Business owners, have bitcoin payments boosted your sales or not?

[Nikolay31]

Hi people,

I am a master student conducting a study for my research paper regarding the impact of bitcoin payments on online business sales.
A few years ago, I became interested in cryptocurrencies because I have always thought that the idea could be a revolution for our future and also for business.
For my research paper (Msc Online Marketing student), I naturally chose to focus on the business side of bitcoin, and a question came to my mind: have bitcoin payments had any impact on online sales revenue?

Through my research on the subject, I have a found a few examples of online businesses such as Overstock that sucessfully implemented bitcoin payments and were positevely impacted by them.

I would love to study the impact that bitcoin payments have had (or not) on your sales revenue. I would like to know if, from an entrepreneur point of view, implementing bitcoin payments on online websites could get more sales because they would attract bitcoins enthusiasts, and thus create a win-win situation both for the online business owners and bitcoin-enthusiastic customers.

So feel free to fill my Google Forms here (anonymous and not very long, 5 minutes max) and share it with people you know. If you know other websites where I could get answers from business owners or employees that would help me tremendously.

Survey link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1w6Z6kQqvVaso3Vp3m_b_62QpAHUYN8xncKpDbHRNGEU/viewform?usp=send_form

I would like to apologize if I made any english mistakes, it is not my first language

[avatar_kiyoshi]

Already filled the form.
I think it's will boosted the costumers, especially bitcoin or cryptocurrency enthusiasts. Good promotion is needed too.

[Amph]

it open the doors, to those who are willing to pay only in bitcoin, still a niche market, but it is growing, but it is not increasing by much, and in the case the increase will be bigger, you will end up with less "fiat customers", because bitcoin is actually steal customers from its competitor, it's not bringing new one on the table

[NUFCrichard]

it open the doors, to those who are willing to pay only in bitcoin, still a niche market, but it is growing, but it is not increasing by much, and in the case the increase will be bigger, you will end up with less "fiat customers", because bitcoin is actually steal customers from its competitor, it's not bringing new one on the table

I can see that you gain the bitcoin market, but I don't see why you would lose the Fiat market?

I have never been put off by somewhere accepting alternative payment methods!  Sometimes a little shop not accepting a debit card is annoying, but if I go to a supermarket that accepts debit cards, but pay with cash, that doesn't negative effect me!

[Amph]

it open the doors, to those who are willing to pay only in bitcoin, still a niche market, but it is growing, but it is not increasing by much, and in the case the increase will be bigger, you will end up with less "fiat customers", because bitcoin is actually steal customers from its competitor, it's not bringing new one on the table

I can see that you gain the bitcoin market, but I don't see why you would lose the Fiat market?

I have never been put off by somewhere accepting alternative payment methods!  Sometimes a little shop not accepting a debit card is annoying, but if I go to a supermarket that accepts debit cards, but pay with cash, that doesn't negative effect me!

i mean if those that were using fiat only, switch to bitcoin only in your store, it is obvious, that there is no advantage for you in this, you will have the same revenue in the end

[chennan]

it open the doors, to those who are willing to pay only in bitcoin, still a niche market, but it is growing, but it is not increasing by much, and in the case the increase will be bigger, you will end up with less "fiat customers", because bitcoin is actually steal customers from its competitor, it's not bringing new one on the table

I can see that you gain the bitcoin market, but I don't see why you would lose the Fiat market?

I have never been put off by somewhere accepting alternative payment methods!  Sometimes a little shop not accepting a debit card is annoying, but if I go to a supermarket that accepts debit cards, but pay with cash, that doesn't negative effect me!

i mean if those that were using fiat only, switch to bitcoin only in your store, it is obvious, that there is no advantage for you in this, you will have the same revenue in the end

Bitcoin is still the minority's game. The store will offer bitcoin payment method beyond existing payment method and attract bitcoiners. In the end it will boost your revenue. But you offer bitcoin payment only method, the majority of using fiat customers will be annoyed and go away. You will have a big trouble! You are losing revenue not keep the same IMO. 

[arallmuus]

you will have the same revenue in the end

I would say that the revenue will be much lower if you do accept BTC as a payment option in this case because there is a fee for every conversion of BTC into FIAT as well as some fee to withdraw it to your bank account

Bitcoin is still the minority's game.

Its not a game . If you meant to say that it is still on its early stages then yes it is

the majority of using fiat customers will be annoyed and go away.

Not entirely true because it depends on what type of business you are having. I've seen alot of website that accept BTC only for their mobile recharge service and I would say that they are having a good business despite that they accept BTC only. On the other hands if you are selling some daily necessities than it would be  a better option to have both BTC and FIAT option

[Amph]

you will have the same revenue in the end

I would say that the revenue will be much lower if you do accept BTC as a payment option in this case because there is a fee for every conversion of BTC into FIAT as well as some fee to withdraw it to your bank account

you should earn more actually, because you will evade the possible fee of fiat circuit, if you don't accept bitcoin instead

for example if you receive money from abroad, when there is a conversion fee, that it is not very small

[Nikolay31]

Thank you for your valuable inputs. I appreciate it.

I agree with what Amph says. I think that if an online store with traditional payments switches to BTC only, the store will lose a lot of customers (at least now, in 2015) because bitcoin payments are still a very small minority compared to other payments, and habits/mentalities are hard to change. This is one of the challenges bitcoin is facing, and it is a tough one

I would be more interested to know if allowing bitcoin payments along other 'traditional' payments on online stores have helped them draw new bitcoin-enthusiastic customers, thus generating more sales.

[cellard]

You should ask amagimetals.com. They sell silver and so on, very trustable site, and they switched from regular transations to Bitcoin only. Im not sure if they would be able to share their data, but it would be interesting to know how a business does when it goes 100% BTC.

[arallmuus]

you will have the same revenue in the end

I would say that the revenue will be much lower if you do accept BTC as a payment option in this case because there is a fee for every conversion of BTC into FIAT as well as some fee to withdraw it to your bank account

you should earn more actually, because you will evade the possible fee of fiat circuit, if you don't accept bitcoin instead

for example if you receive money from abroad, when there is a conversion fee, that it is not very small

There isnt any conversion fee from one currency to another currency. Money exchangers got their own profit from the difference between their buy price and their sell price and that price will be around 1-3 % difference from the average price . If you are going to exchange it from a bank rather than money exchanger then the difference would be much lower

Both option could be used depending on what type your business will be and your customer, basically using BTC as a payment where the majority of your customer will be a house mother wont be good since most people are techsavvy anyway ( both option to be use will be much better)

[Amph]

you will have the same revenue in the end

I would say that the revenue will be much lower if you do accept BTC as a payment option in this case because there is a fee for every conversion of BTC into FIAT as well as some fee to withdraw it to your bank account

you should earn more actually, because you will evade the possible fee of fiat circuit, if you don't accept bitcoin instead

for example if you receive money from abroad, when there is a conversion fee, that it is not very small

There isnt any conversion fee from one currency to another currency

how so, i know paypal has a conversation fee, and also any bank basically apply it, conversation fee for my bank is 1.75%, not even that cheap for my taste

[arallmuus]

you will have the same revenue in the end

I would say that the revenue will be much lower if you do accept BTC as a payment option in this case because there is a fee for every conversion of BTC into FIAT as well as some fee to withdraw it to your bank account

you should earn more actually, because you will evade the possible fee of fiat circuit, if you don't accept bitcoin instead

for example if you receive money from abroad, when there is a conversion fee, that it is not very small

There isnt any conversion fee from one currency to another currency

how so, i know paypal has a conversation fee, and also any bank basically apply it, conversation fee for my bank is 1.75%, not even that cheap for my taste

Dont quote just a piece of my post, I have stated that on how there isnt any conversion fee , its more like to difference between buy and sell which is around 1.75 % from your bank  ( there is a slight difference of conversion fee with difference between buy and sell )
As for the paypal option, I've completely miss this out as I dont use paypal . Basically I has been helping my parents (they are going back and forth doing some business in two countries ) so Im merely stating how they do it

EDIT : just read about this one (seems relevant). CoinPip.com, A singapore's Bitcoin company now allows you to transfer to any bank account with a flat rate of 2 %

[Anirban Sarkar]

hmm it could..!!! as services we give the customer will enjoy...!!!!

[Miracal]

You should ask amagimetals.com. They sell silver and so on, very trustable site, and they switched from regular transations to Bitcoin only. Im not sure if they would be able to share their data, but it would be interesting to know how a business does when it goes 100% BTC.

Why don't somebody reputed from the Bitcointalk community write a letter requesting their business stats? I think it is a nice idea for the promotion of bitcoin but I am unsure if everybody goes through with it. I think more businesses should adopt to this mode of payment. Appreciate the wise move.

[Possum577]

Here's a decent article on finding success with a Bitcoin-based business, perhaps it would be useful to some of you.

To find out what Jonathan Chester of Bitwage, Connie Gallippi of the BitGive Foundation and Barry Silbert of the Digital Currency Group had to say, check out the brief video below:

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/06/18/advice-on-starting-bitcoin-based-business/

[HigsonPP]

Already filled the form.
I think it's will boosted the costumers, especially bitcoin or cryptocurrency enthusiasts. Good promotion is needed too.

I think bitcoin wouldn't grow until all of us promote it heavily in the outer world, not just online bullshit. Talk about it with employees, family, relatives, everybody you possible can and engage in exchange of BTC. That is how it grows. That is how to make the system function, by making use of it.

[gentlemand]

You should ask amagimetals.com. They sell silver and so on, very trustable site, and they switched from regular transations to Bitcoin only. Im not sure if they would be able to share their data, but it would be interesting to know how a business does when it goes 100% BTC.

Why don't somebody reputed from the Bitcointalk community write a letter requesting their business stats? I think it is a nice idea for the promotion of bitcoin but I am unsure if everybody goes through with it. I think more businesses should adopt to this mode of payment. Appreciate the wise move.

I think their statement about only accepting BTC was delivered when euphoria was higher. Going crypto only is an admirable but pretty suicidal move. Even Bitpay admits spending is stale and quite a few merchants who adopted it have quietly dropped it.

You can still embrace the future without denying yourself vast swathes of custom. They're doing a great job in educating their customers but the bottom line will always count for more.

That said, they're aiming to switch in 2017. Perhaps the landscape will be quite different by then and BTC fans are natural customers for metals.