products across five product categories, we aim to equip individuals to make choices that align with their values and consider sustainable aspects when shopping."

One-stop conscious shopping dashboard 

Consumers are increasingly prioritizing environmentally and ethically sustainable practices throughout their shopping journey, with 78% of consumers saying that a sustainable lifestyle is important to them¹, and nearly half (46%) considering it important to look for sustainable clothing items². However, despite this growing awareness, a significant portion find it challenging to initiate their sustainable shopping journey due to inadequate information and resources, with nearly 8 out of 10 consumers admitting to struggling with identifying environmentally-friendly companies that align with their interests and values³.

To solve this information gap and empower consumers who wish to make more sustainable shopping choices, Klarna is proud to introduce a new conscious shopping dashboard, now available online in the US, here, with plans to launch in the Klarna App and across additional markets in coming months. This new dashboard is making smart and sustainable shopping even easier, serving as a centralized resource offering consumers access to a comprehensive array of sustainability-oriented products, features, and services provided by Klarna. From Klarna's suite of brand collections, including "Shop Circular" brands that spotlight brands with circular services to reduce waste and maximize the use of products, to Klarna's popular Co2e footprint tracker, this new dashboard is the destination to discover and engage with all of Klarna's sustainability products – all in one place.

In addition to providing a gateway to Klarna's wide range of conscious shopping offerings, the dashboard also serves as a repository for editorial and educational content designed to enhance consumers' understanding of sustainable practices. 

New sustainability search filters

Klarna's commitment to empowering consumers with tools to shop more consciously is further amplified by new updates to its intelligent search and compare tool online and in the Klarna App, which enables consumers to compare prices across thousands of retailers and filter product searches by features including color, size, features, customer ratings, store availability and shipping options. Now, Klarna introduces new sustainability certification filters enabling conscious consumers to identify products by third-party sustainability certifications including Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS), People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), and Cradle to Cradle. 

In addition, a dedicated filter in the search and compare tool has been added to highlight conscious brands that have earned sustainability ratings of 4 (Good) or 5 (Great) according to Klarna's partner, Good On You. Evaluating 500-plus data points, Good On You assesses the most critical social and environmental issues facing the fashion industry today to evaluate a brand's impact on people, the planet, and animals—rating each brand on a five-point scale ranging from "We Avoid" to "Great." More information about Good On You and its brand rating methods can be found here. 

Both filters are now available to consumers across the US, UK, SE, NO, and DK.

Enhanced Co2e tracker in the Klarna App

Over half (57%) of shoppers actively seek ways to track their carbon footprint while shopping online⁴. Recognizing the growing demand for tools to monitor one's carbon footprint, Klarna introduces an update to its popular Co2e tracker in the Klarna App, now providing more advanced insights into the CO₂ emissions tied to past purchases, meticulously analyzed at a product-level. 

This more granular analysis encompasses every stage of a product's lifecycle, starting from raw material extraction, progressing through processing and assembly, and culminating in final delivery to the end user, so that consumers across all of Klarna's global markets are able to get a full view into the impact of their purchases. From September, Klarna's upgraded CO₂e Tracker also includes insights into the environmental impact of products within the Health & Beauty and Electronics categories, with data powered by Vaayu. This update offers Klarna shoppers granular carbon footprinting for an additional 1 million products across these two additional categories. Klarna's CO₂e tracker now gives consumers across all of Klarna's markets access to emissions data in real-time for over 122 million products across Fashion, Home & Garden, Jewelry & Accessories and Health & Beauty and Electronics categories.

Sustainability and care tips are also available through the tracker to give consumers more information on extending product lifespans and minimizing CO₂e emissions during usage, with valuable insights including practical steps such as adhering to care labels and repairing well-worn items. In addition, consumers can seamlessly transition from awareness to action by accessing a gateway to Klarna's donations feature, where they can give back to Klarna's Give One planet health initiative and the Climate Transformation Fund.

These new features follow several other initiatives led by Klarna to provide consumers with the tools and insights they need to shop more consciously. Earlier this year, Klarna unveiled a Top Up donations feature, allowing shoppers to add a $1 donation to select purchases, supporting planet health initiatives with a focus on climate, people and biodiversity. The company also recently unveiled a resell feature enabling shoppers to resell their previous purchases directly through the Klarna App, and partnered with Reddit to unveil the 2023 Buy It For Life List revealing the most popular durable items according to 1.4 million subscribers of the online community r/BuyItForLife.

Klarna is discussing technology's impact on circularity and the future of conscious shopping during a panel at the The Nest Climate Campus on September 19, 2023 alongside industry leaders Vaayu, Clarity AI, and Vestiaire Collective. For more information, visit https://www.thenestclimatecampus.com/2023-main-stage-agenda.

^1. NielsonIQ, "Sustainability: the new consumer spending outlook"
^2. Klarna 2023 Shopping Pulse 
^3. Business of Sustainability Index', GreenPrint
^4. Klarna 2023 Shopping Pulse

For additional information, please contact:
Adaline Colton
[email protected]
+1 (614) 429-9125

About Klarna

Since 2005 Klarna has been on a mission to accelerate commerce with consumer needs at the heart of it. With over 150 million global active users and 2 million transactions per day, Klarna's fair, sustainable and AI-powered payment and shopping solutions are revolutionizing the way people shop and pay online, empowering consumers to shop smarter with greater confidence and convenience. More than 500,000 global retailers integrate Klarna's innovative technology and marketing solutions to drive growth and loyalty, including H&M, Saks, Sephora, Macy's, Ikea, Expedia Group, Nike and Airbnb. The company became the first fintech to join The Climate Pledge and Race to Zero campaign, and makes annual financial contributions to high-impact climate projects, including carbon removal, reforestation and forest protection, and emission reduction projects. For more information, visit Klarna.com.

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SOURCE Klarna Bank AB (publ)