Three-quarters of U.S. retailers support using cryptocurrencies as a means of payment for the public and are ready to accept payments for goods in digital assets within the next two years.
A recent report from Deloitte, an international consulting firm, found that 75% of the American retail industry is willing to accept payments from customers in crypto and stablecoins.
The Deloitte study, in collaboration with PayPal, sought to examine retailers’ readiness to adopt digital currency payments. A total of 2,000 senior executives from retail organizations in the United States participated in the survey. All respondents work in the consumer goods and services sector. Interestingly, the study was conducted from 3 to 16 December 2021, before the BTC quotes fell to their lowest in 2022, and the stability of major stablecoins was in jeopardy.
Deloitte analysts discovered a high level of retailers’ interest in the cryptocurrency sector. Three-quarters of those surveyed reported plans to begin accepting payments in cryptocurrency or stablecoins within the next 24 months.
85% of respondents believe the use of digital currencies in day-to-day shopping will grow significantly over the next few years, and in five years, digital currency payments will be ubiquitous in their industry.
87% of retailers are confident that organizations that accept digital currencies as a payment option will have a competitive advantage in the marketplace.
The top reasons for retailers to adopt crypto payment:
- 64% of the industry is driven by customer needs, and they express high interest in investing in crypto and using it for daily payments;
- 48% of sellers believe it will improve the customer experience;
- 46% see the adoption of cryptocurrency as an opportunity to expand the customer base;
- 40% want to enhance brand image through advanced technology;
- 40% of respondents are attracted by the possibility of immediate access to funds received as payment.
Retailers’ interest in cryptocurrency is caused by its qualities, such as speed of transaction processing and cost-effectiveness. Therefore, long-term strategic value drives the current adoption of digital currencies at the expense of short-term cost savings. For example, 73% of retailers whose annual revenue is between $10 million and $100 million, and 58% of retailers whose income is up to $10 million, spend between $100,000 and $1 million per year to build and maintain the necessary infrastructure to adopt digital assets. Large retailers spend even more — 54% of corporations with annual revenues over $500 million invest more than $1 million in infrastructure.
Of all retailers surveyed, 26% said they have already integrated and are currently testing the use of digital currencies in their operations, and 39% reported they plan to integrate within the next 12 months.
The study also highlighted several fears and risks retailers face when considering accepting digital currency payments:
- 45% see challenges in integrating digital currencies into existing financial infrastructure;
- 44% consider the correlation between different digital currencies to be the main difficulty;
- 43% are concerned about the security of cryptocurrency payments;
- 37% complain about the uncertainty of the regulatory framework;
- 36% find problems in the high volatility of the cryptocurrency market;
- 31% cite a lack of support from shareholders and the board of directors;
- 31% are worried about the difficulty of determining a clear return on investment;
- 30% of companies cannot currently allocate the necessary budget for this purpose.
The survey also identified key regulatory priorities that the industry believes will reduce barriers to the adoption of cryptocurrencies in the industry:
- 52% see a need for a national digital asset custody authority;
- 52% believe it is necessary to ensure that digital currencies are stored in bank accounts;
- 51% insist on clarity in the taxation of digital asset transactions;
- 51% suggest developing principles for regulating stablecoins in the banking system;
- 48% say accounting software should be developed to record transactions in digital currencies.
A recent study also showed U.S. insurance companies’ growing interest in cryptocurrencies.
