According to a recent survey by Deloitte, 75% of retailers in the United States plan on accepting crypto as a valid method of payment over the next two years.
The report, titled “Merchants Getting Ready For Crypto”, was released on Wednesday, in collaboration with payments facilitator PayPal. The report surveyed 2,000 senior executives at U.S. retail organizations between December 3 and December 16, 2021. Retailers were polled and distributed equally among the cosmetics, digital goods, electronics, fashion, food and beverages, home and garden, hospitality and leisure, personal and household goods, services and transportation industries.
Digging deeper into the report, it was revealed that more than half of large retailers (those which have a revenue of over $500 Million) are already pouring Million dollar investments on building the appropriate infrastructure for the same to happen. Small to medium sized sized enterprises were also breaking the bank to get get involved.
Additionally, Deloitte indicated that the spending is expected to increase throughout 2022 and more than 60% of retailers polled said they expect budgets over $500,000 to enable crypto payments over the next 12 months to December.
Why are retailers so keen on crypto?
As per the report, retailers believe that enabling crypto payments would improve customer experience, increase customer base, and give their brand a ‘cutting-edge’ advantage over rivals. This notion stemmed mainly from two points:
Firstly, 64% of merchants surveyed reported that their customers show significant interest in using cryptocurrencies for payments. Secondly, out of those retailers that already accept crypto, 93% have reported a positive impact on their customer metrics.
To remain relevant within the dynamic retail industry, retailers have to adapt to the latest trends to keep their customers engaged and happy. In that respect, retailers and crypto seem to be a match made in heaven.
This is why it isn’t surprising to see why top brands such as Balenciaga, Starbucks, Whole Foods, and Gucci, among others, are getting into the crypto scene relatively earlier than some others. Recently, it was reported that British-Portuguese luxury fashion retailer Farfetch became the latest prominent name to start accepting crypto as payments.
“For luxury retailers, it is vital to stay on top of the latest trends, and when it comes to payments the greatest innovation is coming from the evolving crypto scene,” said Rajesh Madhaiyan, Director of Product at Lunu, a German crypto platform which had partnered with Farfetch to enable crypto payments.