By
Godfrey Benjamin
October 17th, 2023
The study contacted 2,000 senior executives of US retail firms between December 3 and December 16, 2021, during a period when crypto values were still high, but the results were only recently disclosed.
According to a survey by Deloitte, three-quarters of American retailers plan to accept crypto or stablecoin as a form of payment over the next 24 months. The survey, which was published in Deloitte’s “Merchants Getting Ready for Crypto” report, also revealed that more than half of large retailers with revenues of $500 million or more are currently investing $1 million or more on the infrastructure required to make it happen.
The “Merchants Getting Ready for Crypto” report, which is a result of a collaboration between Deloitte and PayPal, was released on Wednesday after surveying 2,000 retailers about plans to support digital currency payments.
The study contacted 2,000 senior executives of US retail firms between December 3 and December 16, 2021, during a period when crypto values were still high, but the results were only recently disclosed. Cosmetics, digital goods, electronics, fashion, food and beverages, home and garden, hospitality and leisure, personal and household goods, services, and transportation all had an equal number of executives.
A huge majority of the merchants polled, over 85%, believe that bitcoin payments will be common in their industry in five years. The survey also revealed that interest in cryptocurrency adoption in the financial space was also up, as more than a quarter already support digital currencies within finance, a figure which is expected to be almost two-thirds before the end of the year.
The study also highlighted the involvement of small and medium-sized enterprises, with 73% of merchants with revenues of $10 million to $100 million investing $100,000 to $1 million to build the infrastructure required for trading.
Deloitte stated that the spending will continue to increase through 2022, adding that over 60% of retailers said they anticipate budgets of over $500,000 to enable crypto payments in the next 12 months to December. Consumer interest was identified as the driving force behind merchant adoption, with 64% of merchants indicating that their customers have expressed significant interest in using crypto for payments.
The majority of such firms (over 62%) are partnering with digital currency payment processors, while the rest are exploring either partnering with traditional payment processors or developing functionality in-house. However, the in-house group also partners to convert from digital to fiat currency.
According to the survey, customer-facing applications were initially the key driver of digital currency adoption. Immediate receipt of the funds is also a major attraction compared to waiting for card acquiring companies to release the funds.
The latest report from Deloitte, also mentioned the barriers to crypto adoption, stating that, despite the optimistic outlook, there are three top concerns, which are payment platform security, shifting legislation, and the extreme volatility of the crypto market.