Klarna, the Swedish online financial services specialist that works with groups including VF Corp.’s brand Timberland, has launched a new campaign in the UK called KlarnaSense to encourage shoppers to ”think thrice” before making purchases.
The campaign against impulse buying follows a Mindful Money content series launched last year to help drive financial education with Klarna customers. KlarnaSense was planned before the Covid-19 pandemic but appears particularly timely now given economic uncertainty tied to the health crisis in the UK and elsewhere.
Klarna has teamed up with British retail psychologist Kate Nightingale for the initiative and says shoppers should ask themselves three questions before making purchases: “Do I love it? Will I use it? Is it worth it?”
Despite the pandemic, Klarna’s default rate in the UK stands at less than one percent in the year to date, in line with 2019, despite an increase of customers using its ”buy now, pay later” services. Klarna currently has over 8.6 million customers in the UK and over 6,500 retail partners.
According to a Klarna survey published on May 8 looking at purchasing trends during the health crisis, spending on shoes and clothing on Klarna by British shoppers spiked in early March amid growing signs that a lockdown was likely, before declining ahead of the start of lockdown on March 23. During the lockdown, as British gyms closed the sale of running shoes roughly doubled.
