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1097 sats \ 2 replies \ @michael OP 23 Mar 2022 freebie \ parent \ on: @dooowta AMA: Kickstarting bitcoin circular economies worldwide, onboarding businesses, empowering local economies through ₿commerce. bitcoin
We've had a lot of success with smaller mom and pop shop type places. Medium-size businesses and bigger often have a lot more processes in place and bureaucracy. Adding something new into the mix can be difficult, unless they're already interested in bitcoin (you'd be surprised how many actually are interested/curious!)
  1. Food trucks have been quick to understand. Frankly, I can't tell if that's just because they're quick, nimble, and willing to try new things, or if it's because their owners are generally the easiest to get ahold of - given the fact that often times they're actually working in the truck. Fast-casual type places are pretty open as well. I'm slowly branching out to entertainment venues/bars at this stage. They typically have higher margins and run specials (happy hour, buy one get one) more often already, so it's easier to get them to do some bitcoin rewards deals. Now that we have the Square integration, this helps a lot with onboarding businesses. It's already integrated into their workflow a bit more so the friction to onboard is a bit less.
  2. In general, I hit them with the bitcoin rewards pitch asap. It seems to hit the hardest.
"Interested in rewarding your customers with free bitcoin when they shop at your business?"
Notice how I'm leading with 'want to accept bitcoin?' or 'want to escape inflation and the wrath of central bankers?' (lol). This is by design. Give these businesses something that will get asses in seats. More customers in the door. Maybe give them something to differentiate their business from the competition. From there, you have their ear. One step at a time. Don't overload them.
  1. There's a pretty staunch segment of bitcoiners who believe that spending bitcoin is a scam. While I love the angle that 'everyone's a scammer' by Bitstein, I do think people should rethink the positive effects of using bitcoin locally and growing the bitcoin circular economy.
These days there are new tools in which you can participate in the bitcoin network without having to spend the asset. Strike, for example, allows you to effectively use the bitcoin network using dollars from your checking account. Sure, you're going to have to KYC, which I'm not a fan of either, but what's the alternative? Using Visa/Mastercard?
There are some who seem to make perfect the enemy of good as well. 'if we are using kyc'd btc, then it's a waste to even go down this path', etc. I strongly disagree with this as well. How did you get started with bitcoin? I was a noob who bought from an exchange, got into shitcoins, and had very little interest in privacy. Fast forward some years and that has dramatically changed. bitcoin changes people. Allow others to take the first steps into it much like the rest of us.
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100 sats \ 1 reply \ @k00b 23 Mar 2022
Thanks! It makes sense that the value to a business would be rewarding customers.
What does the future of e-commerce look like to you?
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1042 sats \ 0 replies \ @michael OP 23 Mar 2022
The future of Ecommerce is going to be wild. ₿commerce > Ecommerce in a million different ways.
One thing that I can't get out of my head is the fact that 85% of retail commerce in the USA is done in-store with cash or with the swipe of a card.
85%! Just 15% is done online. Of that 15%, Amazon and other major retailers dominate that market. In emerging markets obviously it's far less as many don't have access to financial services to send or receive online payments.
So what's going on? Why can't small businesses get involved in Ecommerce in a meaningful way?
  1. More expensive to sell online than it is to sell in-store.
  2. More friction for the customer to pre-order when they may be walking into the store anyway.
  3. Marketing efforts for small businesses are fragmented. Their own website, email blasts no one reads, competing for attention on Facebook and Instagram and social media networks as opposed to a local ecommerce marketplace.
  4. Creating and managing an ecommerce site can be cumbersome and expensive.
  5. Introduces more fraud into the mix due to chargeback risk.
Once businesses realize that ₿commerce is far superior to Ecommerce, and in-store commerce, things are going to get interesting.
  1. Cheaper to sell online for the first time EVER, without any risk of chargebacks or fraud.
We've really gotten away from the days where the businesses had the power - in a good way. If someone paid in cash, it was up to the business whether they wanted to refund the angry customer. The businesses have a reputation to uphold and it is in their best interests to keep the customers happy. Today, a customer can simply call up the bank and charge back the purchase, whether due to a valid concern, mistake, or because they're shitty consumers.
  1. We can create local ₿commerce marketplaces whereby incentives exist for consumers to pre-order or pre-pay for their local goods and services, saving the businesses money, while simultaneously rewarding the customer.
  2. If the incentives are right, I believe local ₿commerce marketplaces will sprout up that better serve small businesses, aggregating local deals and promotions giving them visibility all in one place, without customers having to stumble upon them on a variety of different platforms unfit for small businesses. Sort of like an amazon marketplace, except for local SMB commerce.
  3. Merchants around the world who have never had access to digital payments can now set up their online shop in minutes and begin promoting their business right away using tools like Oshi.
I'm seeing massive Ecommerce growth in emerging markets to the point where they actually leapfrog more developed nations in % retail ecommerce. This flips everything on its head. With that being said, it's not too early for business of the western world to benefit from it as well.
It's going to be beautiful.
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