Bit by Bit: Dell Becomes Largest Etailer to Accept Bitcoin

Earlier this month, we reported that etail giant Newegg had added its name to the ever-growing list of vendors that accept Bitcoin. In the month or so prior to that, we saw other notable companies opt-in as well, including Overstock.com, DISH, and 1-800-Flowers. Despite that post having only been published a couple of weeks ago, there’s been a lot of Bitcoin action since then, and by all appearances, things are not going to slow down anytime soon.

On Friday, Dell laid claim to becoming the largest retailer that accepts Bitcoin, with the company’s own CEO, Michael Dell, breaking the news on Twitter.

Dell is now the world's largest ecommerce business to accept #bitcoin http://t.co/xC41rKTYXi http://t.co/0YqPK7MfVG

— Michael Dell (@MichaelDell) July 18, 2014

In that previous post, I noted that it’s “very easy for any service provider to add Bitcoin as a payment option.“, and this is something Dell seems to agree with, as it’s re-Tweeted the following quote from Wedbush Securities analyst Gil Luria:

“If you’re a retailer, there’s really no reason not to accept Bitcoin at this point” http://t.co/pWYy7NnhXH via @nytimes

— Dell (@Dell) July 18, 2014

Like Newegg, it seems that only Dell’s US website is configured to accept Bitcoin. I went through the entire checkout process on the Canadian version of the site, and no cigar – Bitcoin was nowhere to be seen. Also like Newegg, Dell won’t be in actual possession of Bitcoins; instead, it’ll use a payment processor, in this case Coinbase.

Dell’s current payment options

I mentioned before that 1-800-Flowers has begun accepting Bitcoin, but I was a little off: It’s going to accept Bitcoin starting this fall. A similar service, called BloomNation, has been accepting Bitcoin for some time, and so it reached out to us to clue us in on some interesting facts.

Would you have guessed, for example, that Bitcoin users spend more than credit card users? As far as BloomNation is concerned, that’s just the case: It’s found that Bitcoin users spend 50% more on average. Further, because the service has added Bitcoin as a payment option, it’s helped the service get noticed by Bitcoin users who might not have thought to order flowers online, which has in effect increased the service’s customer base.

When asked if the company had wished it accepted Bitcoin sooner, it responded, “We do wish we started accepting it earlier because of the success it has been and the new demo[graphic] we have been able to reach to help bring business back to the heart of the flower industry“.

Something tells me that those sentiments are soon going to be shared by many other companies. I’m not a Bitcoin user personally, but there’s no denying at this point that its popularity is growing, and growing fast.

Oh, and for what it’s worth, xHamster, one of the world’s leading porn sites, also began accepting Bitcoin in recent weeks, and, Google’s added Bitcoin conversion to its search engine. What’s next? Brothels accepting the currency? Oh, wait…