After Six Months Accepting Bitcoin, British retailer says Bitcoin not right for retail
Online printer cartridge retailer, Ink Factory says the role of Bitcoin in retail is overstated; Bitcoin and the blockchain (the distributed public ledger system) it runs on have a great future ahead but this retailer doesn’t think retail payments is it.
In November 2013 Ink Factory, the online printer cartridges retailer began accepting Bitcoin as a payment method on its website.
In a recent blog post summarising the retailers’ six-month experience with Bitcoin, Managing Director Tim Johnson said,
“In just over six months, the number of orders paid with Bitcoin has not reached three-figures and our largest order in that time was less than 1 BTC (one Bitcoin).”
“Typically, customers paying with Bitcoin buy toner cartridges and tell us they are experimenting with using Bitcoin as a payment method.”
“Experimenting with new technology is always fun, and we’re grateful for the extra business Bitcoin has brought us, but experimentation is not enough for the long-term.”
The benefits to Ink Factory for accepting Bitcoin are clear: near-zero transactional costs and no risk of chargebacks (payment reversal due to fraud). Benefits for customers to pay with Bitcoin are less clear.
“In the absence of a compelling reason for consumers to acquire and spend Bitcoin, retailers might need to find ways to incentivise the use of Bitcoin if the benefits it brings are truly valuable enough to do so.”
“I’m not convinced that Bitcoin is the payment method of the future for retailers,” Mr Johnson said, “but Bitcoin is still in its infancy. In June 2014 it’s true to say that most people haven’t heard of Bitcoin, and we have no plans to stop accepting it as a payment method whilst we have even a few customers wanting to pay with it.”
Inspired by a recent give-away of Bitcoin to students at MIT University in the US to increase awareness and experimentation with Bitcoin, Ink Factory is giving away ten tenths of one Bitcoin (about £40 value - enough to buy an average toner cartridge) to see what its customers would do if they had some Bitcoin.
About Ink Factory
Launched online in 1999, Ink Factory has always been early to adopt new technology. In July 2013 Ink Factory were the first in the World to 3D-print a pair of working inkjet printer cartridges (described in the press at the time as “uniquely disruptive” – Techcrunch 26/7/13).
Now in its 15th year, Ink Factory has more than 10,000 positive customer reviews, and has sold millions of printer cartridges nationwide.
Ink Factory: http://www.inkfactory.com/
Ink Factory on Twitter: https://twitter.com/inkfactory/
Ink Factory on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/inkfactory/
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