BTC Cost Efficiency: Coinbase Merchants Can Now Pass Savings on to Customers

Discounts by Coinbase
Discounts by Coinbase
Payment processor Coinbase had a big announcement on its blog Thursday as it introduced a new merchant discounts feature. 

This will allow any merchants to apply a percentage-based discount to any any orders paid for in Bitcoin. 

So, let’s imagine Vivek Ranadivé would like to drum up interest in Sacramento Kings merchandise sales in advance of the upcoming draft. His team is a Coinbase merchant (via BitDazzle), and the Kings have a mid-lottery pick in a loaded draft, after all. 

BitDazzle is already applying a 10% discount to BTC orders, which means Bitcoin users can now scoop up a Boogie Cousins jersey for cheaper than if they paid in dollars. 


Slashed transaction costs 

One of the key benefits of cryptocurrencies is their significantly reduced transactions costs. Coinbase representatives said that the company is now passing on those cost efficiencies with this discount feature: 
“When accepting payments with traditional payment methods, merchants incur significant costs associated with transaction fees and efforts preventing fraud and chargebacks. Ultimately, these expenses are passed on to consumers in the form of higher prices for goods and services.” 
“Bitcoin significantly reduces transaction fees and costs associated with fraud and chargebacks. And now, merchants can share these savings with consumers by enabling instant discounts on orders paid in Bitcoin.” 

How this works 

For merchants, applying the discount is straightforward. Anyone with access to a business’ merchant account can simply go to the Merchant Settings page and click “Give a discount to your customers” under the Discount section. 

After that, it’s just a matter of setting the discount percentage, which goes as high as 25%, and clicking Save. The discount will apply to the final price of an item. 

Recent big-name companies that have signed on as Coinbase merchants include Reeds Jewellers and Expedia.