Luxury Retailer Farfetch To Accept Bitcoin Payments

The luxury retailer will begin accepting bitcoin as payment in select locations as a trial with plans to extend to the whole customer base.

• Farfetch will begin accepting payments in bitcoin in the upcoming months.
• The feature will be trialed in high-end stores located in the EU and then rolled out to the U.S., Europe and the U.K. afterwards.
• The luxury e-retailer also partnered with German cryptocurrency payment gateway provider Lunu, which will be providing in-store terminals.

Farfetch Limited (NYSE:FTCH), a leading digital platform in luxury fashion, will begin accepting bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies for payment, according to a report from MarketWatch.

The acceptance of bitcoin for payment will be trialed with high-end European stores located in Paris, London, Milan and Browns at first. Afterwards, the British-Portuguese company intends to roll out the functionality to all U.S., U.K. and European customers later this year.

“This was a crucial step to test and learn, and we are excited to share our technical and service know-how with our community,” José Neves, founder and CEO of Farfetch, reportedly said.

The luxury e-retailer is partnering with Berlin-based Lunu, a cryptocurrency payment infrastructure provider, to provide the necessary rails for accepting cryptocurrencies like bitcoin. Lunu will also be providing point-of-sale terminals for in-store payments. While in a physical location, customers will only need to scan a QR Code with their smartphones to pay in bitcoin.

“As a platform company, we are continually innovating to serve as the bridge for the luxury industry to new technologies and environments where the luxury customer is today, and where they’ll be tomorrow,” Neves said. “With this move, we look forward to empowering our incredible boutique and brand partners to embrace cryptocurrency.”

Farfetch is joining a growing number of luxury brands enabling bitcoin as a payment option for customers. Fashion-house Balenciaga announced its arrival to the scene last month, as did Gucci, Swiss watchmaker Tag Heuer, SFLMaven and Continental Diamond.