Google Case Studies Klarna tracks third-party iframe with Universal Analytics’ cookieless approach

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	Klarna tracks third-party iframe with Universal Analytics’ cookieless approach Google

Klarna tracks third-party iframe with Universal Analytics’ cookieless approach

Google

Technology Category	Analytics & Modeling - Real Time Analytics Analytics & Modeling - Big Data Analytics
Applicable Industries	Finance & Insurance Retail
Applicable Functions	Sales & Marketing Business Operation
Use Cases	Supply Chain Visibility Fraud Detection
Services	Data Science Services System Integration
Challenge	Klarna, one of the biggest providers in Europe of in-store credit and invoice-based payment solutions for the ecommerce sector, was facing a challenge with tracking customer interactions on their platform. The company's checkout solution was hosted on an iframe located on the merchant's domain, but the actual iframe contents were hosted on Klarna's own domain. This posed a problem as browsers such as Safari on iPhone and iPad, and later generation desktop browsers such as Internet Explorer 10 prevent third-party cookies by default. Many analytics solutions rely on the use of cookies, and Klarna was losing nearly all iPhone visits and many desktop visits due to this issue. Read More
About Customer	Klarna is one of the biggest providers in Europe of in-store credit and invoice-based payment solutions for the ecommerce sector. The company enables the end-consumer to order and receive products, then pay for them afterwards. Klarna assesses the credit and fraud risk for the merchant, allowing the merchant to have a zero-friction checkout process – a win-win for the merchant-customer relationship. The company is based in Stockholm, Sweden. Read More
Solution	Klarna found a solution in Universal Analytics, which provides new data collection methods, simplified feature configuration, custom dimensions and metrics, and multi-platform tracking. In Klarna’s new cookieless approach, the “storage: none” option was selected in creating the account in Universal Analytics. The checkout iframe uses a unique non-personally identifiable ‘client ID’. These measures cause Universal Analytics to disable cookies and instead use the client ID as a session identifier. Because no cookies are in use, browsers that don’t allow for third-party cookies aren’t an issue at all. Virtual pageviews are sent on checkout form interactions. Custom dimensions and metrics are used for tagging a visit, with a dimension indicating which merchant is hosting the iframe, and a metric showing what cart value the user brings to the checkout. Read More Log in to view content
Contents

Technology Category

Analytics & Modeling - Real Time Analytics

Analytics & Modeling - Big Data Analytics

Applicable Industries

Finance & Insurance

Retail

Applicable Functions

Sales & Marketing

Business Operation

Use Cases

Supply Chain Visibility

Fraud Detection

Services

Data Science Services

System Integration

Challenge

Klarna, one of the biggest providers in Europe of in-store credit and invoice-based payment solutions for the ecommerce sector, was facing a challenge with tracking customer interactions on their platform. The company's checkout solution was hosted on an iframe located on the merchant's domain, but the actual iframe contents were hosted on Klarna's own domain. This posed a problem as browsers such as Safari on iPhone and iPad, and later generation desktop browsers such as Internet Explorer 10 prevent third-party cookies by default. Many analytics solutions rely on the use of cookies, and Klarna was losing nearly all iPhone visits and many desktop visits due to this issue.

About Customer

Klarna is one of the biggest providers in Europe of in-store credit and invoice-based payment solutions for the ecommerce sector. The company enables the end-consumer to order and receive products, then pay for them afterwards. Klarna assesses the credit and fraud risk for the merchant, allowing the merchant to have a zero-friction checkout process – a win-win for the merchant-customer relationship. The company is based in Stockholm, Sweden.

Solution

Klarna found a solution in Universal Analytics, which provides new data collection methods, simplified feature configuration, custom dimensions and metrics, and multi-platform tracking. In Klarna’s new cookieless approach, the “storage: none” option was selected in creating the account in Universal Analytics. The checkout iframe uses a unique non-personally identifiable ‘client ID’. These measures cause Universal Analytics to disable cookies and instead use the client ID as a session identifier. Because no cookies are in use, browsers that don’t allow for third-party cookies aren’t an issue at all. Virtual pageviews are sent on checkout form interactions. Custom dimensions and metrics are used for tagging a visit, with a dimension indicating which merchant is hosting the iframe, and a metric showing what cart value the user brings to the checkout.

Impact #1	With Universal Analytics features, Klarna ensures iframe tracking is complete across all browsers.
Impact #2	By using the virtual pageviews as URL goals and funnel steps, goal flow visualizations are used to find bottlenecks in the checkout flow.
Impact #3	The new custom dimensions and metrics together with ecommerce tracking mean that reports can now be set up to reveal how each merchant’s cart value correlates to its final transaction value.

Impact #1

With Universal Analytics features, Klarna ensures iframe tracking is complete across all browsers.

Impact #2

By using the virtual pageviews as URL goals and funnel steps, goal flow visualizations are used to find bottlenecks in the checkout flow.

Impact #3

The new custom dimensions and metrics together with ecommerce tracking mean that reports can now be set up to reveal how each merchant’s cart value correlates to its final transaction value.

Benefit #1	Complete tracking across all browsers, including those that prevent third-party cookies by default.
Benefit #2	Ability to analyze customer purchase flow and perform merchant segmentation.
Benefit #3	Ability to get a complete global overview of customer interactions and transactions.

Benefit #1

Complete tracking across all browsers, including those that prevent third-party cookies by default.

Benefit #2

Ability to analyze customer purchase flow and perform merchant segmentation.

Benefit #3

Ability to get a complete global overview of customer interactions and transactions.

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Overview

Klarna tracks third-party iframe with Universal Analytics’ cookieless approach

Operational Impact

Quantitative Benefit