What do the e-commerce industry and the cryptocurrency market have in common? Their impressive growth. Granted, for now their rates differ significantly. The volume of the global online retail market stood at 1.55 trillion dollars in 2017, with an annual growth rate of 25.5%. At the same time, in its daily transaction volumes the cryptocurrency market has already reached medium size on the New York Stock Exchange, at about 50 billion dollars. According to the latest data from CoinmarketCap, the approximate capitalization of the entire cryptocurrency market is about 550 billion dollars. And many forecast a doubling in cryptocurrency volumes in 2018.
QUARTERLY INTERNET SALES VOLUMES AND MARKET GROWTH IN THE US
This all means that, rather than ignoring interesting trends, it’s worth keeping up with, if not staying ahead of world developments.
What do blockchain and cryptocurrency mean for the e-commerce industry? They mean fast transactions, low commissions, and a huge potential to attract new buyers holding cryptocurrency, at a time when the world market has not yet built up a sufficient offering of goods and services for this category of buyers.
EBay Has a Problem
In the current situation, the number of Bitcoin and altcoin holders has increased sharply, but the heavy-footed world of the retail giants has not had time to adjust to the processes underway.
Just think: how long will it take Amazon or eBay to introduce the option to pay for goods or services using digital currency? It’s suspected to take a while, since the primary issue comes down to the law, the possibilities for regulating transactions, and the complexities of taxation.
The fact of the matter is that the major companies cannot:
- Engage in commercial activities with cryptocurrencies in jurisdictions where it is forbidden.
- Calculate their tax burden and pay taxes.
- Exchange cryptocurrency for fiat currency.
Who Needs Altcoin?
And another question. Even if certain loopholes are found in the law, or if the global government makes concessions, what is the likelihood that payment systems will integrate all types of cryptocurrency, including the least popular altcoins?
The probability trends toward zero, even though it would be holders of exactly those assets who would most actively seek platforms where they can spend the “dead weight” they have accumulated.
Given the ever more brutal competition for customers, access to a new, developing market of cryptocurrency holders, with a highly solvent audience, would be a huge advantage for a recently launched project.
FLOGmall Knows What It’s Doing
The FLOGmall project team took into account all the nuances above when developing its international e-commerce platform, along with other considerations:
- Users will be able to exchange cryptocurrency for mass-market goods and services.
- Payment will be possible even with altcoins, which would create the ideal opportunity for exchanging illiquid goods for low-demand assets.
- Purchases through smart contracts would eliminate the risk of non-payment or non-receipt of goods.
- The purchase of goods or services for cryptocurrency would take place without the platform’s involvement or commission. This way, the platform does not impose its services on buyers, always offering an alternative, and significantly decreases the expenses of small-scale sellers compared to the large traditional e-commerce platforms.
As of now, the pool of cryptocurrency holders may be growing rapidly, but it remains insignificant as a proportion of all customers on the e-commerce market. This is why implementing additional payment methods for goods and services is not yet strategically important for the industry giants.
In the large internet companies, any change happens slower than developments in the market. For that reason, smaller players have the opportunity to be among the first to establish themselves in this market.