In early 2005, three Swedish visionaries entered the annual entrepreneurial competition organized by the Stockholm School of Economics. The jury is unenthusiastic about the idea of ​​a service that would offer consumers the ability to buy now and pay later—what is now known as Buy Now, Pay Later, or simply BNPL—so the three young people’s proposal came in last place. .

But this did not stop Sebastian Semyatkovsky, Niklas Adalbert and Viktor Jakobsson. In April of the same year, with the support of investment “angel” Jane Walerud, they created Kreditor Europe AB, which they were to rename. Klarna and conquer the world by changing the way you shop online. Nearly two decades later, Klarna is the world’s leading retail, payment and merchant services bank with 150 million consumers across three continents and more than 400,000 businesses large and small, including H&M, Adidas, Sephora, IKEA and more.

Since September 2022, Klarna is also available in our country, offering us the opportunity to split the cost of our purchases into three interest-free payments and pay only for items that we do not intend to return, as well as many other benefits. “BNPL was ‘invented’ by Klarna 17 years ago and the company has rapidly expanded into Northern and Central Europe, where penetration is currently impressive. For example, in Germany it has become synonymous with the word “shopping”. The very large markets of the US, UK, Canada and Australia followed later, as well as most European countries,” explains the Regional Manager Klarna for Greece, Ilias Pitsavos.

Greece is the last country in Southern Europe where Klarna after Italy, Spain and Portugal. The decision was mainly due to the very high growth rate of online commerce in our country, which in recent years has even become one of the largest in all of Europe. At the same time, the widespread adoption of debit cards as the main payment method, as well as the fact that Greek consumers are familiar with the installment concept, made the decision very simple. The first signs we have are extremely encouraging. This seems to fill a significant gap in the market,” he continues.

Indeed, Greeks are more than willing to integrate Klarna into their daily lives: according to a recent survey conducted by Klarna, three times as many shoppers would prefer Buy Now, Pay Later (63%) than credit cards (22%). in collaboration with research agency Dynata. It even seems that in Greece BNPL is even more popular than credit cards than in other countries, as 61% of consumers say they are ready to give up their credit cards and “accept” BNPL.

“The main reason why Greeks are now turning to BNPL options is due to the low level of trust in banks and credit cards as a means of payment,” emphasizes Mr. Pitsavos. “Credit cards have hidden fees, very high interest rates and can lead to exorbitant debt. On the contrary, BNPL is a viable and fair payment method with no additional fees and a clear repayment plan,” he adds, clarifying that Klarna “It’s free to the consumer, no hidden fees, no exorbitant interest rates, unlike credit cards.” At the same time, it allows him to “split the purchase into interest-free installments even with his debit card, which is preferred by 60% of online purchases in Greece.”

According to the survey, nine out of ten Greeks believe that shopping online saves time and money. Additionally, 70% of Gen Zers and millennials in Greece choose to make at least half of their purchases online, even outperforming consumers in more developed markets like Germany or the US. Just as strong is the shift to smartphone shopping, with 68% of respondents believing that in 5 years they will increase their online mobile shopping to match the prevalence of mobile shopping in the US.

Making purchases from a mobile phone through the application Klarna we have absolute control over our purchases” with a complete post-purchase experience. Can anyone see a photo of a purchased product, get a refund immediately, request additional time for repayment, see similar products and even the CO2 emissions of the purchase,” concludes the head of Klarna Greece. As of now, consumers in Greece can already shop with Klarna at over 200 stores, including aboutyou.gr and public.gr.

More information about Klarna products and the benefits enjoyed by merchants who integrate the service at the checkout can be found at www.klarna.com/gr/business/.