With cryptocurrencies becoming more and more popular, it's worth thinking about whether or not you should start accepting Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency payments on your Shopify store.
Since you've landed on this page, I'm assuming that you've already decided to try it out, which is excellent!
In this article, I will give you several options to accept cryptocurrencies on your Shopify store.
In case you're worried that it's going to be difficult, don't worry; it's not rocket science.
Even if you've no experience with cryptocurrencies, accepting crypto payments on your Shopify store is as easy to set up as any of the other payment gateways such as PayPal or Shopify Payments.
Before showing you exactly how you can start accepting crypto payments on your Shopify account, I'm going to show you some reasons why you might (or might not) want to start accepting crypto payments on your Shopify store!
Tip: Have you already created your Shopify account? If not, sign up by clicking this link here to get a free 3-day trial + pay $1/month for the first 3 months!
5 reasons why you should accept crypto payments on your Shopify store
Accepting cryptocurrencies can be a risk for your business. Cryptocurrencies are known for their volatility (meaning that their USD value can fluctuate a lot during the day).
This volatility is a risk for you as an online business owner. What if someone pays you $100 in Bitcoin, but at the end of the day, it's only worth $90. Will you convert it to USD or wait for it to rise back to $100 again?
Despite this risk, increasingly more merchants are willing to accept Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies on their online store.
So, what advantages does it have to accept crypto payments on your Shopify store that causes increasingly more online stores to start implementing it?
1. Cryptocurrencies may rise in value
While some merchants look at the volatility of cryptocurrencies as a risk, like I talked about earlier, other merchants see it as an opportunity.
They see it as a chance to invest money into an asset to generate more money in the end. In other words, some merchants expect the value of cryptocurrencies to be higher in the future.
Currently, the prediction of these merchants has come out to be correct so far.
As an example, let's take a look at the price graph of the most popular cryptocurrency, Bitcoin:
As you can see, Bitcoin's value saw a rapid ascent in late 2017, following a steep decline again. Despite this massive peek, Bitcoin has risen in value again over the years and is currently way past its previous all-time high!
I have shown Bitcoin as an example, but most other cryptocurrencies have followed the same pattern and have risen in value, especially when looking from a long-term perspective.
While the value of most cryptocurrencies has increased in the past years, it doesn't mean that the value will continue to rise in the future. Remember that past events don't give a guarantee for the future. No one knows if the current levels will be an all-time high in the future or that the price will continue to rise in the coming years.
2. Low transaction fees
If you've read my article on the 7 best payment gateways for online stores, you will know that the transaction cost is an important thing to consider when picking a payment provider since they can be pretty hefty.
For typical payment gateways, the industry-standard transaction fee is 2.9% + 30¢.
When scaling up your store, the total cost for your transaction fees can become significant.
Crypto payment gateways offer a much lower transaction fee, which is a significant advantage compared to regular payment gateways.
The transaction fee will often be lower than 1% regardless of the number of monthly orders you have! Some crypto payment gateways even offer a transaction fee of 0% (but you will have to pay a fee when withdrawing your payments).
3. Accepting cryptocurrencies may attract new buyers
While many people buy cryptocurrencies as an investment instead of an actual payment method, others love buying products with cryptocurrencies.
There are several reasons why some people want to pay for everything with crypto, as you can read here.
These reasons include lower costs, higher speeds, better security, and having full control over your funds.
To attract crypto buyers even more, you might consider showing your product prices converted in your visitor's favorite coins.
If you're using Shopify, you can do this by installing an automatic currency converter app such as Coin. It's the first currency converter app that supports Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin.
The only thing that is difficult to measure exactly is how many of your sales wouldn't take place if you wouldn't have accepted cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin as a payment method.
Would everyone just pay with a traditional payment method such as a Credit card or PayPal, or would some people abandon the checkout after finding out that they can't pay with crypto?
4. Offering cryptocurrencies makes your store innovative
The number of sales that will be paid using cryptocurrencies will probably be less than 5%. Still, the millennial generation will probably appreciate that you took the effort to set up a cryptocurrency payment option in your checkout process!
For an example of a Shopify store that is offering cryptocurrency payments, you can check out ChilloutwithCBD!
5. Big firms are starting to adopt crypto
In the last years, it has become clear that established businesses such as Microsoft, PayPal, and Square are starting to recognize that cryptocurrencies are a big thing and won't leave the picture anytime soon.
It began in late 2014 when Microsoft announced they would accept payments made in Bitcoin. (Yes, they showed up early to the party)
In the years after, many things happened, and the news on crypto hasn't stopped.
Square, a disruptive San Francisco based payment company worth 88.4B USD, announced on the 8th of October to be putting 1% of their total assets, an investment of 50M USD, into Bitcoin.
A few days later, PayPal entered the cryptocurrency market as well and announced that its customers would be able to buy and sell Bitcoin and other virtual currencies using their PayPal accounts:
As you can see, it's clear that established businesses are taking cryptocurrencies more and more seriously.
So, do you understand now why online stores start accepting cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin?
If you're interested in saving these reasons, then don't forget to pin our infographic to Pinterest:
What payment gateways can you use to accept Bitcoin (& other crypto payments) on your Shopify store?
If you are sure that you would like to try out accepting cryptocurrencies on your Shopify store, then you will find out how to do so here!
I will present you with three payment gateways, each having its pros and cons.
Let's start!
1. Coinbase Commerce
Coinbase Commerce is a platform that enables merchants to accept cryptocurrencies on their Shopify or Woocommerce store in a fully decentralized way, regardless of where they are located in the world.
With Coinbase Commerce, all payments you receive are fully controlled by you.
They offer several advantages, such as:
- Fast installation
- No fees to accept crypto
- In-app convert possibility
- No chargebacks
Keep in mind that while there are no fees to accept crypto payments, you will have to pay a fee when withdrawing your funds. This fee is network-dependent and is often between $1 and $5 for Bitcoin while being lower than $1 for other cryptocurrencies.
To read more about Coinbase Commerce's pricing, click here.
How do I add Coinbase Commerce to my Shopify store?
Integrating Coinbase Commerce with your online store consists of just a few simple steps.
First, you will have to sign up for a Coinbase Commerce account, which you can do here.
Next up, you will have to generate an API Key, because you will need to fill in that key in your Shopify payment settings:
Just enter the email you've used to sign up to Coinbase Commerce and fill in the generated API Key.
Then, just click on "Save", and your customers will be able to pay with Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, DAI, Ethereum, Litecoin, or USD Coin!
Luckily, Coinbase Commerce has also made a guide on how to integrate their solution with Shopify, which you can view here.
No worries if you're using a Shopify alternative such as Woocommerce. Click on this link to learn how to integrate Coinbase Commerce with Woocommerce!
If you have any questions about Coinbase Commerce, check out their FAQ section here.
2. CoinPayments
If you would like to use a payment gateway that allows your customers to pay using a wide range of cryptocurrencies, check out CoinPayments!
With CoinPayments, your customers will be able to pay using more than 100 different cryptocurrencies.
Being a crypto payment gateway, CoinPayments offers an affordable transaction fee of only 0.5%. You can read all details about their fees here.
Don't worry about it being a small startup. Coinpayments is a leader in cryptocurrency payments, serving 60k+ merchants globally, being active in 180+ countries, and having processed over $8B in successful crypto payments since 2013:
CoinPayments also offer an auto coin conversion feature that automatically lets you convert all your payments into a dollar-stable coin such as Tether or USD coin.
To conclude, CoinPayments charge a higher fee than Coinbase Commerce, which is a con. However, you will have the opportunity to let your customers pay using more than 100 unique altcoins and access the auto coin conversion feature.
How do I add CoinPayments to my Shopify store?
To add Coinpayments to your Shopify store, you can head to their website and follow their step-by-step instructions.
For the step-by-step instructions for integrating Coinpayments with your Shopify store, click here.
It's a similar process to Coinbase Commerce, meaning you will have to create a Coinpayments account first, and copy keys from your CoinPayments account to the Shopify payments set up to add CoinPayments as a payment option.
3. BitPay
The next crypto payment gateway you can use to accept cryptocurrencies on your Shopify store is called BitPay.
A unique feature that BitPay offers is that the payments will be automatically converted to a currency of your choice (8 currencies available) and send directly to your bank account.
Also, do you remember me saying that Microsoft accepts cryptocurrency payments? Well, they actually also use BitPay to process those payments, which is an indicator that BitPay is legit and safe to use!
A con of BitPay is that they charge a relatively high transaction fee of 1% (which is still insanely cheap for regular payment gateways!). However, they offer you daily settlements (get paid daily), unlimited monthly transactions, and no hidden fees.
To read more about their pricing, click here.
Also, they only offer the payment possibility for one cryptocurrency, Bitcoin.
Despite these cons, BitPay is still a great crypto payment gateway to use since it offers an integration possibility for many different ecommerce platforms such as Woocommerce, Magento, Opencart, Prestashop, and more!
To find out how to integrate BitPay with one of these ecommerce platforms, check out their manual here.
How do I add BitPay to my Shopify store?
Adding BitPay to your Shopify store is really easy, just like the other crypto payment processors.
To start, go ahead and sign up for a BitPay merchant account.
After creating an account, you will be able to generate an API Token. (Click on this link to learn how to do that)
Then, just find BitPay in Shopify's alternative payment provider settings, and paste in your API Token. As simple as that!
Conclusion
That was it!
Hopefully, you've gained some insight on which crypto payment processors are available and how you can integrate them with your Shopify store.
They all have their pros & cons, so the one that fits your needs might be Coinbase Commerce, while someone else might prefer BitPay.
To make it a bit easier, I have made a small guide on which payment processor will fit your needs:
- Use Coinbase Commerce if you are using Shopify or Woocommerce, find it essential to have the lowest fees, and are okay with offering only the most popular cryptocurrencies.
- Use CoinPayments if you are using Shopify and find it important to provide your customers the possibility to pay in a wide range of different cryptocurrencies.
- Use BitPay if you are using a less frequently used ecommerce platform such as Opencart or Prestashop, and find trust in your payment processor one of the most important criteria.
Hopefully, this will help you to pick a cryptocurrency payment processor and answer the question, "How to accept Bitcoin (& other crypto payments) on Shopify?"
If you're interested, we also have a guide on the 7 best payment gateways for online stores.
In that article, we will cover the most important things to consider when picking a payment gateway and show you some of the best payment gateways for online stores (including the pros, cons, and pricing for each payment gateway!).
If you have any questions, don't hesitate to leave a comment.
Have a great rest of your day!
