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The activation represents another innovative way that Klarna is enabling retailers to engage and inspire millennial and Gen Z shoppers who are driving the shoppable entertainment trend
Klarna, the global payments and shopping platform, had recently announced that it is partnering with influencers Micah “Noodles” Mahinay and Kara Chung to create a virtual shopping experience on Animal Crossing, Nintendo’s hit social simulation game.
The limited-time virtual pop-up will feature fashions from Mahinay’s Klarna wish list as recreated for the game by Chung. The activation represents another innovative way that Klarna is enabling retailers to engage and inspire millennial and Gen Z shoppers who are driving the shoppable entertainment trend.
“With the growth of e-commerce, the fashion industry is increasingly leveraging experiential technologies such as virtual events and gamification to reach new audiences and drive business growth,” said David Sykes, Head of US at Klarna. “We’re excited to offer our customers a completely immersive shopping experience through the Animal Crossing phenomenon and combine retail and entertainment for merchants to uniquely drive brand awareness and consumer engagement.”
As the first step in the Klarna collaboration, stylist and DJ Mahinay is creating a Klarna wish list with her top 10 streetwear fashion must-haves, which include an Extreme Rain jacket from The North Face, Marine Serre crescent moon-print jersey top from Farfetch, an Pleats Please Issey Miyake asymmetrical tank from Totokaelo and more.
Visual artist, photographer and musician Chung, who has pioneered Animal Crossing as a new medium for fashion with her in-game runway shows, then designs the pieces from Mahinay’s wish list into virtual fashion to be featured in Klarna’s pop-up on Micah’s island in the game. Klarna enables shoppers to create and share their own wish lists on the Klarna app, as well as follow and share wish lists curated by influencers like Mahinay, brands, and other users.
The Klarna pop-up on Micah’s Animal Crossing island was available on 17 August for one hour, a limited number of gamers had the chance to get the wish-listed items for their villagers to wear in the game. They also had a chance to win the same items in real life by posting a photo of the experience on Instagram. To make the experience even more engaging, Mahinay was live-streaming the pop-up via her Twitch account.
Klarna has recently created a series of different immersive virtual events that are shoppable to entertain and engage online shoppers. In July, the company launched the 48 Hr. Smoooth Room, a first-of-its-kind digital pop-up for US shoppers. In August, the company partnered with Cosmopolitan magazine to launch Hauliday by Cosmo x Klarna, the first virtual shopping festival specifically designed for Gen Z and millennials.
The Animal Crossing activation is another proof point that Klarna has transitioned from a payment company to an e-commerce shopping platform that provides a unique and engaging end-to-end shopping experience.
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