Klarna, the payment and shopping platform, today announced new features and updates aimed at giving users a more personalized shopping experience.

This includes “Ask Klarna”, a Personal Shopping Assistant where users can talk to real fashion experts; “Creator Shops”, a personalized storefront for content creators; an AI-powered discovery shopping flow; and resale functionality, among other new tools.

The suite of new features – which are rolling out in select regions like the US, UK and Germany – come as the Swedish fintech company continues to focus on the buy-now, payment platform later and more about becoming a global shopping platform. destination for its 150 million users.

In addition, Klarna has also rolled out a redesigned interface for its app. The Klarna app will now have new tabs: Shop, Purchases, In Store, Budget and You. The company hopes the update will help consumers discover new products and manage their purchase history more effectively.

“Over the past 18 years, we have transformed into a global shopping destination with smart tools for consumers around the world,” said Sebastian Siemiatkowski, co-founder and CEO of Klarna, in a statement. “The new tools we’re launching today will create richer, more enjoyable experiences for everyone throughout the shopping journey and create huge opportunities for retailers to grow their business.”

With Ask Klarna, the company has recruited a group of trained shopping experts to assist consumers with their purchases via chat or video call on Klarna.com and Klarna’s mobile app. Klarna personal shoppers can advise and inform them about products from thousands of brands and stores.

The feature uses technology from the social shopping platform HERO, which Klarna acquired in 2021, to bring product reviews, real-time advice and informative content to its users.

According to a recent Klarna survey, 85% of US respondents said they wanted a service that allowed them to chat with product experts for more product information. The company has also noticed that consumers are less confident when it comes to buying more expensive items online, Klarna Chief Marketing Officer David Sandstrom told TechCrunch.

“When people buy big ticket items, there’s still uncertainty when they do it digitally,” Sandstrom said. “If you want to buy a luxury handbag, especially if it’s not for yourself, there just isn’t enough confidence in that purchase. You want to talk to someone.

Currently, Ask Klarna is limited to luxury fashion items, but will soon expand to other more expensive items such as TVs, smartphones, drones and other electronics.

“Any type of high-priced item where we find that consumer confidence is lacking. That’s where we want to insert this feature,” Sandstrom added.

In particular, the new personal shopper service is completely free for users. Plus, you don’t have to be one of the top 1% spenders to qualify for the service, which Sandstrom says other fashion companies are doing with their online shopping assistants.

At the moment, the company has no plans to monetize, at least not yet.

“The business model will likely evolve in the future, depending on how popular it is… We’ll see where that takes us,” Sandstrom told us.

At launch, Ask Klarna is only available to US users. It will roll out to the UK and Germany later this year.

Last month, Klarna announced its new ChatGPT plugin, which also gives users product recommendations. So whether you want to ask a human or OpenAI’s chatbot if a trendy designer handbag is worth spending thousands of dollars, Klarna now lets you do both.

Speaking of AI, the company found another way to integrate the technology into its platform. Klarna offers a new personalized, AI-powered discovery shopping flow to help consumers find the items most relevant to them based on their preferences.

“Our new AI-powered discovery shopping flow is the next evolution of the Klarna app and becomes the starting point for every purchase. This builds on a ton of initiatives we are working on in the space. of AI, to provide a greater level of personalization to consumers that was once considered impossible,” added Siemiatkowski.

The revamped feed will still contain the recently launched search and compare tool at the top of the screen, so users can continue to research what products are on sale, what’s the lowest price, shipping options and what is in stock.

Alongside the search and comparison tool, Klarna also launched its Creator app last year to help influencers connect with brands. The app also allowed content creators to track their performance, revenue, and sales.

There are currently 12,000 approved creators on the platform, according to Sandstrom.

Now the company is allowing creators to launch their own storefronts on Klarna.com, so their subscribers can click through to the store, watch their shoppable videos, and purchase recommended products.

Similar to the LTK influencer shopping app, Klarna’s new Creator Shops feature also allows creators to share their personal shop on their social media accounts as well as post content including links to each item in the photo. or video, which, in turn, increases their chances of earning revenue.

“The Klarna Creator Platform has opened up a whole new world of affiliate content opportunities,” content creator Lydia Tomlinson said in a statement. “With my new designer store, I have the perfect place to showcase everything I wear, use and love. Now my followers can easily find and shop my latest looks in one place, saving them the hassle of having to wondering where to buy.”

Designer Shops are only available on Klarna.com but will soon be launching in the Klarna app. The feature has yet to launch in the US, but has rolled out to creators in the UK, Sweden, and Germany.

If you have clothing that’s been left untouched in your closet, Klarna offers to help speed up the resale process, but only if you used Klarna to purchase it. The company is introducing a resell feature that allows Klarna buyers to resell products they no longer want.

In the Klarna app, users can tap the “Resell” button next to an item in their order history. Users are then directed to a third-party re-commerce platform. Klarna pre-populates the listing with product details, description and images, which can often take a long time. Users can set the item price.

The resale feature was launched earlier this year and is currently only available to Swedish users. Klarna has partnered with the Tradera resale platform and is expected to launch soon with other partners around the world.

Later this year, Resell will roll out to the US, UK and Germany.

Klarna also helps brands with ad creation, audience targeting and campaign optimization. Ads Manager is a newly launched platform for retailers that allows them to access Klarna’s first-party data and target the right shoppers.

Merchants can post ads directly to Klarna’s personalized shopping feed.

There are around 450,000 brands on the platform including Steve Madden, Nike, Lululemon, Marc Jacobs, Michael Kors and many more.