Bitcoin is a digital currency that was designed to make payments easier – whether global or local. It is no wonder some of the world’s largest online commerce companies such as Rakuten and Overstock.com are accepting it.
Customers want to pay in different forms or currencies – credit cards, cash, bitcoin, euro, etc. Giving them as many options as possible allows them to pay you in the way they find most convenient.
Bitcoin can be added as a payment method to brick-and-mortar as well as online establishments. The currency has solutions out there (both hardware and software) to make this possible.
P2P wallets
This is an easy way for retailers to set quickly up and start accepting bitcoin both online and at offline stores. All you need is to open a wallet address either on your smartphone, tablet, PC laptop or desktop computer. Blockchain, Mycelium, Hive have a variety of choice for your preferred device, whether it’s on Android, Mac OS or Windows.
You can display this address anywhere in your store or website. It can be in the form of a QR image that is printed out and stuck anywhere.
After agreeing to purchase, a customer will send a corresponding amount in bitcoins to your wallet. Your enabled text/email notifications will inform you when payments are sent. Later, you can convert bitcoins to a suitable currency at your discretion.
Hardware Point of Sale
Points of sales systems facilitate payments at checkout point at stores through third party packaged hardware and software applications.
Coinbase, BitPOS, and Coinify have a point of sale Android and IOS apps that work on tablets and smartphones. Coinbase additionally gives you API’s that integrate into your website, thus saving on setup costs.
BitPay, on the other hand, designed APIs that fit into pre-existing POS system infrastructure with a little bit of code tweaking. Currently, the Soft Touch POS system integrates BitPay with added invoicing and Quick books data exporting capability.
XBT terminal, a dedicated cryptocurrency only POS, lets users pay via any mobile wallet using NFC or a QR code. In the event of a poor connection, offline payments can be made via Bluetooth. For each and every sale, you can opt to convert your sales into a currency of your choice immediately.
One of a complete POS’s in the market is CoinKite. It has a conventional card-payment terminal that works for receiving bitcoin debit cards, generating QR receipt codes and reconciling sales. It is a fully fitted terminal that goes as far as implementing bookkeeping features, tipping tools and an easy to view transaction list.
Online payment gateway
Online payment gateways, on the other hand, let you accept remote payments for online purchases.
A retailer simply adds e-currency shopping carts from Bitcoin merchant processors APIs. They are easy to plug and play into an existing payment portal in an online store, only requiring a few lines of code to be altered.
OKPay, GoCoin, Stripe and most recently PayPal, have implemented this feature for merchants. They also let you choose what currency you would like to receive your sales. Added features for optimizing payments include invoice generating capability for accrued payments.
Once you are set up, you can begin accepting payments from clients from all countries irrespective of whatever currency they use.
As a retail business, you too can take advantage of the opportunities because, in accepting bitcoins such as:
- Lower associated costs of collecting payments 0% – 1%
- You can accept payments from clients anywhere in the world
- Fast and quickly processed payments with instant final settlement
- Free advertising and marketing awareness from the bitcoin brand
- Getting ahead of your competitors on digital currency payments
- Tapping into a new market of bitcoin adopters
