Klarna Untrend Report highlights classics, explores value of AI for consumer journey

BNPL giant Klarna has been diving deeper into the use of AI in recent periods and has just issued what it’s calling its Untrend Report. Produced using AI, it highlights the products that seem to defy trends and remain popular whatever the hot fashion story of the moment might be. And it also focuses on AI as a way to help consumers shop more sustainably.

For the report, it only looked at those items with a strong sustainability rating.

The company analysed thousands of products and four years of sales data to find the top fashion items, using an AI tool to sift through the top 10,000 most sold products across seven product categories, listed in multiple languages, descriptors, colourways, sizes and sold at a multitude of merchants. Products that have been consistently popular over the period were identified and cross-referenced against the ratings given by sustainability platforms Good On You and Clarity AI.

And the result? It called out the Levi’s Original Trucker Jacket, the Asket classic white T-shirt and Veja Campo Chromefree sneakers as key items.

As for AI’s value to consumers, it added that a survey conducted for the report shows that around two-thirds of consumers would use an AI shopping assistant to suggest sustainable product alternatives.

A significant majority of them (62.8%) are interested in using an AI-based shopping assistant and Klarna said this “indicates a growing optimism among shoppers that AI could play an important role in their lives”.

Some 54.4% of respondents believe that AI can contribute to making the fashion industry more sustainable. 

But while AI can be helpful in drawing consumers’ attention to certain products, shopping more sustainably still has major barriers. The study also highlighted that 55.1% of respondents pointed to the higher cost of sustainable products as the main deterrent.

That said, other barriers could be partly overcome using AI. Klarna said consumers see a lack of necessary information (37.3%) as a deterrent and sustainable options not being as practical or accessible (30.1%), both of which could be addressed by AI.

It said the findings are prompting it to “explore enhancing its recently launched AI assistant to better support customers in their conscious shopping journeys”. 

Back in February, the company said that in one month its AI assistant had managed 2.3 million conversations across 35 languages, addressing customer service and finance questions. 

It now aims to evolve the assistant into a “comprehensive shopping and finance tool which one day could be capable of recommending wallet-friendly, conscious products”.