Why E-commerce Stores Should Accept Cryptocurrency

In today’s post-pandemic economy, cryptocurrency has created quite a buzz around the globe. With a raging pandemic and large -scale shutdowns across every sector, traditional banking and commerce practices have taken a back seat. Virtual options and the digital economy saw a massive boom during this period as they could keep functioning with no hindrance. In these circumstances, cryptocurrency has completely transformed the landscape of the digital economy. With the addition of wallets, payment options have become seamless and convenient.

Similarly, the e-commerce sector leapfrogged its way to the fore, owing to the obvious advantages over brick and mortar stores during a mass lockdown and post-pandemic anxiety. E-commerce is probably one of the very few industries that actually benefited remarkably during 2020. But, with more retailers and business owners gradually leaning towards e-commerce stores over physical stores, one of the biggest concerns for e-commerce store owners is whether they should accept cryptocurrency as a payment method or not.

But, before diving deeper into how cryptocurrency is highly beneficial for e-commerce stores and businesses, let us first briefly cover what cryptocurrencies are.

What is Cryptocurrency?

Cryptocurrency is basically another form of digital currency that is not controlled or owned by any bank or government. Instead, via blockchain technology and algorithmic programming, Cryptocurrency propounds a safe and immutable method of value record keeping and storage. The user is the one with complete authority over transactions on a network. All transactions are user-verified and also listed in public records to avoid reusing the same currency or coins multiple times by the same user.

One of the crucial things to understand cryptocurrency is that all coins are different in terms of valuation and security. Each coin has its own uses, benefits and disadvantages and one needs to research and understand these details better before investments to make well-informed decisions.

The Ups and Downs

Cryptocurrency has faced enormous criticism ever since it started gaining popularity. The most common concern for people was privacy and legality in transactions. Many assumed that cryptocurrency being easy to use and completely free from control by any banks or the government would quickly become a breeding ground for unlawful people to carry out illegal transactions and activities. Numerous industry experts questioned the possibility of cryptocurrency being a success and even supported its ban in many countries. Major global economic players like China and India banned the use of cryptocurrency as well.

But despite all kinds of odds, eventually, cryptocurrency was officially identified as an alternate form of financial technology. With time, not only did it work out well, but in fact, cryptocurrency leapfrogged its way to be quite a success! Despite the initial ban, the Supreme Court of India acknowledged it officially and lifted the ban earlier this year.

With the adoption of cryptocurrency widely across the globe, people are now inclined to use it for purchases and payments as well and not just trading. This means with every passing day, more people are looking for ways to use their cryptocurrency to purchase online services and products. Needless to say, this is extremely beneficial and opens up a whole wide consumer base for e-commerce stores.

To understand statistically, by the end of last financial year, the flourishing cryptocurrency market boosted the digital economy with a net market capitalization of 260 billion USD. Undoubtedly e-commerce businesses would want a piece of this cake! Not accepting cryptocurrency in an e-commerce business today is intentionally letting go of prospects and profits in hand.

But other than the wealth factor, numerous other benefits come with the adaptation of cryptocurrency for eCommerce. So, if you are an eCommerce business owner still indecisive about integrating cryptocurrency into your business, here are some added advantages:

Advantages of Cryptocurrency in Ecommerce

1. Security

The enhanced security features such as added security layers for financial information is one of the most appealing benefits, particularly for business owners. Cryptocurrency data is stored in a database called a blockchain, which is cryptographically secured. To link information, blockchains use encrypted hash functions. This means that to change a single piece of information, one has to decipher each and every node of information or data in the entire chain.

It is wise to understand here that enhanced security does not mean full proof security. Surveys state that the eCommerce sector is the single most vulnerable sector in comparison to other sectors. With a staggering 32% of all direct cyber-attacks, 100% security is merely a myth. However, cryptocurrency does provide a much advanced and optimized security shield as compared to regular credit cards or debit cards. Moreover, Blockchain encryption ensures that it becomes extremely difficult to tamper or steal data and information from them. Users can safely and comfortably process online purchases via cryptocurrency without the concern of privacy and security.

2. Consumer Base

With the changing topography of the digital economy, people are much more aware of cryptocurrency now globally. The widespread adoption of cryptocurrency means more users are acknowledging and switching to cryptocurrency for day to day expenditures, and not just for trading.

There is already a huge number of people in the active cryptocurrency community and this essentially means e-commerce store owners or businessmen are losing out on a potentially broad market and harming their consumer base by restricting them in terms of digital currency use. By choosing to integrate cryptocurrency in e-commerce and keeping the option of digital wallet payments open, a business can broaden its consumer base and tap into a whole unexplored section of the global market.

3. Fees and Transactions

A massive advantage of adapting cryptocurrency into an e-commerce business is that the transactional fee you incur with every sale or payment is low. The fee is not fixed and can vary based on whether the transaction is done through a digital wallet or enterprise cryptocurrency payment provider. But overall, the fee is marginally low in comparison to using third-party service providers like PayPal or credit cards.

Moreover, the enterprise cryptocurrency payment provider processes transactions immediately. Other methods like credit cards can easily take a few days to process after batching out. This helps you give much quicker access to your funds which is a huge benefit as quicker transactions can help you streamline the cash flow of your e-commerce business.

There are a few added advantages that come paired with integrating cryptocurrency for your e-commerce business. Blockchain is a decentralized platform that is not owned by any banks or regulatory government. This results in highly enhanced privacy and complete confidentiality and control of your funds and transactions. This also helps overcome the barriers of specific national laws or rules and provides tremendous flexibility. Moreover, cryptocurrency is gradually transitioning to be of similar potential as real funds in terms of accessibility and usage. The taxation of cryptocurrency isn't as a currency, but in fact as an asset. This lets e-commerce businesses be less concerned about tax burdens, while enjoying the potential asset appreciation.

Cryptocurrency is undoubtedly advancing towards becoming a common and preferred medium of digital transactions. From better security layers to enhanced privacy and from potential cost-cutting to connecting with a larger global audience, it checks all the points of why e-commerce business owners should definitely consider accepting cryptocurrency as a payment medium if they do not already. The time is right and the advantages of integrating cryptocurrency are numerous. We have just scratched the tip of the iceberg so far in transforming the digital economy. It is safe to predict that cryptocurrency is in a booming phase with immense potential to grow by leaps and bounds in the near future.

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