Newegg now accepting Bitcoin payments
Online consumer electronics retailer Newegg has begun offering its 25 million registered users the ability to pay for 10.5 million products using the bitcoin digital currency.
The new payment capability is being offered through a relationship with BitPay, a payment service provider specializing in the bitcoin digital currency.
“Newegg’s customers are among some of the earliest bitcoin miners and are enthusiastic proponents of the crypto-currency. Adopting bitcoin as a payment method is another way we’re responding to our customers’ diverse needs,” said Soren Mills, chief marketing officer for Newegg North America. “Working with BitPay to implement a bitcoin payment option at Newegg was a seamless process and our partnership gives us the capabilities we require for high-volume e-commerce.”
Newegg said it chose BitPay because of the company’s reliability and scalability. With BitPay’s platform, Newegg can accept bitcoin payments and also handle refunds and payment exceptions with the most powerful bitcoin application programming interface (API) in the industry. BitPay’s focus on building enterprise-grade merchant tools helped the company achieve 99.99% uptime that is unrivaled reliability in the industry, according to a Newegg statement.
“Our mission is to make bitcoin every merchant’s favorite form of payment. Forward-thinking merchants like Newegg allow bitcoin enthusiasts from around the world to shop with ease,” said Tony Gallippi, BitPay’s co-founder and executive chairman. “Newegg has been the most requested retailer from the bitcoin community and our collaboration will serve this pent-up demand.”
When completing an order on Newegg.com, customers can now select “bitcoin” from the list of available payment methods during stage two of the order process. Orders processed using BitPay can be completed using a variety of methods. For example, if a customer has digital wallet software installed, that customer can complete an order by clicking the “Pay with Bitcoin” button. If a customer’s digital wallet is stored in a smartphone, a QR code can be scanned on the Bitcoin Payment page to complete the transaction. Or, if a customer’s digital wallet is hosted on the Web, the customer clicks the “View Address” link to display the digital wallet address and send the bitcoin amount due.
With the addition of Newegg, BitPay said it now serves more than 35,000 merchants. The company has raised more than $32 million in venture capital funding and to continue its growth plans to hire 70 new employees this year.