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Title: Bitcoin should lead way to discounts and greater consumer spending power Post by: Alty on November 05, 2013, 06:21:06 AM Because of BTC inherent nature to encourage hoarding, perhaps the best overall solution to encourage spending in BTC is for merchants to offer discounts for customers who pay using BTC.
- Due to the way BTC increases in value, merchants can be almost sure to earn back the discount multiple times. - Consumers are given more spending power because they have discounted goods and are encouraged to acquire and spend BTC. I have already offered my building services in France for a discounted price and the reaction has been pretty positive. The client won because he got the work for 10% less than if he'd paid in fiat and I won because the BTC price has increased over the cost of the discount making it cash positive for me. So maybe discounting goods and services in BTC based on BTC future value is what is needed to encourage spending. Title: Re: Bitcoin should lead way to discounts and greater consumer spending power Post by: laowai80 on November 05, 2013, 07:34:38 AM So maybe discounting goods and services in BTC based on BTC future value is what is needed to encourage spending. Exactly! A 10% discount in bitcoin is a win-win for both and helps spread the word about bitcoin. If this approach is mass adopted among merchants, it'll be beneficial to further bitcoin progress. Title: Re: Bitcoin should lead way to discounts and greater consumer spending power Post by: maurya78 on November 05, 2013, 12:22:00 PM It is a great idea for sure but the fiat reality we all live in cannot be wished away
So long as you cannot (yet) pay most of your suppliers, vendors or employees in btc alone is gonna make merchants wary of over-committing to btc via discounts and the like The tipping point will occur but at a more sedate pace than we would all like Title: Re: Bitcoin should lead way to discounts and greater consumer spending power Post by: TheButterZone on November 06, 2013, 03:39:22 AM Based on the results of this poll: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=148660.0
I tried floating my prices to 10% of cost using MtGox (which is itself effectively a discount if people pay ~10% less to buy BTC practically everywhere else). No increase in sales. Probably only a 50% or more discount under fiat will get results, despite the majority of poll responses. Title: Re: Bitcoin should lead way to discounts and greater consumer spending power Post by: beetcoin on November 13, 2013, 08:20:54 AM Because of BTC inherent nature to encourage hoarding, perhaps the best overall solution to encourage spending in BTC is for merchants to offer discounts for customers who pay using BTC. - Due to the way BTC increases in value, merchants can be almost sure to earn back the discount multiple times. - Consumers are given more spending power because they have discounted goods and are encouraged to acquire and spend BTC. I have already offered my building services in France for a discounted price and the reaction has been pretty positive. The client won because he got the work for 10% less than if he'd paid in fiat and I won because the BTC price has increased over the cost of the discount making it cash positive for me. So maybe discounting goods and services in BTC based on BTC future value is what is needed to encourage spending. bitcoin is so volatile, so if a vendor decided to accept them.. they could lose a lot of money. why put your business at that kind of a risk? they'd also need fiat to pay their bills and overhead.. so much of it would probably just be converted back into fiat, which means they sold at a discount just so they could convert it back to cash. Title: Re: Bitcoin should lead way to discounts and greater consumer spending power Post by: BitchicksHusband on November 13, 2013, 09:29:15 AM Because of BTC inherent nature to encourage hoarding, perhaps the best overall solution to encourage spending in BTC is for merchants to offer discounts for customers who pay using BTC. - Due to the way BTC increases in value, merchants can be almost sure to earn back the discount multiple times. - Consumers are given more spending power because they have discounted goods and are encouraged to acquire and spend BTC. I have already offered my building services in France for a discounted price and the reaction has been pretty positive. The client won because he got the work for 10% less than if he'd paid in fiat and I won because the BTC price has increased over the cost of the discount making it cash positive for me. So maybe discounting goods and services in BTC based on BTC future value is what is needed to encourage spending. bitcoin is so volatile, so if a vendor decided to accept them.. they could lose a lot of money. why put your business at that kind of a risk? they'd also need fiat to pay their bills and overhead.. so much of it would probably just be converted back into fiat, which means they sold at a discount just so they could convert it back to cash. They save 3% because they don't go through Visa or Mastercard and they get their money in an hour instead of 30 days. There are good reasons for businesses to give a 5% bitcoin discount every single day. Title: Re: Bitcoin should lead way to discounts and greater consumer spending power Post by: deisik on November 13, 2013, 10:12:27 AM Could work... Can't find a flaw at first glance! ;D
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