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).
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.
What the merchant might be surprised by:
- 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
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.
Cross-connector reconciliation:
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.