Topic: Why are merchants not serious about the advantages of Bitcoin? - page 2. (Read 3540 times)

I'm a merchant. It's been over a year since I started offering 15% off any order paid for with Bitcoin.

Not a single customer has paid with BTC - everyone just uses PayPal/Credit card. Several people have said they will check out BTC, but then they always pay using a traditional method. It's important to note however that my customer base is niche, middle aged and affuent.

But then I remember when McDonald's didn't take credit cards. I was a teenager I think before they started doing that, and they'd been in business since the 1950's.

Or, better yet, he buys more- thereby decreases his cost per Bitcoin.
He bought one for $450.
Goes out and buys 4 more @ $200/each. Essentially, he bought each coin for $250/each (1250/5).
BTC could make that kind of value back at some point on any given day.

You're missing the point. In both strategies I suggested, Joe is essentially keeping his Bitcoin. Except with number 2, he is actively helping to raise the price level, on two ends (bitcoin economy, and market demand).

If Joe does think the price will go lower, then he's better off spending his BTC anyway (now that it still buys him $200 worth of stuff), rather than spending $200 and keeping his BTC.

Just ran across this article on how Overstock is not getting as much revenue as they expected with bitcoin:

http://www.coindesk.com/overstocks-2014-bitcoin-sales-miss-projections-3-million/

No one should be surprised. Merchants have been loudly announcing they accept bitcoin all year. And it makes sense for them to accept bitcoin. No chargebacks, forgeries, counterfeiting, no chasing after customers with collections agencies, etc., etc.

But they can't answer one stupid question: Why should I pay them with my bitcoin when I can pay them the same price with a credit card that gives me 2% (or 3% or 5% with my 2nd and 3rd cards right now in certain categories) cash back and allows me to defer payment ~45 days?

Merchants need to get serious if they expect to pick up actual revenue in bitcoin and gain a real advantage against the competition. Offer something like a 5% discount on BTC purchases, sharing the savings they enjoy using BTC. That would give people an actual incentive to accumulate and use BTC. Instead they are treating it like a short-sighted marketing gimmick.

You would rather call it a gamblers fallacy, that the price can't go lower . Thats what most of the people holding bitcoin have the mindset about .

That's pretty darn stupid of Joe. Even if he's got his bitcoin as investment, rather than spending money - what do you think will help raising the value of his precious bitcoins more:

If Joe buys 1BTC for $450 and a month later 1BTC is worth $200 then of course Joe will not spend his Bitcoin.

If its a big business, they probably sell it instantly, and that alone is basically dumping the price, as people don't buy for the purpose of selling .But people who already own are the ones who sell.

How much BTC are overstock, or any vendor keeping in their wallet?  That is an interesting question.  If you are using it and then they are selling all the BTC to exchanges instantly it isn't that much different than buying it for cash.

Just about every truckstop in the US has a discounted price for diesel when you pay cash.

By policy I assume you mean law, since a company policy can be changed by the company itself. I don't think there are laws (at least not generally) that would prevent a company offering a bitcoin discount. For example, don't gas stations in some places offer a different price for paying for gas with credit cards versus cash? It would be the same idea.

......that said merchants like overstock need to realize a few things:
1. their product categories are not weekly spend consumables. they sell computers and stuff that people only replace once every few years. so those customers who did buy something at the start of the year, probably wont be coming back for a few years.
2. merchants like overstock who hoard coins anyway, need to realize that its not costing them a single penny to have the payment service for bitcoin available. so even if they only have 1 customer a month. overstock does not need to be paying large subscription fee's even at times of no custom.
3. once grocery stores accept it, and people get paid it as a wage (closing the loop of acceptance) it will move into the main adopter/mainstream stage
4. bitcoin is still young, like a toddler, it's not yet at the stage of being part of society. so just wait and see and things will start growing

i personally live on bitcoin (my income is 100% bitcoin and i can spend it to buy food, clothing, rent etc) once a larger group of people are true 100% bitcoiners, then merchants should see a increase of spending but should not be expecting 1million customers a month if they are not merchants selling 'weekly consumables'.

grocery stores and landlords will see more spending occur as oppose to the once a year product purchase and i know for sure that the grocery stores, and food outlets that do accept bitcoin DO see regular customers. purely because their product category is a daily/weekly consumable

Bitcoin is still seen as invesment rather than something you pay with by the majority.

Stable price would contribute to the spending habits of people.

If Joe buys 1BTC for $450 and a month later 1BTC is worth $200 then of course Joe will not spend his Bitcoin.

merchants are getting onboard, consumers are the problem.

Just ran across this article on how Overstock is not getting as much revenue as they expected with bitcoin:

http://www.coindesk.com/overstocks-2014-bitcoin-sales-miss-projections-3-million/

No one should be surprised. Merchants have been loudly announcing they accept bitcoin all year. And it makes sense for them to accept bitcoin. No chargebacks, forgeries, counterfeiting, no chasing after customers with collections agencies, etc., etc.

But they can't answer one stupid question: Why should I pay them with my bitcoin when I can pay them the same price with a credit card that gives me 2% (or 3% or 5% with my 2nd and 3rd cards right now in certain categories) cash back and allows me to defer payment ~45 days?

Merchants need to get serious if they expect to pick up actual revenue in bitcoin and gain a real advantage against the competition. Offer something like a 5% discount on BTC purchases, sharing the savings they enjoy using BTC. That would give people an actual incentive to accumulate and use BTC. Instead they are treating it like a short-sighted marketing gimmick.

Overstock isn't paying anything like 5% on credit card transactions. People running a business out of their parents' basement pay 5%. Big companies pay around 1%.

Overstock isn't paying anything like 5% on credit card transactions. People running a business out of their parents' basement pay 5%. Big companies pay around 1%.