At a glance
Percentage of Klarna revenue refunded. Klarna refunds work differently from cards: Klarna handles consumer-side accounting (cancels remaining instalments, refunds paid). Merchant initiates via Klarna API.
| What it counts | SUM(refund.amount) / SUM(captured.amount) per period, per currency. |
| Healthy | Fashion 8-15%, beauty 1-4%, electronics 4-8%. |
| Klarna refund process | Merchant API: POST /ordermanagement/v1/orders/{id}/refunds. Klarna refunds the customer (paid instalments) and cancels future instalments. |
| Time window | 30D vsP. |
| Alert trigger | >10%. |
| Sentiment key | gauge_inverse: good<=3, warn>8 |
| Roles | owner, finance, operations |
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.Worked example
“Helle Mode” 30 days ending 02 May 26.| Klarna product | Volume | Refunds | Refund rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pay in 30 days | EUR 612,400 | EUR 64,300 | 10.5% |
| Pay in 4 | EUR 248,300 | EUR 32,200 | 13.0% |
| Slice it | EUR 184,200 | EUR 11,000 | 6.0% |
| Blended (EUR) | EUR 1,044,900 | EUR 107,500 | 10.3% |
- Pay in 4 has higher refund rate (13%). Customers more likely to “try and return” knowing they can spread payments; classic BNPL return-rate pattern.
- Slice it lower (6%). Long-instalment commitments select for more deliberate purchasers.
- Helle Mode’s 10.3% is fashion-typical. Above 15% suggests product quality or sizing issue.
- Klarna BNPL refund rates are 2-4pp higher than card-paid for the same merchant. The “Klarna lift” comes with a return-rate trade-off.
Sibling cards merchants should reference together
| Card | Why pair it |
|---|---|
kla_refund_volume | Absolute amount. |
kla_total_volume | Denominator. |
Stripe stripe_refund_rate | Card refund rate; usually 2-4pp lower. |
Reconciling against the vendor’s own dashboard
Where to look: portal.klarna.com → Refunds with date filter. Why our number may differ:| Reason | Direction | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Time zone | Boundary days off | CEST vs UTC. |
| Refund attribution date | Either | We use issue-date; some Portal views use original-sale-date. |
| Comparison | Expected | Why |
|---|---|---|
kla_refund_rate ↔ stripe.stripe_refund_rate | Klarna 2-4pp higher | BNPL “try and return” pattern. |