Back in 2002 I created my own virtual payment system called DigiCredit (Click Here to read my blog posting about it), so I have some experience when it comes to digital currencies such as Bitcoin.In case you are not familiar with it, Bitcoin is virtual money that allows users to pay for things without needing a credit card or checking account. It is also a good way to make a purchase anonymously. For information about how to get Bitcoins, go to Coinbase.com.
Bitcoins are kind of like a mixture of Paypal and gold. Like with Paypal, it is cheap and easy to transfer your Bitcoins to somebody. Like with gold, there is a whole mining industry built it (you mine Bitcoins using special computers). It also a speculator’s dream, because the price of a Bitcoin rose from $13 to around $1,000 at the end of 2013 (there are Bitcoin exchanges such as Mt. Gox that set the price for Bitcoins). Bitcoin seems to be rapidly changing the face of digital currency, and it can be quite hard to stay informed on all of the constant cryptocurrency news.
Anyhow, the reason I am writing all of this, is that as of today, my site at CheapFlowers.com now accepts Bitcoin payments. I set it up through BitPay.com, which offers merchant accounts for Bitcoin. There is no monthly fee, I just get charged a 1% transaction fee. I don’t expect to actually get any Bitcoin paying customers, I mainly did it to get links from directories of sites that accept Bitcoin. Also, I think I am the first major online florist to accept Bitcoin, so I might get some publicity out of that.
I will post the results of this Bitcoin experiment in a future blog posting.
UPDATE: To my surprise, I received 10 Bitcoin orders in the first 24 hours, so my plan seems to be working.
Your site is asking for credit card info as first step. This will discourage bitcoin customers for sure. Please think of a change to make bitcoin purchase option more visible and skip the CC info step.
Thank you!
99% of my sales are with credit cards, so that is why I have bitcoin as a somewhat hidden option. I don’t want to scare credit card customers away by having them confused about what bitcoin is and how to pay with it. The general public still does not understand bitcoin and they associate it with fraud/scams/risk.