Tea store wanting to accept bit coins

[nmteaco]

I own a tea store and am interested in accepting bitcoins for online orders.

I think the best way would be to sell $20 gift cards for a certain amount of bitcoins. Then the customer could use the gift card when checking out at the store. This would mean I would not have to develop any software to integrate into my shopping cart.

I just heard about bitcoins about 20 min ago, so I would like some feedback. Are other online retailers accepting bitcoins, and what is the accepted exchange rate?

Also how do you keep track of your bitcoins? I have downloaded the software and have it running on my laptop.

Thanks for any feedback and suggestions.

David Edwards
President, NM Tea Co. Inc.
www.nmteaco.com

[Anonymous]

http://www.bitcoin.org/trade

You can find the current retailers above.

As for exchange rate:

http://www.mtgox.com/

When it comes to keeping track of your coins, you can use the client you have now or use the online transaction processor at https://www.mybitcoin.com/.

[caveden]

MtGox is the most liquid exchange market, but it's not the only one. Check bitcoincharts.com for some more.

[nmteaco]

Are people interested in having retailers accept bitcoins directly, or is everyone just trying to generate them in-order to exchange them for cash through the exchange market?

[Anonymous]

Are people interested in having retailers accept bitcoins directly, or is everyone just trying to generate them in-order to exchange them for cash through the exchange market?

I'm sure. I wanted to purchase a vest on Amazon but my leisure funds were all in Bitcoins. I had to exchange somebody for Amazon credit in order to get it. If a retailer had offered the same product for Bitcoins, even for a little more, I absolutely would of got it.

[FatherMcGruder]

I own a tea store and am interested in accepting bitcoins for online orders.

I think the best way would be to sell $20 gift cards for a certain amount of bitcoins. Then the customer could use the gift card when checking out at the store. This would mean I would not have to develop any software to integrate into my shopping cart.

I just heard about bitcoins about 20 min ago, so I would like some feedback. Are other online retailers accepting bitcoins, and what is the accepted exchange rate?

Also how do you keep track of your bitcoins? I have downloaded the software and have it running on my laptop.

Thanks for any feedback and suggestions.

David Edwards
President, NM Tea Co. Inc.
www.nmteaco.com

Nice. You can see a list of vendors that accept bitcoins here. No single person decides the exchange rates between bitcoins and other currencies. People just buy and sell according to their own valuation of it. If no one agrees with you, you'll have no one to exchange with. Exchange sites like Mt. Gox and Bitcoin Central display the prevailing rates at which people trade bitcoin for other currencies.

People keep track of their bitcoins with either the client or with the help of a site like mybitcoin.com.

Are people interested in having retailers accept bitcoins directly, or is everyone just trying to generate them in-order to exchange them for cash through the exchange market?

The more retailers that accept it the better. Paypal and similar services are no fun.

[nmteaco]

A test...

I have just set up a mybitcoin address. (168GsGPYiYrNVZtLxWU9oLJFi9MskdDGPe)

I would like to sell a $10 gift card for my store for 14 bit coins.

Does an e-mail address come with the payment?

I will send the coupon code that works for my site to the first few people who send bitcoins.

[Anonymous]

A test...

I have just set up a mybitcoin address. (168GsGPYiYrNVZtLxWU9oLJFi9MskdDGPe)

I would like to sell a $10 gift card for my store for 14 bit coins.

Does an e-mail address come with the payment?

I will send the coupon code that works for my site to the first few people who send bitcoins.

Unfortunately, no. You will have to associate the addresses with individuals before you can start making transactions.

[nmteaco]

I am listening to the Security Now episode that talks about bitcoins, and I will do some more reading and do another test once I know what I'm doing!

-David

[Cusipzzz]

You should ask for interested parties to PM or email you, you give a unique address to that user, and when payment is received on that address - you PM or email the person back the code.

Giving out 1 address for everyone to use just doesn't work.

Also, while we like to support new businesses, charging an exchange rate that far away from the market is not going to make customers happy.

You're already gained exposure via this thread, why not sell the gift codes at even 1 BTC=1 USD, or less. Surely that would help marketing.

[nmteaco]

Thanks Cusipzzz,

I am just trying to figure it out... I just picked a number at random, I think your 1 to 1 exchange is good.

So I need to generate a new payment code for each payment?

[Cusipzzz]

Yes, that is the cleanest way to do it.

In the future, since you already have an Customer Account concept coded into your site - you can assign an address to each Account, and any payments that come in to that address are credited to that customer's account.

Or you can keep generating addresses for each transaction and show them in your shopping cart app.

For now, to get started, assigning addresses / codes via email/PM here on the forums is the quickest way.
 

[nmteaco]

Ok here is a payment link... If anyone is interested I am selling a $10 gift card for NM Tea Co. for 8 bitcoins

https://www.mybitcoin.com/sci/paypage.php?t=066Qy8l7oyxgIZc3ysrnLXEXI5s6-vueOsWAK3OvA3Hy9184YXLueGKvvlAxanDQKUnubX-bV6AcdmCyb_ct8gHIqVCC-j2OJXHVWqPCxblTQpPGLHi0IzTRjDkj4fT-UakPO-oSwAc4IUZggFwi8gmQsxA008RVRnZonQxEka22v-wbUcrWvZMOypIU951dfZu9Fjfge7SQBnJNC32a392CmqYTxpwllBaEJbbBXCcbO77mezdsQ_juHO9VsC1h8bORpQn36pYgnWPFKjZvq2OabHjyGge3krk%2C

I think this payment type makes it so we don't need to exchange information beforehand, if thats not the case you can send me a PM with the payment code you generated.

[FatherMcGruder]

...you can send me a PM with the payment code you generated.

I hope I'm not confusing you here, but the buyer doesn't provide a code. He just tells you where to send the gift card, and you tell him where to send his bitcoins by giving him a bitcoin address.

[nmteaco]

FatherMcGruder...

I thought that to, but if you click on the "Pay with Bitcoin" button it says

To make a payment using the Bitcoin software, you need to generate a new temporary payment address below. The Bitcoin address will change for each payment that you make with this service. Do not ever reuse a temporary payment address or your Bitcoins may get lost.

So it looks like you can generate your own code, send money to it, then send me the code... maybe... i dont know.

[FatherMcGruder]

FatherMcGruder...

I thought that to, but if you click on the "Pay with Bitcoin" button it says

To make a payment using the Bitcoin software, you need to generate a new temporary payment address below. The Bitcoin address will change for each payment that you make with this service. Do not ever reuse a temporary payment address or your Bitcoins may get lost.

So it looks like you can generate your own code, send money to it, then send me the code... maybe... i dont know.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, because I don't use MyBitcoin.com, but I'm pretty sure that's MyBitcoin.com telling the buyer where to send the bitcoins. The bitcoins he sends to that address go to your MyBitcoin account. The reason it generates a new address is to keep track of the payments.

[ploum]

Are you shipping to Europe? Being a tea fanatic, I would be really interested by buying my tea with BTC :-)

[Garrett Burgwardt]

I'm definitely interested in buying some tea with bitcoins

One other potential way you could accept payment would be to accept payment through an ip address and have users write a note in the applicable box.

I'm not sure whether this has any pitfalls that I'm missing, the other forum members can clue you in on that.

Either way, good to have more retailers accepting bitcoins! I don't live in New Mexico otherwise I'd stop by and have a chat 

[nmteaco]

I will be setting up a webpage that will make it easy for people to buy gift cards with bitcoins...

I'm also looking for a coder on freelancer.com that can figure out how to integrate it directly into my shopping cart.


I will post back when I have everything done.

Thanks for everyones feedback.

[BitterTea]

nmteaco,

I recommend looking into the MtGox merchant services. It seems pretty simple to use. What shopping cart software are you using? I'm a developer, familiar with ASP (unfortunately), it seems like it would be rather simple to modify the template to output a "pay with Bitcoin" link using the MtGox code. PM me if you're interested.