Three-quarters of American retailers aim to accept crypto or stable coin payments over the next two years, a survey has revealed.
It also discovered that more than half of large retailers with revenues of $500 million or more are currently investing a million dollars or more on the infrastructure required to make it happen.
The details were published in Deloitte’s “Merchants Getting Ready for Crypto” report, which was launched on June 8 in partnership with PayPal.
Of a huge majority of the merchants polled, over 85% believe that bitcoin payments would be commonplace in their industry in five years.
The study, which took place between December 3 and December 16, 2021, interviewed 2,000 top executives at U.S. retail firms at a time when crypto prices were still high, but the results were only recently released. Cosmetics, digital products, electronics, fashion, food and drinks, home and garden, hospitality and leisure, personal and household goods, services, and transportation all had an identical number of CEOs.
Small and medium-sized businesses are also getting involved, with 73% of merchants with revenues of $10 million to $100 million investing $100,000 to $1 million to provide the necessary infrastructure.
According to Deloitte, expenditure isn’t going to stop there; it’s only going to get bigger between now and 2022. More than 60% of merchants estimate budgets of more than $500,000 in the coming year.
Consumers are pushing for cryptocurrency payments
Consumer interest is driving merchant adoption, with 64% of businesses reporting that their consumers are very interested in adopting cryptocurrency to make payments. Over the next five years, almost 83% of merchants predict interest to increase or greatly increase.
Nearly half of respondents feel that adopting bitcoin will improve their customer experience, while a similar percentage believe it will increase their client base. 40% believe that their brand would be viewed as “cutting edge.”
Retailers are hopeful about the future of digital currency
93% of retailers who accept cryptocurrency have had a positive influence on their consumer metrics.
Merchants cite security of the payments system (43%), changing regulations (37%), volatility (36%), and a lack of a budget as barriers to implementation (30%).
According to 45% of respondents, the most difficult is integrating cryptocurrencies with legacy systems and combining various cryptos.
Deloitte believes that “continuous education” will provide regulators with more clarity, enabling for wider adoption across a larger range of products and services.