Swedish payments company Klarna is getting into livestream shopping, with its eyes on becoming a modern-day version of home shopping channel QVC.
Klarna will hold its first livestream shopping event in the U.S. next month at the Macy’s Herald Square flagship in New York City, in partnership with Cosmopolitan magazine. It is part of a two-day virtual event starting March 1 that has been dubbed “Hauliday,” which will offer shoppers exclusive deals from Macy’s, as well as Adidas, Rebecca Minkoff, Lady Gaga’s Haus Laboratories, Saks Off 5th, Express, Bluemercury and Foot Locker. Financing for all sales will be available through Klarna.
The event was modeled after Alibaba’s Single’s Day, an online shopping extravaganza that leans heavily on live selling and generated $115 billion in sales last year. “This is where shopping is going,” says Nancy Berger, the publisher of Cosmo, who came up with the idea for the event two years ago. The livestream component will be hosted by Jackie Miranne, whose mother Joy Mangano invented the Miracle Mop in 1990 and sold millions while hawking it on what was then a QVC rival, HSN. Miranne will showcase 60 products carried by Macy’s while engaging with shoppers in real time to answer questions, provide demonstrations and respond to comments.
Source: Forbes