Shopify and Bitcoin: Integration for your web store development

Bitcoin is a trendy cryptocurrency nowadays.

Only a few years ago, in 2010, one really hungry guy offered 10,000 Bitcoins to anyone who was able to bring him 2 pizzas. The offer was taken, the pizzas were delivered. And this is how the first Bitcoin transaction took place long before its integration with Shopify. Just imagine: if this story happened today, those 2 pizzas would cost nearly $1,150,000! Well, it would be a rather expensive lunch, as Bitcoin Price Charts show us that Bitcoin is trading at $11,580 per token.

Content:

• Shopify Bitcoin Integration: novelty and importance
• Shopify Bitcoin Integration: how to implement it in your web store?
• Integration of Shopify and Bitcoin: the meaning and conclusion

Shopify Bitcoin Integration: novelty and importance

Bitcoin is a kind of digital currency used for various transactions. What is most important about Bitcoin? It is fully encrypted: Blockchain technology makes the transaction completely safe and secured.

What is actually brand new in Bitcoin is the cyberspace occurring transactions. This means that all of the transactions take place from hand to hand, or, to be more precise, from account to account, with no third party involvement. Bitcoin cannot be controlled by any institution. The verification of transactions needs to be approved by the miner community.

A few years ago, in 2013, Shopify announced adding a Bitcoin payment option for online sellers. It was an important event in the world’s eCommerce history, as well as in the history of Bitcoin. Shopify extended its borders and was the pioneer in the Bitcoin payment process. At the same time, thousands and thousands of heads turned to the Bitcoin topic, as it was something new and not quite clear for online merchants and customers.

Years went by, and it is still just a matter of time as to when all online merchants will consider accepting digital currency payments. As is clear from the general trends of industrial development, Bitcoin and Blockchain have established the foundation of a new digital payments society.

At the very beginning, Bitcoin was not taken seriously. It was considered to be some kind of joke made by the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto. Still, some entrepreneurs criticize the concept of Bitcoin and show the highest level of skepticism possible. The only reason for this reaction is lack of understanding of the meaning of Bitcoin. Let’s see what advantages and innovations broke into the eCommerce industry with the appearance of Bitcoin.

• New, unlimited horizons have been opened
  Ready or not, your database with customer information will get much bigger with Bitcoin. The number of people that are starting to use Bitcoin increases every single day. More than 200k transactions take place daily, and this is only the beginning. By adding a Shopify Bitcoin payment option to your web store, you attract the attention of a large number of potential customers. Additionally, as Bitcoin is a top trend now, you involuntary get your business under the rays of its popularity. So why not to use that?

• Transaction fees are minimized
  Financial institutions have no impact on Bitcoin. The retailer and buyer are the two sides of the bargain, with no one in between. No other parties have access to your money, and no one is able to require any fees for their services. You do not have to work with banks. You do not have to wait for the transaction to occur. These factors give you more time and money for the development of your store.

• No more Chargebacks
  The irreversibility of transactions is one of the most useful Bitcoin features for online business. Once the transaction is confirmed, it cannot be retrieved without the other party’s agreement. In the era of fraud, this guarantee of a successful cooperation is more than important. It allows you to save chargeback costs and build only strong and reliable trading relationships. These main reasons made Bitcoin so extremely popular, and actually useful for the eCommerce payment process.

Shopify Bitcoin Integration: how to implement it in your web store?

After analyzing the reasons for Bitcoin’s popularity and its contribution to the development of eCommerce, we come to the significant fact the Shopify retailers need to add a Bitcoin payments option to their web stores. But how? Well, this task will take just a few minutes of your time. With our brief tutorial, you can take care of it effortlessly.

To start the Shopify Bitcoin integration, follow the next steps:

1. Enable alternative payment methods

Shopify merchants can use (one or several) payment methods: Coinbase, GoCoin or Dqolla. Last but not least, the BitPay service suits these needs perfectly, and we will pay much of our attention to it, as our example is built on it.

How can you make sure that you choose the right payment method?

• Gather the information about all of the available online channels
• Find out about transaction fees (if any)
• Analyze payout frequency, as it may differ on various channels
• See what currencies the service supports and make sure the one that you need is on the list
• Ask if the Bitcoin payment processor can serve your country
• Check the customer support service: it must be responsible and professional so you can reach them whenever you need

2. Start accepting Bitcoins with BitPay

The main feature of the BitPay service is, of course, the possibility to pay for products with Bitcoin. After adding it to your web store, you can receive payment in Bitcoins or another chosen local currency.

There are more useful features within it:

• Automatic transactions processing
• High security standards
• Simple checkout with an internet cash currency
• The transaction fee is 1% (if you pay for a monthly subscription it is 0%!).

3. Activate BitPay

Next, you should apply for a Bitpay account, wait until the application is approved, and get the payouts.

How do you activate the BitPay payment provider? Here is step by step description for desktop.

• Go to your Shopify admin page
• Click Settings > Payments
• Click Alternative Payments, and then Select additional payment method
• Select BitPay
• Enter your BitPay API key ID
• And Save all of the changes

We are done! Bitcoin is integrated into your web store!

Integration of Shopify and Bitcoin: the meaning and conclusion

Following these clear steps, you have reached the aim of every online merchant – you have just gotten closer to the dream. Innovations and trends your web store is following are considerable factors of its future success. The integration of your Shopify web store with Bitcoin payments is a push to a development you will highly appreciate in the near future.