At a glance
The total amount that successfully flowed through Klarna as a BNPL transaction in the period, gross of refunds, gross of Klarna’s merchant fee. This is “Klarna order volume”: Klarna paid the merchant the full amount upfront and assumed consumer credit risk for the instalments. Includes Pay in 4, Pay in 30 days, and Slice it (longer instalments).
| What it counts | Every Klarna order with status = CAPTURED summed by order_amount.value, in each order’s purchase_currency. Includes Klarna Checkout (full Klarna takeover) and Klarna Payments (Klarna as method in merchant checkout). |
| API endpoint | GET /ordermanagement/v1/orders/{order_id} and the /checkout/v3/orders for capture confirmation. |
| VAT / tax treatment | Inclusive. Klarna’s order_amount equals what the customer agreed to pay, including VAT. Klarna passes the full VAT-inclusive amount to the merchant; the merchant remits VAT to the tax authority as normal. |
| Currency | Multi-currency native, no FX. Klarna natively settles in EUR, GBP, SEK, NOK, DKK, USD, AUD, CAD, CHF, PLN, plus a few others depending on merchant region. Each order is summed in its purchase_currency. |
| Fees / processing cost | Gross. Klarna’s merchant fee (typically 1.5 to 5.99% + EUR 0.30 to 0.99 per transaction depending on country, product, and AOV) is NOT deducted. See net-revenue card. |
| Refunds | NOT deducted. Klarna refunds (POST /ordermanagement/v1/orders/{id}/refunds) tracked separately in kla_refund_volume. |
| Disputes / chargebacks | NOT deducted. Klarna’s chargeback equivalent is “buyer protection” claim; tracked separately. Note: Klarna assumes consumer credit risk; merchant is paid even if customer never pays Klarna. |
| Failed / declined payments | Excluded. Klarna’s underwriting decision happens upfront; declined orders never reach CAPTURED. |
| Pay in 4 / Pay in 30 days / Slice it (instalments) | All three count here; the merchant gets paid upfront the full amount regardless of instalment plan customer chose. |
| Klarna Card-side payments | Excluded (those are direct card transactions through Klarna’s issuing partnership, not BNPL). |
| Payout timing | Per order date (when Klarna captured), NOT per merchant-payout date. Klarna pays merchants on a schedule (daily, weekly, or monthly per merchant agreement). |
| Time window | 30D vsP. |
| Alert trigger | drop >15% vsP. |
| Roles | owner, finance |
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
A German DTC fashion brand (“Helle Mode”) on Shopify with Klarna Payments enabled. Customers pick Klarna at checkout for “Pay in 30 days” or “Pay in 4”. 30 days ending 02 May 26.| Klarna product | Orders | Volume | Currency | AOV | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pay in 30 days | 4,820 | EUR 612,400 | EUR | EUR 127 | German consumer favourite, no cost to customer |
| Pay in 4 | 1,840 | EUR 248,300 | EUR | EUR 135 | Newer in DE, US-imported pattern |
| Slice it (6, 12, 24-month instalments) | 320 | EUR 184,200 | EUR | EUR 575 | Higher AOV; consumer credit check |
| UK customers (Pay in 30) | 480 | GBP 51,800 | GBP | GBP 108 | Multi-currency native settlement |
| Total | 7,460 | EUR 1,044,900 + GBP 51,800 |
- Klarna pays the full amount upfront, regardless of instalment plan. Helle Mode received EUR 1,044,900 + GBP 51,800 from Klarna (less Klarna’s merchant fee, typically 3 to 4% in DE). Klarna assumes the consumer credit risk: if a customer never pays back the Pay in 30 days, that’s Klarna’s loss, not the merchant’s.
- Klarna’s AOV lift is real. Helle Mode’s blended Klarna AOV is around EUR 140; the same brand’s direct-card-payment AOV is EUR 95 to EUR 105. The 35 to 45% AOV uplift comes from customers feeling comfortable with larger baskets when payments are spread; this is the principal commercial reason merchants integrate Klarna.
- Pay in 30 days dominates in Germany. Germany historically prefers post-payment (“Rechnungskauf”); Klarna’s Pay in 30 days is the digital-native version. In the US the dominant Klarna product is Pay in 4 (short-term, no credit check). The product mix tells you which customer segment.
- Slice it (instalments) AOV at EUR 575 is 4x other products. Slice it is for higher-value purchases; Klarna runs a soft credit check upfront. Conversion on Slice it is lower (more friction) but AOV is materially higher.
- Klarna’s merchant fee is heavily category-dependent. DE fashion: roughly 3 to 4%. US fashion: 4 to 6%. Furniture: 5 to 7%. The fee is materially higher than card processing (1.5 to 3%) but the AOV lift typically more than compensates.
Sibling cards merchants should reference together
| Card | Why pair it with Klarna Total Volume |
|---|---|
kla_volume_trend | Daily trend; reveals Pay-in-30-days payment-due-day spikes. |
kla_total_transactions | Order count; volume divided by transactions = AOV. |
kla_avg_transaction | Klarna AOV (typically 30 to 45% higher than card AOV). |
kla_refund_volume | The amount to subtract for net. |
kla_payouts_pending | Captured but not yet merchant-payout-disbursed balance. |
kla_top_payment_methods | Pay in 4 vs Pay in 30 vs Slice it product split. |
Stripe stripe_total_revenue / PayPal pp_total_volume | Direct-card alternatives; multi-PSP merchants compare conversion + AOV. |
Shopify total_revenue / BC total_revenue | Upstream commerce view; Klarna is one share of total payment-method revenue. |
Reconciling against the vendor’s own dashboard
Where to look in the Klarna Merchant Portal: Sign in at portal.klarna.com. Closest comparable view:Orders → All orders with status filter “Captured” + date range, or Reports → Sales for aggregate view.Other views to know:
- Settlements view. Klarna’s payout reports; this is post-merchant-fee, post-refund net. Always lower than this card. Use
kla_payouts_pendingand the merchant-fee rate to bridge. - Klarna in-app catalogue (Klarna app). Klarna’s mobile app shows your products to its 150M+ users; sales-influence is real and indirect. Not in this card.
- Disputes view. Klarna buyer-protection claims. Separate from refunds.
| Reason | Direction | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Time zone | Boundary days off | Klarna Portal renders in CEST (Stockholm HQ default) or merchant’s configured timezone; we use UTC. |
| Capture vs authorisation | Theirs may show authorised | Authorised orders awaiting capture (typically 28 days for Pay in 30) appear in Portal “Pending capture” but not here. |
| Multi-currency arithmetic | Ours per-currency, Klarna may convert | Klarna Portal can convert all to EUR at daily FX; we preserve native. |
| API rate limits | Ours lower for very high-volume merchants | Klarna API caps roughly 100 req/min on production; for very high-volume merchants pagination may lag freshest data. |
| Comparison | Expected relationship | When divergence is legitimate |
|---|---|---|
kla_total_volume ↔ shopify.total_revenue | kla <= shopify | Klarna is one of several payment methods; commerce platform totals all. For Klarna-heavy stores expect 20 to 60% Klarna share of revenue. |
kla_total_volume ↔ bigcommerce.total_revenue | kla <= bigcommerce | Same logic. |
kla_total_volume + card-PSP volume | approximately equal to commerce_total_revenue | Klarna + Stripe + PayPal should approach commerce total. |
Known limitations / merchant FAQs
Does Klarna pay me upfront, or only when the customer pays? Upfront. Klarna pays the full order amount (less merchant fee) on its standard payout schedule (typically daily or weekly). Klarna assumes the consumer credit risk: if the customer never pays Klarna for the Pay in 30 days or for the Slice it instalment, that’s Klarna’s loss, not yours. This is fundamental to BNPL: you trade a higher fee (3 to 5% vs 2 to 3% card) for AOV uplift and zero credit risk. Do refunds work the same as cards? Mostly yes. Merchant initiates via Klarna API or Portal. Klarna refunds the customer (cancelling future instalments if not yet paid, or refunding paid amounts). The refund counts inkla_refund_volume. Partial refunds supported.
Pay in 4 vs Pay in 30 vs Slice it, what’s the merchant-side difference?
- Pay in 4 (US, UK): customer pays 25% upfront, three more biweekly. No interest, no credit check. Klarna fee to merchant typically 3 to 5.99%.
- Pay in 30 days (DE, NL, AT, NO, SE): customer pays nothing upfront, full amount in 30 days. Klarna fee 2 to 4%.
- Slice it / Financing (3 to 36 months): longer instalments with consumer credit check, sometimes interest-bearing for the customer. Higher merchant fee (4 to 7%) reflecting Klarna’s longer credit exposure.
kla_top_payment_methods.
Does Klarna run a hard credit check?
For Pay in 4 and Pay in 30 days, no hard check; Klarna uses internal risk models. For Slice it / Financing (long instalments), yes, a hard check or at least a soft check that may feed credit bureaus. Customers see the difference; some abandon Slice it because they don’t want a credit check.
The Klarna in-app catalogue, does it drive my sales?
Yes, indirectly. Once integrated, your products may surface in the Klarna mobile app’s catalogue (used by 150M+ shoppers). Klarna runs A/B-style discovery features, in-app deals, and merchant promotions. The sales boost is hard to attribute (customers click through to your site rather than buy in-app), but Klarna provides attribution in the Merchant Portal.
Klarna is a regulated bank in EU, what does that mean for me?
Klarna AB is a fully licensed Swedish bank since 2017. Practical implications: (1) consumer protection regulations apply (PSD2, GDPR), (2) Klarna’s risk-decision logic must comply with consumer-credit lending rules (no discriminatory underwriting), (3) merchants benefit from regulated-bank counterparty (lower counterparty risk than smaller BNPL providers).
My Klarna decline rate seems high, what gives?
Klarna underwrites consumer credit; some customers are declined for Pay in 30 or Slice it based on Klarna’s risk model. Decline rates vary by country and product (DE Pay in 30 typically 5 to 12% decline, US Pay in 4 typically 8 to 15%). Tracked in kla_decline_rate.
Customer returned the goods but already paid one instalment, what happens?
Klarna refunds the customer for paid instalments and cancels remaining ones. The merchant initiates the refund via Klarna API; Klarna handles the consumer-side accounting.
Why is the Klarna fee higher than card processing?
Two reasons: (1) Klarna assumes credit risk (the loss on customers who never pay), (2) Klarna provides marketing reach (the in-app catalogue, brand-awareness). Merchants paying 4% pay 1 to 2pp more than card processing and accept it because the AOV uplift (30-45%) and conversion lift (8 to 18%) more than compensates.
JP Morgan / Goldman Sachs ownership rumours, anything operational change?
Klarna IPO’d on NYSE in 2025 after a multi-year listing build-up; ownership is now public-market. No operational changes for merchants. Day-to-day API, Portal, fee structures all unchanged.