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European online payment services player arrives in U.S. market

Swedish retail payment player Klarna lands in U.S. and scores a big e-commerce client.

September 7, 2015

Sweden payment vendor Klarna has big goals for its official arrival in the U.S. as its chief executive aims to sign on hundreds of retailers and be processing millions of transactions in the initial months of 2016.

Its first major U.S. retail partner, as reported by Reuters, is Overstock.com. Klarna told Reutersit has about 10 U.S. merchants on board so far, and boasts 50,000 European customers.

Its service lets online shoppers buy products by entering simple information, such as an email address and zip code, and pay post-delivery with Klarna paying the merchant initially and then being paid by the shopper’s transaction.

The 10-year-old private company owns a 10-percent share of the northern European online retail marketspace, had net sales of $319 million in 2014, and is primed to take on global powerhouses such as PayPal.

"There is definitely a potential to quickly reach half a billion dollars in revenue in a very short period of time," Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski told Reuters.