How To Accept Bitcoin In Your Online Shop
Bitcoin seems to be established in the market while the range of online shops continues to grow steadily. More and more businesses are installing the Bitcoin payment gateway on their web portals.
In addition, there are already physical stores that allow payment with the most popular cryptocurrency. Is it time for your business to enable BTC payments, too?
Do you know everything about Bitcoin? In the article we will answer these questions and give you instructions for your web installation.
How does Bitcoin Payment benefit a Business?
Today we can’t clearly specify the benefit of paying in Bitcoin yet. Businesses offering the crypto payment option gamble on the price of their products every day. This is due to the fact that the cryptocurrency’s price is still very volatile. There is no real stability yet. However, experts are convinced that Bitcoin’s value is going to live a dramatic increase in the long run.
This means that having a Bitcoin payment processor in your ecommerce or in a traditional store, is more a medium-long term investment than something beneficial in the short term.
If someone is considering having a Bitcoin payment gateway shouldn’t take the price of his product into account, but the accumulation of the cryptocurrency. In the beginning of 2019 the price of BTC was at about 4,200 USD, while in May it reached 8,000 USD again, so it nearly doubled within just a couple of months.
With this data, store owners could consider obtaining Bitcoins as a new way of investing in their own business. What if the discounts on your products were marked by Bitcoin? It seems a viable option, but it can be a risky decision.
Advantages of Bitcoin Payment
- No more high bank fees.
- Returns at the same price will become impossible, so the consumer will have to be very sure of the purchase.
- The transfer at the time of purchase will be immediate.
- The integration of a Bitcoin payment gateway is an announcement of the company to be very innovative.
Cryptocurrency Payment Gateway Providers for Online Shops (Easy Integration)
Coins:
- BTC
- Lightning Network
- ETH
- LTC
- EOS
- DASH
- BCH
- +many more
Shop Systems
- aMemberPro
- a Arastta
- Blesta
- BoxBilling
- Drupal
- EasyDigitalDownloads
- Hikashop
- Magento
- OpenCart
- Shopware
- Shopify
- osCommerce
- Tomato Cart
- WHMCS
- VirtueMart
- WooCommerce
- WPCommerce
- Ubercart
- Xcart
- Zen Cart
Transaction Fees
Coins:
- BTC
- ETH
- LTC
- EOS
- DASH
- BCH
- +many more
Shop Systems
- Blesta
- Magento
- OpenCart
- osCommerce
- PrestaShop
- Shopware
- Thirty Bees
- VirtueMart
- WHMCS
- WooCommerce
- Zen Cart
Transaction Fees
Coins:
- BTC
- DASH
- NEM
Shop Systems
- Drupal
- Magento
- OpenCart
- Prestashop
- WHMCS
- WooCommerce
- VirtueMart
- Zen Cart
Transaction Fees
Coins:
- BTC
- ETH
- LTC
- BCH
Shop Systems
- Magento
- OpenCart 1/2/3
- Prestashop
- WHMCS
- WooCommerce
- WordPress
- Zen Cart
Transaction Fees
Coins:
- BTC
- ETH
- LTC
Shop Systems
- WordPress
- WooCommerce
- Magento
- EasyDigitalDownloads
- OpenCart 1/2/3
- PrestaShop
- WHMCS
- Custom Website
Transaction Fees
Coins:
- BTC
- BCH
- Bitmonet
- Blesta
- Cydec
- E-GOV Link
- Foxycart
- MPA3
- NATs
- Shopify
- WordPress
- WooCommerce
- 3DCart
Transaction Fees
Coins:
- BTC
- LTC
- ETH
- DASH
- EOS
- BCH
Shop Systems
- Magento
- NATS4 (Too Much Media)
- nopCommerce
- OpenCart
- osCommerce
- Prestashop
- Shopify
- UberCart
- VirtueMart
- WHMCS
- WooCommerce
- ZenCart
Fees
How to integrate the Bitcoin Payment Gateway?
Currently there are two options to receive payment in Bitcoin on a website or in a traditional store. You can either use an external payment gateway service (as in the table above) as a worry-free package. You have to take into account customer service and automated management with such external tools.
The second option is to create your own system, which can be an option for people who have extensive knowledge in Bitcoin and its management. An own system on your server has to be installed, maintained and controlled by yourself.
1. External Bitcoin Payment Service
For most people the best option to start working with Bitcoin payments in their shop will be an external service. An external service is a payment gateway provider that will give an easy way to integrate their system into your online shop. This will usually work with the quick and simple installation of a plugin that will connect your shop system to their crypto payment system. The management of the payments and everything will be in the cloud. So you will login to your account at the service’s website and check the payment performance there. The comparison table above gives you possible platforms where BTC payment will be easy to use.
1. a) Payment in Bitcoins for Online Shops
The services shown in our comparison table are cryptcurrency payment gateway providers with very low commissions (fees per transaction). Those providers can also handle businesses with a large volume of transactions. The managers accept Bitcoins and certain altcoins, store them securely and some of them give you the option to convert your money into dollars. The applications the services offer allow you to manage your finances in a transparent and clear way.
1. b) Payment in Bitcoins for Physical Stores
Coinkite is an example for a terminal that accepts payment in Bitcoin which is decentralized and absolutely autonomous. It is a model prepared for Android and is capable of printing tickets and invoices. In this case, if you want to transform your BTC into fiat currency you have to use a crypto exchange platform.
2. Internal Bitcoin Payment Gateway
To be able to self-manage the collections and payments in BTC we have different options. An internal Bitcoin payment gateway means a self-hosted solution that you’re responsible for by yourself, or your in-house developer / payment manager. In this case you will have to install an open source software on your shop server. So in this case the Bitcoin payment transactions will be handled directly by you, and you have to make sure yoursel that everything works smoothly. In contrast to an external service, which would always assist you with customer service and manage everything important for you.
Next, we will show some of the possibilities that the market currently offers.
2. a) Bitcoin Payment for Online Shops
If you have an online store with WordPress you can integrate an internal payment gateway for crypto coins relatively easily by just installing a plugin for that purpose. Plugins always help you to obtain more functionalities in your site, and in this case it will also offer you the possibility to integrate BTC payment option. Here are the top wordpress plugins for payment in Bitcoins:
Coins:
- BTC
- BCH
- BSV
- LTC
- DASH
- DOGE
- 6 more coins
Shop Systems
- Magento
- WooCommerce
- WordPress
Transaction Fees
Digital Paybox: This platform will allow you to decide if you want to pay with Paypal, credit card, Bitcoins among other options. Simple to install and a secure option for your payment gateway in Bitcoin.
GoUrl: This Bitcoin payment tool can be integrated in a few minutes. It is free and accepts Bitcoin and a range of altcoins. The conversion into dollars or euros is enabled. The integration of the Bitcoin payment gateway is direct, without the need to open other windows. It works well with WooCommerce.
Mollie: Crypto Payments for Woocomerce; another plugin that accepts payment in Bitcoins. One more BTC payment gateway option.
2. b) Payment with Bitcoins for physical Stores
The most popular option is Blockchain Merchant. It is a free application for any point of sale that accepts payments in Bitcoin, specialized in catering businesses and merchants. You need to set it up with your Bitcoin wallet and it will automatically be installed. There are no payment fees and it is available in many languages.
Blockchain.merchant
Bitpay.com Retail
Conclusions on Bitcoin Payment Method Integration
At the moment many countries do not have official legislation on payment transactions with Bitcoins. Before starting the financial activity with Bitcoin you should inform yourself legally. Our recommendation is to declare all transactions and be very prudent with economic management. It would be a good idea to have the account manager involved in these very current issues.
We think that in the future the establishments operating with any type of currency will stop offering discounts and will play with its volatility.