Overstock payment options

Airplanes can't fly because it's too hot? In recent weeks, the online retailer Overstock.

Through Klarna , people can purchase stuff from Overstock simply by typing their email address, their shipping address, and maybe their phone number—no credit card required. The idea is to streamline e-commerce as much as possible, and according to Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne, it works quite well.

Overstock Store Credit Card - Manage your account

There is still too much much friction with payments, too many steps, too much stuff you have to enter. Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski. Founded in Sweden a decade ago, Klarna says it now drives about 10 percent of e-commerce across Northern Europe—handling more than 30 percent in Sweden alone—and on Tuesday, it officially opened the doors on its US operation. According to the company, it has already signed 15 American customers, including Overstock. The trick is that when you key in your email address, Klarna almost instantly decides if it can extend you some credit, drawing on public and private data about, well, you.

If you qualify, it gives you 14 days and an additional grace period to pay your bill. This has proven particularly powerful in places like Germany, where few people use credit cards. But the company has also seen success in others countries where buying habits resemble those in the US. The bigger point, Siemiatkowski told us this past fall, is that Klarna simplifies the checkout process, letting you buy stuff with fewer keystrokes.

In this way, Klarna is part of a much larger movement across the world of online payments. Services like Apple Pay and Android Pay seek to streamline payments in similar ways. Byrne compares Klarna to these two services, which essentially store a credit card on your phone and let you pay with the tap of a button.

Klarna serves this role too. And as Byrne points out, it opens up extra possibilities by extending credit. But the bigger issue for Klarna—as for any other new payments service—lies in convincing large numbers of people to use it. Despite ample hype, services like Apple Pay and Android Pay represent a small sliver of the market.

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