IN RECENT WEEKS, the online retailer Overstock.com started testing a new checkout service from a Swedish company called Klarna. Through Klarna, people can purchase stuff from Overstock simply by typing their email address, their shipping address, and maybe their phone number—no credit card required. The idea is to streamline e-commerce as much as possible, and according to Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne, it works quite well. In testing Klarna’s service, Overstock saw a measurable uptick in sales on mobile devices.
“It saves you from having to key a lot of stuff into your phone,” he says. He estimates that the service will account for $100 million in sales next year for Overstock, a company that reported $1.5 billion in revenue in 2014.
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