Klarna partners with UK fashion tech player Lyst for mobile shopping

Sweden’s Klarna has partnered with UK fashion player Lyst for mobile shopping. Now shoppers browsing fashion brands on Lyst will be able to pay for goods using Klarna’s one-tap mobile checkout tools.

Klarna’s technology lets shoppers buy goods on the fly by entering their email and a shipping address, rather than having to input fiddly credit card details on small mobile screens. Goods are then delivered and only then do they have to enter their payment information.

The advantage for shoppers is that they can buy products spontaneously and on the go and then try them on at home before choosing whether to keep them or not. For retailers this potentially solves two of the biggest barriers still remaining in mobile commerce: the desire to see whether clothes that look good on a website actually look good in real life and the hassle of filling in payment details on mobile.

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Lyst CEO and co-founder Chris Morten says the deal will help offer its 40m users across 180 countries a slicker buying experience and drive more sales through mobile, which he says it its fast-growing channel.

The firms claim that a pilot of the partnership drove a 5.1% uptick in conversion from browsing to buying and a corresponding 6.8% uptick in gross merchandise sales on Lyst, which now has more than 12,000 designers’ wares on its platform.

Founded in 2010, Lysts offers fashion from the likes of Valentino, Alexander McQueen and Harrods to Needle & Thread. It has raised $60m to date with backing from the likes of Accel, Balderton and Draper Esprit.

“Consumers get frustrated by long and complex checkout processes, which is why our mission is to make the online payment process simple, swift and smooth for shoppers and our retail partners,” says Luke Griffiths, UK general manager at Klarna in a statement on the new partnership.

Klarna currently enables payments for 65,000 merchants and 45m end users across Europe and North America. One of the Nordic’s most successful technology businesses, the Stockholm-headquartered company now has 1,500 employees and operates in 18 countries.

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