Got a discount for paying with Bitcoin. Are merchants waking up?

[Stalker22]

I think it is not just about saving credit card fees anymore.  Some businesses are now looking for other payment options because of how long it takes for card payments to go through and to avoid chargeback fraud.  When you pay with a credit card, the business might wait days or even weeks to actually see that money in their bank account.  And they are always worried about fraudulent chargebacks that can happen months later.  But with Bitcoin (especially over the Lightning Network) or stablecoins, the payment is instant, final, and cannot be reversed.

[abhiseshakana]

I always see discount as marketing and selling tools strategy, merchant who offered discount for payment with bitcoin or stablecoin, they share transaction cost saving and risk with customers, discount words encouraging customers to change payment habits which is for merchant more low cost, faster settlement and has bigger market access as payment efficiency.

From your case, merchat offered 3% discount for payment with bitcoin, can be seen as community based acquisition with long term purpose repeat order, buy more, and recommend their products to the community with consideration their customers mostly technology customer base such as developer, programmer, startup founder, web3 builder and crypto enthusiast. With renewed their positioning as inovatif, global and efficient merchant they create bigger branding effect which bring special marketing value itself.

As businessman, i see crypto as special economic community which is digitally active, relatively high purchasing power than other average internet user and mostly loyal to businesses that support their ecosystem. which accepting bitcoin and stable coin they confirmed serve crypto community. Even crypto market still small now but with expectation to grow large, entering early can provide advantages such as loyality and cheaper customer acquisition cost (business get exposure, publicity, forum discussions and preview without having to advertise). From my own experiences as digital business owner for online course and design service, payment through crypto easier than credit for some country, which mean opening up market which  previously difficult to reach. I see millions of bitcoin and stablecoin users are potential customers with different eceonomic behavior which should get special treatment.

[Alpen]

I recently renewed a domain and was pleasantly surprised to see that payments with Bitcoin got a 3% discount.

As 3% is a common credit card fee for merchants (in my country they charge up to 7-9% approx.), so this is only a logical consequence that a Bitcoin payments saves this fee for them. But it's the first time I saw that as long as I remember. To be fair, BTC was not the only option with a discount, stablecoins and bank transfers were rewarded too. Which is also understandable.

Did you folks get some sort of special offer for a Bitcoin payment? Poll is online

I could even imagine larger discounts in some cases if merchants realize that at least some tech-related merchants could attract a loyal customer base. Above all if they accept Lightning, Ark or any other layer-2.

Merchant adoption of Lightning and Bitcoin in general would be huge, I think. We can forget about Saylor if this type of adoption continues

Speaking from personal experience, using Lightning to accept payments isn't as simple and user-friendly as it seems. If you want to run a real business and accept crypto seamlessly, using a crypto gateway is the superior choice.

For instance, through a gateway like Cryptomus, I can easily set the Bitcoin billing rate slightly below the market price—and there's your discount. On top of that, gateways provide ready-to-use plugins and APIs, which is a major convenience boost for operations, alongside instant conversion features.

Ultimately, this allows any merchant to accept Bitcoin without needing any deep understanding of the crypto market

[FinneysTrueVision]

Recently, I paid for a proxy service and the amount I had to send in BTC was actually around 13% higher than the quoted fiat price. Having to pay a markup when using crypto is the more common experience for me. I have also been asked to do KYC to be able to pay in crypto with several merchants. This unnecessary friction makes it harder for Bitcoin and crypto to really gain adoption as a mainstream payment option.

[Fiatless]

In my country, depending on the state, you can find very few merchants who accept payment in bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, but it is mostly merchants who sell tech devices, like mobile phones, laptops or Satellite Internet Services, like Starlink and other similar stuff. But i have seen a lot of their advertisements and they do not offer discounts on crypto payments, maybe that is what they need to do to encourage people that want to spend in bitcoin, because crypto is growing very fast in my country.

In my location, I have never seen discount offers for paying with Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies. But you could find them in online shops where they advertise such offers. I got many of these offers when I was shopping for hardware wallets.

Bitcoin would not depend on influential individuals or big institutions to gain attention if we had small businesses accepting it as a means of payment. With such discounts, more people will be attracted to pay with Bitcoin.

[Suleiman the Magnificent]

I recently renewed a domain and was pleasantly surprised to see that payments with Bitcoin got a 3% discount.

As 3% is a common credit card fee for merchants (in my country they charge up to 7-9% approx.), so this is only a logical consequence that a Bitcoin payments saves this fee for them. But it's the first time I saw that as long as I remember. To be fair, BTC was not the only option with a discount, stablecoins and bank transfers were rewarded too. Which is also understandable.

Did you folks get some sort of special offer for a Bitcoin payment? Poll is online

I could even imagine larger discounts in some cases if merchants realize that at least some tech-related merchants could attract a loyal customer base. Above all if they accept Lightning, Ark or any other layer-2.

Merchant adoption of Lightning and Bitcoin in general would be huge, I think. We can forget about Saylor if this type of adoption continues

When payment is made with Bitcoin, it is absolutely necessary for merchants to offer discounts. However, in order to provide these discounts, they need their own payment infrastructure. If they use a third-party service, they still have to pay transaction fees, which leads them to increase prices rather than offer discounts. Of course, this applies to many online purchases made through websites. For physical sales or for those who manually receive Bitcoin directly to their own wallet despite selling online, discounts are still possible.

[Ceemv22]

I recently renewed a domain and was pleasantly surprised to see that payments with Bitcoin got a 3% discount.

As 3% is a common credit card fee for merchants (in my country they charge up to 7-9% approx.), so this is only a logical consequence that a Bitcoin payments saves this fee for them. But it's the first time I saw that as long as I remember. To be fair, BTC was not the only option with a discount, stablecoins and bank transfers were rewarded too. Which is also understandable.

Did you folks get some sort of special offer for a Bitcoin payment? Poll is online

I could even imagine larger discounts in some cases if merchants realize that at least some tech-related merchants could attract a loyal customer base. Above all if they accept Lightning, Ark or any other layer-2.

Merchant adoption of Lightning and Bitcoin in general would be huge, I think. We can forget about Saylor if this type of adoption continues

it probably depends from merchant to merchant. tbh, i recently purchased a new power suppply and paid for it with btc and got a 2.5% discount, but i've also come across other merchants in my country that don't reward crypto payments

[joniboini]

I have also been asked to do KYC to be able to pay in crypto with several merchants. This unnecessary friction makes it harder for Bitcoin and crypto to really gain adoption as a mainstream payment option.

So is there no other options to buy there? Sounds like a merchant issue or payment processor issue to be honest. Your experience is literally the exact opposite of me, who never did any KYC whatsoever until now to pay for the stuff that I need (VPN, etc). Not sure if it has to do with your laws too. I guess some of them don't ask for KYC if you're using fiat because they can simply ask your card details (which basically includes KYC details already), while they have to fill out some stuff if the user pick crypto. Can't imagine anti money laundering is really necessary for paying a $5/month service tho.

[bitbollo]

In all conventions or shops that sell products&services related to bitcoin, they offer discounts if you pay directly with bitcoin (and in most of cases its not just for marketing purpose )
The reason is simple.
There is a net advantage for some merchants in economic or all others involved aspects. The real problem arise with burocracy that creates burdens if you try to use those systems.

This is also part of the game since early times. Italians first meetups have hosted many applications or merchants ready to use/develop application for btc.

[Abelly]

i recently purchased a new power suppply and paid for it with btc and got a 2.5% discount, but i've also come across other merchants in my country that don't reward crypto payments

Many vendors are still accepting crypto, so acceptance is not yet widespread,
but if you see more businesses accepting Bitcoin as a payment method,
which could further strengthen its utility in the long run, your patience will pay off.

[Coyster]

Bitcoin would not depend on influential individuals or big institutions to gain attention if we had small businesses accepting it as a means of payment. With such discounts, more people will be attracted to pay with Bitcoin.

Adoption based on active use of bitcoin is great and it should complement the passive "buy and hodl" method that is more popular amongst bitcoiners. When i joined the network many years ago, i learnt the term mass adoption and i believe it to be a time when it becomes so much easier to find merchants that accept bitcoin, particularly in real life. It would definitely take a long time to get there and i believe the merchants have a role to play by encouraging people to pay in bitcoin.

[m2017]

I recently renewed a domain and was pleasantly surprised to see that payments with Bitcoin got a 3% discount.

I have long said this and have said it repeatedly that in order to encourage users to pay for bitcoin, they should offer discounts.

I'm glad you discovered this discount and shared it with the BTC-community. It's better than any news story.

As 3% is a common credit card fee for merchants (in my country they charge up to 7-9% approx.), so this is only a logical consequence that a Bitcoin payments saves this fee for them. But it's the first time I saw that as long as I remember. To be fair, BTC was not the only option with a discount, stablecoins and bank transfers were rewarded too. Which is also understandable.

As you can see, both parties (seller and buyer) benefit from payments in bitcoin (crypto). Isn't this a reason to increase the use of bitcoin (or stablecoins) as a means of payment?

Did you folks get some sort of special offer for a Bitcoin payment? Poll is online

No.

I could even imagine larger discounts in some cases if merchants realize that at least some tech-related merchants could attract a loyal customer base. Above all if they accept Lightning, Ark or any other layer-2.

Of course, a 3% discount is simply ridiculous. 5-10% is a different story.

Merchant adoption of Lightning and Bitcoin in general would be huge, I think. We can forget about Saylor if this type of adoption continues

The question is whether it will continue, because sellers also see what is happening now on the crypto market.

[noorman0]

I have not paid with bitcoin for a long time now, and I also barely buy and pay for digital services like VPN and domain, which is what I could have mostly wanted to spend my money on, but such service and offering is not just a gift to the customer; the company is also saving itself from some additional expenses while at the same time giving you, the customer, the freedom of maintaining privacy while paying for what you want.

Most digital item stores require you to provide certain information, so they aren't a completely private payment option. For users, it's flexibility and convenience. For services, it's the potential for increased customer base.
The only expense outside of sales tax that I can think of is operational costs, even if they use a self-hosted payment processor, such as providing their own servers and dedicated operators/technicians.

[Freeveto]

it probably depends from merchant to merchant. tbh, i recently purchased a new power suppply and paid for it with btc and got a 2.5% discount, but i've also come across other merchants in my country that don't reward crypto payments

Maybe it depends on country and merchants, but having the discount is good, it will encourage payment with bitcoin because of the discount, this will also increase bitcoin adoption globally, many people will adopt bitcoin because of the discount and it is safer if you understand bitcoin.

[DrBeer]

I recently renewed a domain and was pleasantly surprised to see that payments with Bitcoin got a 3% discount.

As 3% is a common credit card fee for merchants (in my country they charge up to 7-9% approx.), so this is only a logical consequence that a Bitcoin payments saves this fee for them. But it's the first time I saw that as long as I remember. To be fair, BTC was not the only option with a discount, stablecoins and bank transfers were rewarded too. Which is also understandable.

Did you folks get some sort of special offer for a Bitcoin payment? Poll is online

I could even imagine larger discounts in some cases if merchants realize that at least some tech-related merchants could attract a loyal customer base. Above all if they accept Lightning, Ark or any other layer-2.

Merchant adoption of Lightning and Bitcoin in general would be huge, I think. We can forget about Saylor if this type of adoption continues

That makes sense, assuming they are confident that bitcoin will rise in value, in the long run.But....if it doesn't.... They'll take a loss. The situation with bitcoin now, to put it mildly, is far from optimistic, and the prospects are not very clear. But this is my personal opinion

[tiCeR]

I recently renewed a domain and was pleasantly surprised to see that payments with Bitcoin got a 3% discount.

As 3% is a common credit card fee for merchants (in my country they charge up to 7-9% approx.), so this is only a logical consequence that a Bitcoin payments saves this fee for them. But it's the first time I saw that as long as I remember. To be fair, BTC was not the only option with a discount, stablecoins and bank transfers were rewarded too. Which is also understandable.

Did you folks get some sort of special offer for a Bitcoin payment? Poll is online

I could even imagine larger discounts in some cases if merchants realize that at least some tech-related merchants could attract a loyal customer base. Above all if they accept Lightning, Ark or any other layer-2.

Merchant adoption of Lightning and Bitcoin in general would be huge, I think. We can forget about Saylor if this type of adoption continues

d5000 this is an awesome posting because I was thinking about sharing my experience when som time ago I went to Prague and later to Arnhem in the Netherlands. In Prague there is a café called Bitcoin Coffee. I talked to the guy behind the bar and he said that they take bitcoin because there is no cut taken by any intermediary. Some of the bitcoin they keep, and the other part they convert into fiat to make sure they are not subject to volatility. As you said, they offer a slightly cheaper coffee because they don't have to spend it on fees to facilitate the transaction. I asked whether confirmation times are a problem and the reality is that bitcoin broadcasts within seconds, confirmations are only for security. In a coffee business that is irrelevant.

In the Netherlands in Arnhem same thing. I wanted to share my experience here and I would recommend to visit those bitcoin places because there are use cases. It is often said that bitcoin can't serve those needs. It can serve those needs, but when confirmations are required in transactions that involve a lot of money, bitcoin is the safest, but not the fastest option.

Maybe others can share where spending bitcoin offers discounts or is accepted. I travel through Europe every now and then and I am a big supporter of those locations.

[Asiska02]

This is great and at the same time understandable that the value of bitcoin is not being noticed more by merchants to begin to integrate it into their payment systems. If the discount was only for payment using bitcoin, I would have said they’ve played a very smart move to also get to DCA into bitcoin not that the price is relatively low and has hits a major low for the first time for a very long time now. This does not still dispute the fact that it was what they aimed at achieving with this but in a disguised form of offering same to other means of payment. One thing I see here and commend is bitcoin adoption and as long as more merchants can integrate this into their system, then bitcoin will be a much adopted currency in the nearest future.

[Agathamay]

 

They are not saving money for themselves but giving it back to the customer, which is fair play and a smart move for a merchant. Although they are not waking up just now, I am sure you have also read so many topics created or posts made here that shared the same thing about how paying in BTC has not only saved them from extra fees but also given them a discount.

I have been doing some online shopping like buying some services but did not get this discount yet, but it has saved me from a lot of hassle and I consider that a discount haha. But I am glad you are happy about the discount because merchants could attract a lot more people this way if they want. Haha that was a nice one about Saylor though, but I think we are not forced to remember him, he has just become a figure at this point.

I think the key thing merchants that accept bitcoin and offer discount are trying to do is attract more customers to their businesses which is a great business move for them and yes I've seen several stories of people pushing things online and getting discounts for paying with bitcoin which I myself haven't gotten maybe because I don't shop more online but I'm glad bitcoin is gaining a lot of popularity and it's usage is booming already

I think I've also read a story of a school that accepts bitcoin as a mode of fees payment and I can't even remember if I read the news on here or somewhere else but i have to point it out that it's a right step to adoption and I hope the same school that accepts it can also incorporate bitcoin and cryptocurrency teaching and learning in their curriculum as this would create more awareness and opportunities for not just the students but also for the school or don't you think so?

[d5000]

Some businesses are now looking for other payment options because of how long it takes for card payments to go through and to avoid chargeback fraud.

True, good point.

Recently, I paid for a proxy service and the amount I had to send in BTC was actually around 13% higher than the quoted fiat price. Having to pay a markup when using crypto is the more common experience for me. I have also been asked to do KYC to be able to pay in crypto with several merchants.

I never saw a markup, but I came across KYC requirements. I think it was because the merchant used Bitpay, and Bitpay in some cases now since a few months requires registration (and KYC).

In another case (not the one described in the OP), I paid with Coingate (without any discount) but they warned that some countries may be unsupported and lead to payment failure. If I remember correctly, they even would charge a fee to refund the payment in this case.

Thus I think the traditional payment processors are indeed an increasingly worse option for merchants. It is better for them probably if they want to convert at least some of the income to fiat, if they open an account on an exchange and use a combination of the exchange's API and a self-hosted payment solution to automatically convert payments into fiat. You could even set up some complex rules, like "if the spot price is below the weekly average, keep the BTC, and if it is above that number, convert it to fiat".

confirmations are only for security. In a coffee business that is irrelevant.

That's indeed a thing many forget. Would you double spend a coffee payment, even if this means no 100% success rate and/or a high transaction fee, and probably getting banned from your coffee shop forever? In many retail spaces this could apply, and if it's too risky (businesses with many "unknown" customers), they could offer some kind of prepay option (e.g. you pay when you enter the shop, and get refunded the remaining funds if you don't use the whole credit).

Nice experiences, thanks for sharing!

[JeffBrad12]

Recently, I paid for a proxy service and the amount I had to send in BTC was actually around 13% higher than the quoted fiat price. Having to pay a markup when using crypto is the more common experience for me. I have also been asked to do KYC to be able to pay in crypto with several merchants. This unnecessary friction makes it harder for Bitcoin and crypto to really gain adoption as a mainstream payment option.

The KYC is the most annoying thing, tried to load up balance in several computing platform, they always requires KYC for some reason for crypto payment and set a high minimum threshold for deposit.
Clearly some merchant don't give a damn with benefit they could've gotten if they enabled direct crypto payments, they could've made more money bypassing the payment processor fees.
In the world full of altcoins with smart contract, I couldn't believe there hasn't been any company that could give low fee payment solutions.