With the crypto craze ever-growing, companies all across the world are gradually trying to diversify their payment system. While a few have already started accepting top coins like Bitcoin and Ethereum, the rest have resorted to other community-friendly coins like Shiba Inu and Dogecoin.
Gucci is now the latest to jump onto the crypto bandwagon. The high-end luxury fashion brand will be accepting crypto payments in some US stores at the end of this month. In fact, it also plans to extend the pilot to all of its directly operated North America stores this summer.
Chalking out other details
In-store crypto payments can be made through a link sent via email to the customer. The link, as such, would contain a QR code that’d facilitate them to execute the payment from their respective crypto wallets.
Per Vogue Business, the first Gucci stores to start accepting crypto are Wooster Street in New York, Rodeo Drive in Los Angeles, Miami Design District, Phipps Plaza in Atlanta and The Shops at Crystals in Las Vegas.
As far as the accepted currencies are concerned, Vogue noted,
“Gucci will accept payments in more than 10 currencies, including Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, Wrapped Bitcoin, Litecoin, Shiba Inu and five stablecoins pegged to the US dollar. It will also accept Dogecoin, a “meme” cryptocurrency originally created as a joke.“
Commenting on the same, Marco Bizzarri, Gucci President and CEO said,
“Gucci is always looking to embrace new technologies when they can provide an enhanced experience for our customers. Now that we are able to integrate cryptocurrencies within our payment system, it is a natural evolution for those customers who would like to have this option available to them.”
As a matter of fact, Gucci has been one of the early adopters of the crypto-web-3 tech. In its quest to target Gen-Z, it has been stepping up its metaverse game over the past year and is a prominent early user of digital fashion, virtual worlds, and non-traditional retailing.
The brand also recently collaborated with Superplastic, a firm that creates “animated celebrities,” to release a collection of 500 NFTs (made up of 10 total designs). Thus, its move to start accepting crypto payments, only fosters the said pro-narrative even further.