Shop.com, a North American online retailer owned by Market America, has seen a decrease in customers paying with cryptocurrency since its launch in August 2021. According to Steve Ashley, chief operating officer and president of Shop.com, cryptocurrency payments accounted for 7%-10% of the retailer’s overall sales prior to the crash of FTX in November 2022. Currently, cryptocurrency payments account for 1%-3% of Shop.com’s overall sales.
Shop.com uses BitPay to process cryptocurrency payments, which charges the retailer a 1% transaction fee. Ashley says that when the retailer first started offering cryptocurrency as a payment option at checkout, it created cryptocurrency tutorials on its website for how shoppers could pay with this option on Shop.com. Web traffic to Shop.com’s informational videos averaged about 10,000-15,000 views, while webinars averaged about 600 viewers each during the first three to six months after launching cryptocurrency.
The majority of Shop.com’s customer base is female and between the age of 40-45, but Ashley believes younger consumers have seen the potential benefits of a decentralized financial world despite recent fallout of FTX and regional banks like Silicon Valley Bank. He believes that when it comes to the future of the cryptocurrency paying customer, it will be a younger demographic.
BitPay ensures that Shop.com isn’t breaking any laws, including the Know Your Customer regulations. These are guidelines businesses must follow to ensure they collect legitimate identifying information from customers to avoid money laundering or fraud. BitPay monitors anti-money-laundering processing by requiring consumers to upload a form of government identification and a selfie.
Alex More, head of litigation at Carrington Coleman law firm, says that using third-party vendors like BitPay to process the cryptocurrency transaction is practical for merchants. He urges retailers to be wary of accepting cryptocurrency just for the sake of it or because it’s trendy, as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is currently investigating a number of cryptocurrency entities. It remains unclear how the government will establish and enforce regulations on cryptocurrency and how it will affect those buying, spending and accepting it.
Sources: https://www.digitalcommerce360.com/2023/04/17/shop-com-says-the-low-cost-of-outsourcing-cryptocurrency-processing-is-worth-avoiding-possible-legal-missteps/
