A Deep Dive Analysis of Klarna's Website
Each week, we look at leading brands and apply the comprehensive database of A/B test results we have at DoWhatWorks to their website layouts.
On August 26, 2025, news broke that Klarna, a fintech company known for its “buy now, pay later” (BNPL) services, was eyeing an IPO at a $13-14 billion dollar valuation.
But how does their site hold up to best practices in the fintech space?
I took a deep dive into our database to see how they stack up.
Note: Klarna has both a consumer and business side of their site, I will focus on the consumer experience.
Homepage
Their homepage hero excels in two areas, and there are two areas I think they can further optimize.
Product imagery performs well in fintech. They use an actual screenshot of the experience on mobile, which in A/B testing, we have seen outperforms branded imagery, stock photography, graphical backgrounds, etc.
Clear capability language outperforms benefit language. Their header and subheader clearly describe what the product does…
“Shop securely and choose to pay in 4 interest-free payments, in full, in 30 days, or over time.”
This type of clear explanation of their “what we do” in the hero outperforms brands that go a more outcome/benefits focused route, like,
“Stop chasing transactions. [brand] turns customers into diehard fans — obsessed with your products, devoted to your brand, fueling your growth.”
In the first example, I have a clear sense of what Klarna does, but in this second example, that could be thousands of different companies.
Clear CTA button text outperforms vague language. Klarna uses “Learn More” which is fairly general CTA text. What a customer expects there could be a written article describing how the tool works, it could be an explainer video, it could be a pre-recorded tour of the product. Because of that ambiguity around expectation, clicks will typically be lower.
Compare this to the CTA used further down the page of “Download the app”, which has very clear expectations of what will happen when I click.
Social proof in the above-the-fold section typically performs poorly. We have looked at hundreds of brands that have used everything from G2 reviews, to logos, to star ratings above the headers, and it tends to perform poorly. Brands that have tested out of this are teams like Navan and Dropbox.
“The Why”
I often find brands do a good job of establishing what they do on their sites, a decent job of “how” they do it, and a dismal job of “why them”. I love that Klarna has a clear “Why use Klarna”
It focuses on specific differentiators, from no fees to security features, and has relevant product visuals that align with the points.
My only recommendation would be to have some CTA in this section to allow folks to take action if some of these points resonate.
When brands like SurveyMonkey tested having CTAs in each section versus only on certain sections, the version with CTAs in each block won.
Social Proof Section
Effective customer proof can help take prospects who are on the fence and give them the confidence to move to a buying decision.
It’s an important part of a site, and yet, the majority of brands execute poorly here for a range of reasons.
Reviews can have unexpected signaling. Klarna displays a 4.0 rating with 373,980 reviews on Trustpilot.
Is this positive?
From qualitative polling I did in 2024 (with over 3,400 respondents) they indicated 4.5-4.9 stars was a positive signal, 4.0 - 4.5 was a neutral signal, and 3.9 and below was a negative signal.
So this is sitting right on the line of neutral and negative.
Also, it says 100 million people use Klarna, and yet they only have 300k reviews, this also begs the question of why more folks aren’t leaving reviews.
Finally, the dates of reviews or testimonials, be that G2 reviews from 2023, or testimonials from a while back, can prompt prospects to ask, “Why nothing more recent?”
I provide a deep dive analysis into why brands like Dropbox, Navan or Jotforms tested out of certain types of social proof here.
Test Drive the Product
Many brands, from Lovable to G2, run sections that allow prospects to directly test or interact with their product. This section from Klarna allows folks who are interested to see specific products that they can pay for with Klarna.
It’s a great way to showcase the breadth of their coverage and allow people to visualize “I could afford this if I used Klarna”
Is there a brand you would love to see analyzed? Drop their name in the comments.