What to Consider Before Accepting Cryptocurrency as Payment at Your Business
Cryptocurrencies have taken the world by storm. It’s possible to use, save, and invest in cryptocurrencies without interference from any government or regulatory body. It’s an exciting libertarian idea and has found its way to investors and big businesses.
However, there are numerous advantages to using cryptocurrencies as a payment method. Before any business ventures into this area, they should investigate to see if it is worthwhile.
How To Do It?
Accepting cryptocurrency as a payment method is actually rather simple from a technical standpoint. That’s one of the things that made them so popular among businesses in the first place. You should start by setting up a virtual wallet that’s going to be used for transferring payments.
Once a wallet is created it generates a QR code on the phone and that completes the transaction. This is something to consider only if you have a brick-and-mortar store, but have in mind that cryptocurrency users are often tech-savvy and shop online.
Online Payments
It’s imperative to set up an online payment option right away as well. That’s how most of the trade happens these days and you should be ready for it if you want to attract younger customers, which are the ones using cryptocurrency in the first place. This payment option should be available for mobile devices as well.
There are online software options that make this process easy and safe for all parties. If you already have a software solution in place for credit cards, there’s a good chance that it can also provide a payment method for the cryptocurrency.
What Cryptocurrency to Accept?
This is the most difficult question for small business owners. If they need to pay for the software and the security system, they want to cover only the currencies someone is actually going to use. Bitcoin is the most popular, Litecoin is among the oldest currencies and those who buy and sell Dash usually do it because it’s confidential and fast.
The best way to go is to ask your customers about their needs and online behavior before making the choice, but even when you do, try to go as broad as you can.
Marketing
Before a business can start using cryptocurrencies as a payment method, it should advertise the option to its customers. That way it creates a certain amount of hype among its current customers and possibly reaches out to new ones as well. The customers that can be drawn by this business deal are usually millennials so make sure your business model is adequate for this audience.
There are two main ways to market this addition to your business. The first is to let your customers know and to provide bonus deals and sales for them. The second is to use the publications dedicated to cryptocurrencies in particular.
The Speed
Purchasing things online seems like a simple and quick task. It’s happening at all times and all over the world. However, from the business viewpoint, this is often a much slower process than it seems.
This isn’t an issue with cryptocurrency; the transactions are over right away and you can exchange digital currency for money within a day.
The Drawbacks
Using cryptocurrency has potential because it attracts new customers and makes your business appear to be at the cutting edge of tech changes. It’s an interesting option but it also comes with a few drawbacks to consider before getting into it.
This area isn’t regulated at all which is a liberating idea, but now when cryptocurrencies are becoming more popular it can be regulated at any time, and uncertainty isn’t really good for business. The value of the currency is also subject to crashes and sudden changes which is something to worry about.
Small businesses should be looking to adopt digital currencies soon. They have features that can be useful for small businesses and help them expand their customer base.
