According to a press release published on March 19, the biggest online retailer in Switzerland – Digitec Galaxus AG has recently announced that it will now accept cryptocurrencies as a medium of exchange. The online shops digitec.ch (founded in 2001) and galaxus.ch (2010) together form Digitec Galaxus AG. According to ecommerceDB – e-commerce data platform, Digitec is ranked 100th globally with recorded global net sales of US$811.3m. Galaxus, on the other hand, is ranked 341st which has net sales scored to US$261.7m. Digitec Galaxus has a wide range of products to offer (2.7 million to be exact) that ranges from furniture & appliances to toys, hobby & DIY to electronics items.
Digitec Galaxus, from now on, will start accepting cryptocurrencies as a method of payment. The shoppers of the largest Swiss online shop will now able to pay with Bitcoin as well as a number of Altcoins such as Ethereum, Ripple or Litecoin. Other announced Altcoins includes Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin SV, Binance coin, NEO, and OmiseGo. The minimum purchase amount required is CHF 200.
Oliver Herren, CIO, and co-founder of Digitec Galaxus said that “Cryptocurrencies are fascinating and likely to become a relevant means of payment in e-commerce – we want to support this development.”
This new mean of payment is a result of the joint venture of the Swiss e-payment specialist Datatrans AG and Danish crypto payment provider Coinify. “So far, paying by cryptocurrencies hasn’t been viable for most people,” Hanspeter Maurer, Managing Director of Datatrans, explains. “We’re keen to find out how Digitec and Galaxus customers take up this offer.”
Breaking down the payment process, the shoppers at Digitec Galaxus will be redirected to a Coinify page where they will be asked to select the desired means of payment from a list when they decide to pay via cryptocurrencies. During the next step, the shoppers will receive a conversation rate which will remain steady for 15-minutes, as well as other payment details. For the final checkout, the customers can utilize the built-in crypto wallet facility.
Talking about the fees, Digitec Galaxus doesn’t charge any transactional fees for the transactions executed through cryptos. However, Coinify charges a fee of 1.5% of the purchase price via the conversion rate which may further be subjected to small transaction fees depending on the payment settlement time and the cryptocurrency the customers choose to pay with. According to the press release, Coinfy settles the transactions within a few minutes.
“The technology is constantly improved,” states Datatrans boss Maurer, “faster and more cost-effective transactions are already in sight.”
