Will accepting cryptocurrency help your business stay ahead of the game

It is fair to say that cryptocurrencies (or more exactly Bitcoin) have taken many of the headlines in the last 18 months, not taken up by the pandemic or the incredible rise in ecommerce. It should come as no surprise then that the next natural step for many online retailers is to accept the digital currency.

This has been a debate for at least the last 12 months, and much of the slow adoption is due to two main factors. The first of these centers, as it always does, is around the lack of knowledge both retailers and the public have about digital currencies, and the second being the likelihood, given the gains that many digital currencies are making, of anybody using one to purchase something.

Accepting cryptocurrencies in your online store

If you sell predominantly on eBay, Amazon, or Etsy, then this is pretty much out of your hands as these online retail giants will handle this along with the other services they provide for their sellers. However, if your store is your own or Shopify-based, then you have the power to start taking these currencies as soon as you want.

In fact, Shopify already has this facility in development, where the transaction is handled by Coin payments or a similar service, who will handle the transaction between the digital wallet of the customer and the payment processor so that the relevant amount of digital currency is exchanged to meet your USD equivalent price.

Paying your supply chain and overheads in digital currency

One of the main perceived stumbling blocks in this is that if you are being paid in digital currency but you need to pay your bills in dollars, it immediately creates cash flow problems. This is true only to a certain extent for a couple of reasons. First of all, as soon as you start taking cryptocurrencies, it doesn’t mean that all of your customers are going to start paying that way overnight. Like all changes, this one is likely to happen gradually, with only early adopters diving straight in.

This means that by the time (if ever) most of your takings are in the form of digital currency, your freight shipping company is likely to accept cryptocurrencies as well; in fact, some of the most forward-thinking companies who specialize in shipping by freight are likely to be at the forefront of this change as blockchain technology has already proven to make the somewhat cumbersome process of getting goods from A to B a lot more trouble-free.

Wrapping things up

It can often be the case that people can think of evolutionary developments in revolutionary terms, and as a consequence, dismiss the idea as being unworkable because they only see the sudden rather than its gradual effects. For this reason, accepting cryptocurrency will help your business stay ahead of the game, as payments using this medium are likely to grow at a sustainable rate and not disrupt any of your supply chain or dependant services as a result.