Aligned with Klarna‘s plans to expand its retailer support services and improve the overall shopping experience for consumers, the company said today that it has acquired Apprl, which is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform that allows content creators and merchants to create social shopping content.
Apprl is designed for content creators and merchants “to work together frictionlessly to bring immersive and informative shoppable content to global consumers,” Klarna said in a statement, also noting that the platform “allows consumers to shop smarter through inspiration, reviews, customer service or product and price comparison.”
Apprl is also based in Stockholm, and the company is now part of Klarna’s retailer support offering, which also includes conversational commerce platform Hero as well as a comparison-shopping service and a styling engine and content creation platform.
Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
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Sebastian Siemiatkowski, CEO of Klarna, said, as “social shopping becomes a core element of the retail experience, we believe Klarna’s position at the center of the shopping ecosystem is instrumental in connecting retailers to both consumers and content creators who resonate with their brand audiences.”
Social commerce is pegged to reach $84 billion by 2024 and is being embraced by generational cohorts such as Gen Z and millennials. Siemiatkowski said with the addition of Apprl to its “existing retailer support expertise, we see a huge opportunity to create an enriching and informative shopping experience for consumers everywhere while accelerating retailer growth.”
Martin Landén, CEO of Apprl, said as brands and retailers “continue to embrace influencer marketing as their growth engine, with an increasing focus on ROI, data and automation, Apprl has been seeing an exponential increase in demand.”
Landén said his company’s platform, along with Klarna’s “scale, incredible talent and portfolio of marketing services, we will be able to offer retailers an end-to-end influencer and performance marketing solution that they won’t be able to find anywhere else.”
