eBay Angles For Buy Now Pay Later Boost With Coupon Targeted For New Klarna US Partnership
eBay is hoping to spur a Buy Now Pay Later boost with targeted coupon enticing buyers to try out new Klarna payment offering.
The Klarna partnership launched in the UK, Austria, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain in December 2024 and recently expanded to the US in April, proming more flexible ways to pay and access to streamlined reselling capabilities.
Liz Morton
And now, just in time to help goose adoption rates for the Q2 earnings report, eBay is offering tiered discounts for buyers who choose to use Klarna as their sole payment method at checkout.
eBay Coupon Terms and Conditions
How to redeem your Coupon: Shop for eligible items. (See below for exclusions). Simply make a purchase on ebay.com and pay using Klarna.
- $70- $149.99 and receive $5 off
- $150 - $249.99 and receive $10 off
- $250 - $549.99 and receive $20 off
- $550 or more and receive $50 off
Enter the Coupon code in the redemption code field: KLARNAUS
Pay for your item(s) using Klarna by 11:59PM Pacific Time on June 6th, 2025.
The fine print makes it clear that eBay is funding the discount, Klarna must be the sole payment method used, the coupon cannot be used on auctions with AutoPay and a host of other terms and conditions.
eBay ran a similar promotion when they launched Alipay for buyers in China, but they failed to geo-target the offering, resulting in US buyers seeing intrusive popup notices with Chinese writing that prompted fears of hacking or a malware attack.
Liz Morton
The Klarna promotion does not seem to be raising those same specific concerns, however sellers in the eBay community and across social media are confused about why there is a coupon offer shown on their listings without their knowledge and whether they will be footing the bill for a discount they did not offer.
Klarna coupon on my items.
by u/Financial_Sweet_499 in eBaySellerAdvice
A coupon was added without my consent.. what to do?
Good Morning,
I listed an item today and when I viewed it, I noticed that a coupon had been attached to it.
--it was for 15% off with a name (klarnaus) I didn't recognize.
--it didn't have that string of numbers and letters but was a name
--it also was offering to be paid in 4 installments which I don't offer
--I have not offered coupons in several years
--I immediately took it down so it's no longer showing. Is there anything to do or is this a glitch? Thanks.
With Klarna being a new offering for the US, eBay obviously wants to get things off to a strong start with "good news" to report to investors, so it's not surprising that CEO Jamie Iannone Chief Growth Officer Julie Loeger are once again pulling the discount lever to try to goose results.
eBay leadership has been increasingly leaning on legacy discounting tactics in recent quarters in effort to bring in more enthusiast buyers and to get more seller buy in on ads with minimal results.
Liz Morton
Iannone had been highly critical of previous CEO Devin Wenig's frequent eBay funded discounts to try to attract more buyers in 2018-2019.
Those 15-20% off flash sales proved to be a double edged sword - once buyers get used to receiving discounts, they'll often wait for a sale before making a purchase, creating "one and done" or only occasional buying patterns.
Wenig's strategy was considered such a failure that Iannone felt the need to explicitly distance himself from it when he took the helm, telling investors in 2021:
We've discontinued legacy tactics that led to low value, infrequent or one and done buyers. Our buyer base is starting to evolve based on this strategy. These high-volume buyers are growing compared to a year-ago and their spend on eBay is growing even faster. This higher-quality mix of buyers increases value for sellers and will lead to improved health of our ecosystem over the long-term...
..This is something that I laid out last July when we talked about the tech-led reimagination as being focused on turning buyers into lifelong enthusiasts on the platform and moving away from the tactics that we had in 2019 what was really just about the number of active buyers even low value buyers or one and done buyers.
However, despite his criticism of those past tactics, it's hard not to see that eBay is increasingly putting themselves in a similar position.
While gaining more "enthusiast buyers", boosting GMV and promoting new features or payment methods may be worthy goals for the company (and may even be worth allocating additional marketing or discount dollars), as always the devil is in the details and execution.
If Iannone is confident his discounting strategy will create long-term, sustainable growth without the significant downside risks he criticized his predecessor for taking, then he should have no problem candidly discussing how much growth can be attributed to these initiatives as well as costs and return on investment on the next earnings call.
If instead he and/or new CFO Peggy Alford try to present any (presumed) growth as proof their "magical" strategy is working while not disclosing any of that crucial context - investors would be wise to dig deeper, demand honesty and transparency, and take a hard look at the near to long-term prospects for the company if eBay remains under current leadership.
