Online electronics retailer Newegg announced in a press release its now going to allow residents from Canada the ability to pay for goods using cryptocurrencies. Through its partnership with the payment processing firm BitPay, the company feels its the right time to offer Canadian customers the ability to pay for items with digital currencies BCH and BTC.
Newegg has accepted BTC in the U.S. since 2014 and was one of the earliest electronics merchants to take cryptocurrency for payments. According to the firm’s recent announcement since then digital currency transactions have represented a “growing stream of purchase transactions.” Following this trend, Newegg states that is now offering Canadian customers the ability to pay with BCH and BTC. The firm details that cryptocurrencies have grown more popular over the last year with “increasing mainstream awareness.” Danny Lee, Newegg’s CEO explains during the announcement:
“In 2014 Newegg was among the first major companies to offer customers a bitcoin payment option — Since that time the value of bitcoin has skyrocketed and customers holding bitcoin have considerably more purchasing power — We believe the time is right to broaden our acceptance of bitcoin to our customers in Canada.”
In late 2017, as Bitcoin’s volatile value and ballooning transaction fees drove a number of other retailers, including online gaming platform Steam, away, Newegg held its ground.
“Since that time the value of bitcoin has skyrocketed and customers holding bitcoin have considerably more purchasing power. We believe the time is right to broaden our acceptance of bitcoin to our customers in Canada,” Newegg’s CEO Danny Lee added.
Newegg reportedly enjoyed $2.65 billion in revenue in 2016. The company serves some 36 million customers and is one of the largest online electronics merchants in North America according to Finance Magnates.
Newegg will continue to rely on payment service provider BitPay to handle online Bitcoin payments.
BitPay CEO Stephen Pair praised Newegg’s welcoming approach to digital currency payments:
“Newegg was an early e-commerce adopter of bitcoin, and that leap of faith the company took in 2014 put Newegg on the map as a bitcoin-friendly place for tech enthusiasts to shop. We’re seeing a lot of traction in Canada, and we’re happy to see Newegg extend its bitcoin payment option north of the border.”
When purchasing an item from the online store users are directed to an invoice that allows them to choose between paying in either BTC and BCH or fiat cash/credit.
Bitcoin is currently trading at [FIAT: $7,352.13] while BCH is trading at [FIAT: $690.20] according to Coin Market Cap at the time of this report.
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