Study of 3 Retailers That Gained An Extra Edge Using Bitcoins

Register Now

insight
Enterprise Apps
By: Manish Shewaramani

3 Retailers That Gained An Extra Edge Using Bitcoins

Society is going cashless!

In the USA, only 7% of transactions are made with physical cash.

Don’t be too surprised!

Increasingly popular plastic money like credit cards, debit cards, gift cards and loyalty cards eliminating the transactions made through actual cash.

However, these cards also had some downsides. It involves the risk of fraud, optimum processing fees and pretty more.

So, what’s the solution?

That can keep transaction mechanism more safe, accessible and seamless.

BITCOINS, the decentralized cryptocurrency is the panacea!

The global digital currency worth eight billion dollars market value is reinventing the payment transaction world.

And now, it is catching many retailers’ eye.

According to Juniper research, 8% of the North American Retailers will begin accepting Bitcoin as full means of payment in 2015.

Let’s understand first, what is Bitcoins?

Bitcoins are a kind of digital coins that are not created by any bank, government or financial institution, but regulated by open-source software. The virtual currency can be exchanged through direct peer to peer transaction over the internet.

Bitcoins can be purchased or sold using different currencies through various bitcoin exchanges.

The Bitcoins are stored in digital wallets (virtual bank accounts) that are on the user’s computer or cloud location.

Thumb through the PPT to know more.
Also, the rate of virtual money fluctuates in the market depending on the number of Bitcoins in circulation.

Take a quick look at three retailers who stretch their reach to bitcoins

  • Overstock.com

The US-based leading online retailer Overstock.com that sells everything right from jewelry to furniture was surprised with the amazing growth in sales after accepting bitcoins.

Within 24 hours of the announcement, retailer had made $130,000 in Bitcoin sales spread over 840 orders from new customers. And, now its daily earning is $15,000 a day from bitcoin sales alone.

Overstock was the first to exceed $1 million in online bitcoin sales and saw 50% increase in sale after embracing the digital currency.

Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne said, “We are expecting jaw dropping $8 million sales with the digital currency by the end of the year.”

  • TigerDirect

Florida-based Tigerdirect, computers and consumer electronics e-retailer has taken the interest not only in using bitcoin as payment option but also sold bitcoin mining product on its site.

The retailer has brought in whopping $250,000 worth bitcoin payment just in the matter of 17 hours. It comes with a greater surprise when company broke the $1 million mark of Bitcoin sale in only three months.

Now, 80% of TigerDirect’s Bitcoin users are new customers, and they spend more per order than customers using traditional payment methods.

  • Newegg

Computer hardware and software e-retailer was partnered with Bitpay to roll out its transaction using bitcoins and allowed its customers to pay for more than 10.5 million products with virtual currency.

As, no chargeback is possible using bitcoins, so retailer declared that orders will be paid by Bitcoin, but cannot be returned for Bitcoin or hard currency. Instead, returns can be made to the consumers in the form of a Newegg Gift Card.

Well, no such number of unprecedented sales is disclosed by the firm, but Soren Mills, the company’s chief marketing officer said, “We’ve doubled our run-rate over the last three months. Bitcoin has brought us some new customers. It’s got a group of people that it’s really important to.”

Outlook

The digital currency has made a huge room in the market and more retailers are jumping on this bandwagon. The e-retailers who chased the digital spark are really paying off.

Widespread adoption of Bitcoins would be a game-changer for the firms.

The success story of online retailers shared above reveal the same fact.

Though, it’s not true bitcoins will always work like pro.

As, there are pros and cons associated with the potential use of bitcoins in retail space. In our next series, we will discuss the reason to favor and oppose the use of this cryptocurrency. So, keep in touch with us.

Say goodbye to data chaos and embrace the power of PIM/MDM to supercharge your business growth!