Do you own a business and are wondering if you should start accepting Bitcoin tokens and other cryptocurrencies? That’s a fair question, as cryptocurrencies have recently increased in popularity and are going mainstream, with more and more institutional and retail investors owning tokens.
Every day, companies are finding new ways to exploit the cryptocurrency hype to support this concept and help crypto owners use their coins in their daily life. Recently, easyMarkets – a popular and regulated CFD and Forex broker – created a new kind of trading account allowing Bitcoin owners to use their BTC tokens to trade the markets – the μBTC account.
This unique trading account is a great chance for people owning Bitcoin coins to get a chance to use them to make their capital grow. With the μBTC account, investors can use Bitcoin to trade CFDs, or Contract for Differences, over more than 200 financial instruments across different asset classes like Forex, commodities, shares, indices, Forex, as well as cryptocurrencies, among others.
This is one example of business adoption of Bitcoin, but are cryptocurrencies right for your business? Well, it all depends on where your business is based, in which sector you are in, and your goals and plans about what you’re doing with the digital gains.
There are obviously different considerations to consider if you’re thinking about adding cryptocurrencies to the means of payment accepted in your company – technical, practical, as well as accounting and fiscal considerations. Still, digital currencies like Bitcoin offer different benefits to businesses that should be considered.
Potential lower transaction fees
While credit cards are one of the most popular ways for consumers to buy their purchases, it costs money to the businesses accepting them, between 1.5 to 3.5% depending on the country, the currency, the amount, as well as the type of credit card, and the credit card company used. With cryptocurrencies being decentralized, transaction fees would be greatly reduced, as there is no central intermediary.
A new trendy means of payment that could attract another clientele and lead to higher revenues
A study conducted by Forrester Consulting showed that merchants accepting Bitcoin and some other cryptocurrencies are attracting new customers and increasing their sales. “40% new customers sales, two times the average order values, impressive ROI’s, and real revenue increases are among a few convincing discoveries” declares the study.
Overall, accepting digital currencies could allow merchants to unlock a new customer base by attracting first-time buyers who want to use their tokens to pay for their purchases. According to the survey, buyers using cryptocurrencies usually also tend to spend more money than buyers using fiat currencies. All this will in turn generate more sales.
A better way to fight fraud and reduce errors
As when cash is used, clients paying with Bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency means that payments are final, as there is no way to reverse the transaction, mostly because cryptocurrencies are based on decentralized networks with no third-party. This protects merchants from chargeback fraud that leads to the loss of sales, as well as penalty fees in some cases.
As declared by the U.S. Government Information website about “such fraud accounts for 41 percent of all claims. And if a merchant has 1 percent of their charges reversed as chargebacks, they can often be kicked out of the credit card networks, potentially ending their business“.
Bottom line
While there is a growing number of companies accepting Bitcoin as payment, you really need to think this through if you are planning to accept BTC. In addition to the above advantages, we can also add that cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are more and more considered as a good way to fight inflation and invest in assets that are not correlated to traditional markets. Bitcoin can also be seen as a monetary diversification tool and an investment.
