How to accept crypto payments on your business website (or store)

Did you know that more than 2300 U.S. businesses now accept bitcoin? Want to join them? At 2POINT, as a web design and digital marketing agency, we routinely get queries from clients who want their websites to be able to accept crypto payments. So today we decided to do a post on how businesses can accept cryptocurrencies.

But before we get to that, let’s quickly see a few reasons why so many businesses — even eCommerce businesses — want to accept crypto payments when planning a new modern website design

Crypto payments are cheaper. For crypto payments, transaction fees are significantly lower than traditional payment processing. Bitcoin transactions, for example, typically charge less than 1% for a transaction, far less than the 3% merchants usually bear with payment options like credit cards.

Chargebacks. Cryptocurrency payment gateways protect merchants against chargebacks. Also, they use exhaustive fraud protection infrastructures.

Crypto payments are blazing-fast! Depending on the cryptocurrencies you deal in, crypto payments can process within seconds.

Given all these factors, it’s no wonder that cryptocurrencies are getting regulated and adopted by businesses and users alike. Here’s how you too can get started with accepting crypto payments on your business site or eCommerce store.

Choosing between the hands-off and hands-on approach to accepting crypto payments

To accept crypto payments on your eCommerce store — or business website — you first need to decide how you want to accept them. There are two ways to go about it.

In the hands-off cryptocurrency approach, you don’t “touch” crypto, and it never lands in your books. Here, you (or your crypto payments partners) convert your customer’s cryptocurrency into fiat, and this fiat currency makes its way to your bank account.

In other words, you pay an intermediary some fee to accept and convert crypto payments for you and send them over in fiat into your (traditional) business account.

The benefits of the hands-off approach to accepting crypto payments:

• This model lets you allow users to prefer to pay via crypto pay — and mind you there’s an increasing #CryptoLifestyle! Bunch.
• It can give you access to newer markets.
• It’s a “safe” way to accept cryptocurrency payments.

In contrast to the hands-off approach, in the hands-on approach, you deal directly with crypto. In this model, you typically use a wallet management service and maintain your own crypto wallet and assets. Your crypto wallet is like your business’s bank account — but one that deals in cryptocurrencies.

In such a payments system, you can either hold on to your crypto assets in your wallet or immediately withdraw them as fiat. Converting immediately protects against volatility. When digital currencies fluctuate, keeping the value of your crypto portfolio can be a challenge — something you don’t have to deal with in traditional payment systems. Ideally, you’d want to sign up for a multi-cryptocurrency wallet that can transact in different cryptocurrencies.

How a cryptocurrency checkout works

Once you’ve figured out how your eCommerce store or business will accept crypto payments, it’s time to choose a cryptocurrency payment gateway/processor. Before we see the best cryptocurrency payment processors to help you accept crypto payments, let’s see how crypto payment processors work. Typically this is cryptocurrency payment processing looks like:

Step #1: To be able to accept cryptocurrencies on your business or eCommerce website, you need to first sign up for a cryptocurrency payment processor. Most cryptocurrency payment processors need you to fill a signup form and offer details so they can confirm your eligibility. This approval should be easy for you as countries are increasingly regularizing cryptocurrencies.

The CoinPayments cryptocurrency processor signup form for businesses

Step #2: Crypto payment processors/gateways add a “Pay with crypto” option to your checkout. Different payment processors allow business in different cryptocurrencies. You can enable any of the coins your payment processors support, and your users will be able to check out with them.

A Coinbase checkout accepting 6 cryptocurrencies

Step #3: Once a user pays, your “coins” are moved to your wallet. You can choose to convert your incoming coins into your prefered cryptocurrency or maintain them as they are. You can also opt for fiat settlement where your crypto processor will work with a fiat settlement service to convert your crypto funds into real currencies and transfer them to your bank account.

BitPay’s fiat settlement settings

Choosing the right cryptocurrency payment processor

While traditional payment gateways are starting to allow crypto payments, there’s time before we see some good native integration. Recently, Stripe re-enabled crypto transactions (after discontinuing support in 2018). Like Stripe, even PayPal allows businesses and customers to transact in crypto. Yet, to accept bitcoin or other crypto coins, it’s best to choose a cryptocurrency payment processor. Here are some of the best cryptocurrency payment processors:

• BitPay: BitPay supports 12 cryptocurrencies, 90+ wallets, and charges just a 1% transaction fee. BitPay works in 229 countries and offers some great fiat settlement options with bank deposits in more than 38 countries.
• Coinbase: Coinbase lets you accept crypto payments in more than 7 currencies and charges just 1% as the transaction fee. You can get started with Coinbase with just your email (with the platform’s self-managed option)! More than 8000 merchants trust Coinbase to accept cryptocurrencies for their goods and services.
• CoinPayments: CoinPayments is another leading global crypto payment gateway that powers crypto payments for more than 100,000 merchants all over the world. CoinPayments charges a 0.5% transaction fee and offers some solid fiat settlement options and fraud protection.

We understand that all this can feel a little overwhelming — especially if you’re new to the crypto world. So do this…

Work with a digital marketing agency that gets crypto!

Work with the best digital marketing agency that knows how crypto checkouts work and can bring them seamlessly to your business website’s checkout mix! Did you know that at 2POINT we actually accept crypto payments? So get in touch. We’ll work with you to design and develop the perfect checkout for your business website design that accepts both traditional and bitcoin payments without any glitches.