9 Ways A Merchant Will Benefit From Blockchain

Apart from accepting cryptocurrencies, there are many many benefits merchants can derive from use of blockchain and the good of crypto. Basically, for beginners, a blockchain will record immutable data and transactions including money transfer, a contract between two parties, or an order shipment. This data is updated on a distributed ledger without a single point of failure (no centralization) and users can still set up custom rules to define the nature and type of transactions.

For instance, when discussing possibility of accepting crypto payments in your business and how to do it, many crypto payment gateways now already provide ready-to-use solutions such as e-commerce plugins, embeddable payment buttons, payment processing APIs, mobile POS app, ability to use third-party wallets such as Jaxx to move funds and withdraw, invoice generation, and other payment integration tools, as well as support for latest technologies such as SegWit addresses.

For instance, you can easily get plugins and extensions for WooCommerce, Shopify, Magento, nopCommerce, and OpenCart. Besides, a number of them are partnering with e-commerce platforms and point-of-sale systems for integration and easier cheaper processing of payments. You could start with this list of different crypto payment gateways and their different features. Most of them actually support hundreds of coins and different fiat currencies including several local options so it can never be too hard to accept crypto payments.

Other than payment platforms that allow you to accept crypto payments, there are numerous blockchain platforms that let you create real custom application and tech to work for you and your business such as smart contracts, and even others that allow merchants to advertise business and market their products, exchange their coins with fiat and other crypto coins, boost their loyalty programs and even track their supply and boost supply chains.

There are many blockchains today and the technology is still evolving. So, apart from the ordinary benefits of using cryptocurrencies such as low fees on transactions and discounts, ability to settle transactions almost immediately, and escrows for home mortgage, we have the below benefits of blockchain, here are some benefits your business can get by using blockchain.

1. Boosting mobile payments

Mobile payments can facilitate quick business and commercial transactions and on-the-go especially when you link with crypto on blockchain because crypto facilitates immediate settlements. No delays. There are different payment gateways that work for mobile; Android and iOS and which uses QR Code, NFC or URL payment options. Also, basically, if your website is mobile versatile, integrating gateways will allow sending of cryptocurrencies and some of the gateways have in-built wallet and feature to allow exchanging of currency.

Otherwise, it is also possible to use the many mobile applications that allow to send payments to addresses. With payment gateways such as CoinPayments, you can use mobile apps to accept payments in over 445 altcoins for only 0.50 percent fees and add buttons to your merchant website using button makers, shopping cart buttons and donation buttons. It is also allows for auto conversion of coins and altcoins inside the ecosystem and also get fiat settlements via local banks.

Coingate, which has seen has seen over 800 payments processed daily, also has an Android and iOS point of sale that allows businesses to accept Bitcoin payments on mobile devices. COSS.io also has an Android in addition to a web-based app and offers exchange of EUR, USD, Singapore Dollar, Malaysian Ringit, Korean Won, Romanian Leu, and many others) to crypto.

2. Making loyalty programs less costly and of higher ROI

Loyalty programs are one of the primary drivers of any for-profit business. Different companies can use the blockchain to facilitate accrual of loyalty points and redemption of them on the platforms. Today, businesses are together spending as much as $20 billion on software that improves the ROI of loyalty schemes. In addition, loyalty programs have traditionally been hard to set-up and they are costly to maintain, leading to several abandonment.

Blockchain can be used to improve these programs and create more value for retailers, consumers, the community and investors. BitRewards, for instance, provides a wallet and a crypto and the platform can be used to transfers value into tokens and credits. Users receive offers from stores with which they can join loyalty programs and spend more to earn rewards in tokens and their value will also grow with the network.

And with the average conversion of traffic into purchases in e-commerce coming to about 1% to 3% and the cost of acquiring a new customer being between 5 to 25 times more expensive than retaining an existing one, retailers can use the platform to reduce these expenses and earning more ROI. With it, retailers can avoid providing rewards-focused support to their customers because the company will do.

Delloitte’s report on use and benefits of blockchain for loyalty programs says companies (and merchants) can use it to reduce system management costs using "smart contracts that report secure, tracked, transparent transactions to legacy systems, reducing