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Card class: Non-Hero • Category: Payment Gateway

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At a glance

Klarna’s mean order value in the period. Klarna AOV is structurally 30 to 45% higher than card AOV because customers feel comfortable buying larger baskets when payments are spread. The single most important commercial metric for justifying Klarna’s higher merchant fee.
What it countsSUM(order_amount.value) / COUNT(orders WHERE status=CAPTURED), in matching currency.
Pay in 30 vs Pay in 4 vs Slice itSlice it AOV is 4 to 10x other products (longer instalments justify higher value). The blended AOV depends on product mix.
CurrencyPer-currency.
RefundsExcluded from count.
Vs card AOVKlarna AOV typically 30-45% above card AOV for same store. The “Klarna lift” justifies the higher merchant fee.
Time window30D vsP.
Alert trigger+/-15% movement vsP.
Rolesowner, finance, operations

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Calculation

Calculated automatically from your Klarna data. See the At a glance summary above for what the metric tracks and the worked example below for a typical reading.

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Worked example

“Helle Mode”, 30 days ending 02 May 26.
Klarna productCountVolume EURAOV
Pay in 30 days4,820612,400EUR 127
Pay in 41,840248,300EUR 135
Slice it320184,200EUR 575
Blended (EUR only)6,9801,044,900EUR 150
Helle Mode’s card AOV (Stripe) for the same period is EUR 102. Klarna AOV is 47% higher. That’s the “Klarna lift” justifying the 3.5% merchant fee vs 2.0% card fee. What the merchant should notice:
  1. Slice it AOV at EUR 575 dominates the blended figure. Slice it is 4.6% of count but 17.6% of volume; including it lifts the blended AOV by 15-20%.
  2. Pay in 4 AOV (EUR 135) marginally higher than Pay in 30 (EUR 127). Pay in 4 customers know they’re spreading; basket sizes lift slightly.
  3. A 10% drop in blended AOV likely means Slice it adoption dropped. Slice it requires a credit check; if the customer-facing UX deteriorates (a checkout-page redesign mistake), Slice it conversion drops sharply.
  4. The Klarna AOV lift is the commercial justification. A 47% AOV lift on 35% of orders translates roughly to 16% revenue uplift attributable to Klarna integration; well above the 1.5pp incremental fee cost.

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Sibling cards merchants should reference together

CardWhy pair it
kla_total_volumeNumerator.
kla_total_transactionsDenominator.
kla_top_payment_methodsPay in 4 vs Pay in 30 vs Slice it (Slice it dominates AOV).
Stripe stripe_avg_transactionCard AOV; the comparison shows the Klarna lift.

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Reconciling against the vendor’s own dashboard

Where to look: portal.klarna.com → Reports → Sales with average-order-value computed (volume divided by count) per period. Why our number may differ:
ReasonDirectionWhy
Time zoneEitherCEST vs UTC.
Currency renderingEitherKlarna Portal can render EUR-converted; we preserve native.
Cross-connector reconciliation:
ComparisonExpectedWhy
kla_avg_transaction ↔ stripe.stripe_avg_transactionKlarna 30-45% higherKlarna’s BNPL psychology drives larger baskets.

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Known limitations / merchant FAQs

Why is Klarna AOV so much higher than card AOV? Two reasons: (1) BNPL psychology lets customers commit to bigger baskets when payments spread, (2) Slice it (long-instalment) deliberately targets higher-value purchases. The blended Klarna lift is typically 30-45% on the same store. A 10% AOV drop, what to investigate? First check the product mix. Slice it AOV is 4-10x other Klarna products; if Slice it conversion dropped (UX issue, credit-check friction increased), blended AOV drops sharply. Second check is Pay-in-30 vs Pay-in-4 mix; Pay-in-4 has slightly higher AOV but Pay-in-30 is the volume driver. Is the Klarna lift sustainable, or do customers eventually return to card AOV? Sustainable. Multi-year studies show the BNPL AOV lift persists; customers continue to use Klarna for larger purchases over years. The lift narrows slightly (40% in year 1, 35% in year 3) as customers become accustomed. Slice it median vs mean, do they differ? Yes substantially. Slice it has heavy right-tail (some customers finance EUR 2,500+ purchases). Median is typically half of mean for Slice it; this card is mean only. Klarna AOV calculation includes refunded orders? Yes the original capture is in numerator; refunds are tracked separately. A fully-refunded EUR 500 order still contributes EUR 500 to numerator and 1 to denominator. B2B Klarna orders, AOV different? Klarna B2B (Klarna for Business, available in some markets) targets SMBs ordering supplies; AOVs are EUR 800-3,000 typical. If the merchant has Klarna B2B enabled, those orders skew the blended figure.

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Tracked live in Vortex IQ Nerve Centre

Average Transaction is one of hundreds of KPI pulses Vortex IQ tracks across Klarna and 70+ other ecommerce connectors. Nerve Centre runs the detection layer; Vortex Mind investigates the cause when something moves; Ask Viq lets you interrogate any number in plain English. Start for free or book a demo to see this metric running on your own data.