The 2020 Holiday shopping season will undoubtedly be like no other in recent times. Due to the global pandemic, a significantly larger part of holiday buying will be done online instead of in physical stores. The National Retail Federation expects e-commerce holiday sales to increase between 20 and 30 percent compared to 2019. But that is still less than a third of the total sales volume, which clearly shows that brick and mortar continue to play an important role.
According to Klarna’s 2020 Holiday Retail Report, a majority of US consumers think it’s more fun to shop in physical stores during the holidays (54%) than online (46%). And retailers have put a lot of effort into making their stores safe to visit with precautionary measures in place to keep the virus from spreading.
One of the most important health and safety measures is to offer shoppers contactless payment solutions to minimize interaction. This is something that Klarna enables with our innovative in-store solution, which is currently available in more than 60,000 stores across the US. Some of the leading brands that are offering this service are H&M, Sephora, The North Face and Timberland.
To pay with Klarna at participating physical stores, customers can use the app to create a one-time virtual card that gets added to their preferred digital wallet. They can then use their mobile device to make a purchase as they typically would at any store that accepts contactless payments.
Klarna’s in-store solution also provides shoppers with greater payment security and flexibility. It’s clear that customers enjoy the ability to spread purchases across four interest-free payments, whether they’re shopping online or at a physical store. The ability to manage payments in the Klarna app adds an extra layer of convenience to the shopping experience. Not to mention the perks of earning Vibe points for members of Klarna’s rewards club.
For retailers, the benefit comes from offering the same experience in-store as shopping online with Klarna, and from the ease and convenience of accepting Klarna payments without technical integration.
Shoppers can find the full list of available retailers in the app by clicking on the “In-store” button at the bottom of the screen. Klarna will be adding hundreds of the largest and most popular brands to its in-store service through the rest of the year and into 2021.