STOCKHOLM — Klarna confirmed in a Monday investor note that the average American Gen Z user has split their holiday purchases into 4.6 installments per item this season, with the smallest financed transaction on the platform currently a $9.14 glass ornament being paid down through late January in increments of $2.28.
The company characterized the trend in its quarterly letter as “deepening engagement,” a phrase one industry analyst described as either bullish or a cry for help, depending on whether you read it before or after lunch.
“I just don’t like seeing the full number,” said Maddie Reinhart, 24, a marketing coordinator in Columbus who has split a $32 humidifier filter across Klarna, Affirm, and an informal agreement with her roommate. She acknowledged that two of the three lenders are unaware of the others, and that the roommate has been told it’s “handled.”
Internal Klarna data shows a growing cohort of users financing items they have already partially financed elsewhere, a practice the industry calls “stacking” and customers call “Tuesday.” Roughly 18% of holiday transactions on the platform now involve an item priced under $15, including a record number of single-candle purchases routed through six-month plans.
Klarna’s underwriting model, which the company recently replaced with an AI approval engine to “reduce friction,” cleared the $9 ornament in 0.4 seconds and immediately flagged the buyer for an upsell on a matching $11 wreath that could be split across six payments and, per the suggested copy, “a small contribution from a relative.”
Affirm declined to comment, then pushed a notification offering to refinance the decision to decline. PayPal’s Pay-in-4 product, asked the same question, responded with a 0% APR offer to answer it later.
The Atlantic Heartland Project, an environmental nonprofit tracking e-commerce emissions, noted that the average BNPL-financed holiday item is now shipped an average of 2.3 times — once to the buyer, once back as a return, and once again to a secondary buyer — producing what the group’s lead researcher called “likely the largest carbon footprint per ornament in recorded history, and almost certainly the most leveraged.”
Klarna’s letter closed by projecting that Gen Z shoppers will collectively finance roughly $4.8 billion this season in items they will not be able to name by mid-January, a figure the company described as “directionally encouraging.”