Klarna, one of the largest payments and fintech firm based out of Sweden, has announced that it has acquired HERO, the social shopping platform which tries to bring in the physical experience of shopping to the online shopping ecosystem as well.
HERO has been known to be a very innovative social platform for shopping where the users are given reviews, ratings, videos, advice, and shippable content coming directly from the physical stores which helps the online users to get a more immersive experience and helps them to decide what to shop. One of the big drawbacks of online shopping has been the lack of any physical experience and HERO hopes to solve this problem.
Speaking on the development, Adam Levene, Founder at HERO says, “Klarna is a company we’ve long admired. They have built an iconic brand and proposition, and a unique culture that makes it the perfect home for our team. By joining forces we can bring our technology to even more merchants and consumers across the world, making online shopping more social, interactive, and ultimately more human.”
HEROs clients include major brands like Levis, Chloe, and others. By this acquisition, the HERO platform would be able to get immediate access to thousands of retail partners of Klarna and this would help the social commerce ecosystem around HERO and Klarna to grow steadily.
According to Sebastian Siemiatkowski, CEO of Klarna, “Immersive shopping experiences are now expected by consumers when shopping online and forward-thinking brands want to provide consumers with a rich, interactive way to shop for their products. With HERO we share an ambition to elevate the shopping experience through the convergence of online and in-store shopping experiences, supporting retailers to inform and engage consumers in new ways.”
The companies are focused on developing social shopping practices among the users which have been catching on among the millennials and is expected to become a big industry in due course of time. Klarna seems to be very much focused on the e-commerce industry as it had recently acquired another shopping comparison service, Shoptail, to add to its other acquisitions. The company had also raised $639 million last month and it has been using these funds to plan for further growth and acquisitions as it looks to transform the social commerce space. The company looks to expand its service across the whole of Europe and the US as well.
