A brand-new marketplace bets on payment flexibility before its first peak season
easyShop.com has added Klarna to checkout across 19 European markets, giving shoppers three interest-free ways to pay just weeks before the marketplace's first Black Friday [1]. Customers can choose Klarna's Pay in Full, Pay in 3, or Pay in 30 options, letting them pay upfront, split a purchase into three installments, or defer payment by a month, all without interest [1].
The timing is deliberate. easyShop only launched its consumer-facing marketplace on October 13, 2026, and the Klarna rollout follows within two weeks as part of its first peak-trading readiness [2]. Cas Paton, founder and CEO of OnCommerce, the platform powering easyShop, framed the move around shifting shopper expectations: "Black Friday is no longer just about finding the best deal. Shoppers also want flexibility in how they pay" [1].
Why BNPL has become a holiday revenue line, not a checkout add-on
Buy now, pay later has moved from a niche checkout option to a measurable share of holiday commerce, which is exactly why a marketplace launching into its first peak season would prioritize it early. Adobe's 2026 holiday forecast projects BNPL will drive $21.3 billion in U.S. online spending between November and December, up 6.6% year over year [3].
The single-day forecasts in the table below make the pattern clearer. Mobile devices are expected to carry 82% of that BNPL spending, reinforcing how tightly the payment method is tied to impulse and on-the-go buying during peak trading windows [4].
| Holiday moment | BNPL spend forecast (2026) | YoY change |
|---|---|---|
| Black Friday | $807 million [4] | n/a |
| Cyber Monday | $1.09 billion [4] | Second straight year over $1B [4] |
| Full holiday season (Nov-Dec) | $21.3 billion [3] | +6.6% [3] |
What Klarna's own growth says about marketplace timing
In its second quarter of 2026, Klarna reported 120 million active global consumers, up 8% year over year, and a merchant network that grew 54% year over year to more than 1.2 million retailers [5]. Gross merchandise volume reached $36.6 billion in the quarter, up 18% year over year, with transaction margin dollars climbing 42% [5].
“One size doesn't fit all when it comes to payments. Consumers deserve choice, and with Klarna on easyShop, people can now pay on their terms: in full, split into three interest-free payments, or in 30 days, with no interest and a clear end date.”
That growth has made Klarna a default checkout option many shoppers now expect to see, not a differentiator reserved for established retailers. Klarna's interim UK and Ireland country lead, Alex Rohloff, put it plainly when describing the easyShop integration.
The marketplace model easyShop is testing at scale
easyShop operates as a pure marketplace: it holds no inventory, sells no own-label products, and does not compete with retailers selling on it. The structure lets sellers reach 21 European countries through a single account, with VAT calculated automatically [2]. The platform runs on OnCommerce, the marketplace technology behind OnBuy, which had already scaled to more than 100 million products across Europe before easyShop's launch [2].
That asset-light model puts pressure on launch-week decisions like payments, since easyShop has no legacy checkout behavior and no returning customer base to smooth over early friction. Hundreds of retailers were already trading on the platform ahead of its consumer launch [2]. Adding Klarna across 19 of its 21 live markets, rather than phasing it market by market, signals that easyShop is treating payment parity as a prerequisite for peak-season credibility.
What does this mean for teams planning their own peak-season checkout?
That sequencing is the real signal for any commerce team finalizing its own Black Friday and Cyber Week checkout configuration in the coming weeks.
The BNPL forecast and Klarna's merchant growth show that flexible payment options have shifted from a conversion nice-to-have to an expected checkout feature during the highest-traffic weeks of the year [3][5]. For platforms and retailers still finalizing peak-season readiness, the easyShop rollout is a reminder that payment-method coverage, not just discount strategy, is now part of being competitive on Black Friday.
Sources
- [1]Retail Technology Innovation Hub, easyShop rolls out Klarna across 19 European markets as online marketplace gears up for first Black Friday — retailtechinnovationhub.com
- [2]Retail Technology Innovation Hub, easyGroup set to launch online marketplace across 21 European countries powered by OnBuy technology — retailtechinnovationhub.com
- [3]Digital Commerce 360, Adobe projection: 2026 online holiday sales to reach $275.1 billion — digitalcommerce360.com
- [4]Retail TouchPoints, Adobe Forecasts Record $275.1 Billion in U.S. Holiday Online Sales — retailtouchpoints.com
- [5]SEC.gov, Klarna Group plc, "Second Quarter 2026 Results — sec.gov
