e-Retailer’s U.S. customers have been paying with Bitcoin since 2014
While cryptocurrencies are a bit in a slump and some retailers have decided to either pull back or not continue with cryptocurrency payments, a California-based online computer hardware retailer is going the opposite direction. On Wednesday, Newegg announced the extension of its Bitcoin payment option to Canada.
Newegg was one of the early adopters of Bitcoin, offering its US customers the digital currency payment option since August 2014. The platform has roughly 36 million customers, mostly in North America, and the company say they’re optimistic regarding the new-age cryptocurrency payment system.
“In 2014 Newegg was among the first major companies to offer customers a Bitcoin payment option,” Newegg’s CEO Danny Lee said.
In late 2017, as Bitcoin’s volatile value and ballooning transaction fees drove most other retailers away, Newegg held its ground.
“Since that time the value of bitcoin has skyrocketed and customers holding Bitcoin have considerably more purchasing power. We believe the time is right to broaden our acceptance of bitcoin to our customers in Canada,” he added.
As cryptocurrency payment processor, Newegg will maintain its partnership with BitPay as the service is already managing the retailer’s Bitcoin transactions in the USA.
“Newegg was an early e-commerce adopter of Bitcoin, and that leap of faith the company took in 2014 put Newegg on the map as a Bitcoin-friendly place for tech enthusiasts to shop,” said BitPay CEO and co-founder Stephen Pair.
“We’re seeing a lot of traction in Canada, and we’re happy to see Newegg extend its Bitcoin payment option north of the border.”
Many online e-retailers have recently parted ways with Bitcoin. Payment processing giant Stripe recently announced its plans of removing Bitcoin payments beginning next month. Newegg uses BitPay’s Application Programming Interface (API) to create and manage invoices, issue refunds, manage bills, retrieve real-time rates information, and view merchant ledger entries. The enterprise-grade merchant tool achieves 99.99% uptime.