Deloitte Survey Clearly Shows Crypto Payments Are The Next Big Thing In Commerce

A new Deloitte survey titled “Merchants getting ready for crypto” contains extremely bullish news. It clearly shows that businesses of all sizes are getting ready for all kinds of crypto payments. And the vast majority believe that they will become ubiquitous in the next few years. Merchants, they are just like us. Deloitte produced the survey in association with PayPal, which is telling and arises questions. 

“Survey respondents are very optimistic about digital currencies in the consumer market, reporting broad agreement that accepting digital currency payments is already a point of differentiation, and are expected to see broad near-term adoption,” Deloitte concludes. Besides that, merchants see “benefits such as speed of payments and cost efficiencies”. Which shows they’re not in just for the flashy “differentiation,” and already see all of the benefits it could bring to them. 

As for the methodology, let’s quote the document:

“The survey focuses on US consumer businesses, with annual revenues ranging from below $10 million to $500 million and above, asking their views on digital currency payments and the investments they’ve made in payment infrastructure, as well as their plans for the years ahead.”

So, these are medium to big-sized players we’re dealing with here. Deloitte doesn’t differentiate between bitcoin and crypto, and doesn’t specify exactly which cryptocurrencies the merchants are talking about. The survey company makes a point of separating stablecoins from the rest of the cryptocurrencies, though.

• “Around two-thirds (64%) of our surveyed merchants indicated that their customers have significant interest in using digital currencies for payments.” These are staggering numbers, considering the majority of the population doesn’t even know what a stablecoin is. If merchants are perceiving this tendency, chances are it does exist. 
• “83% expect consumer interest in digital currencies for payments to increase or significantly increase over the next 12 months.” We agree wholeheartedly, Deloitte.
• “More than 85% of the organizations are giving high or very high priority to enabling cryptocurrency payments, while roughly 83% are doing the same for stablecoins.” We’re willing to bet not many people in crypto suspects that the numbers are this high. If they did, they’d be even more bullish.  
• ”Around 85% of surveyed merchants expect that digital currency payments will be ubiquitous among suppliers in their industry in five years.” We agree wholeheartedly, Deloitte. In five years we’ll live in a new universe, and crypto will be one of the catalysts.
• “Nearly three-quarters of those surveyed reported plans to accept either cryptocurrency or stablecoin payments within the next 24 months.” The positive attitude is there and plans are underway.

How could you not be bullish? 

• “An overwhelming majority of those who currently accept cryptocurrency as a payment instrument (93%) have already seen a positive impact on their business’s customer metrics, such as customer base growth and brand perception.”.This is as close to unanimously as we’re going to get, Delloite. The hype is real.
• “They expect to derive value from their digital currency adoption in three distinct ways: improved customer experience (48% of respondents), increased customer base (46%), and brand is perceived as cutting edge (40%).“ No comments on this one.
• “It is worth noting that 86% see a significant benefit to their finance and cash management for accepting digital currency payments.” The key word is efficiency, and that’s crucial for businesses. Even a tiny percentage increase can make a huge difference overall. And crypto offers a significant increase.   

• “In fact, 26% have already integrated digital currencies in their finance functionality such as revenue cycle and treasury, and 61% plan to do it over the next 24 months.” If the government permits it, this is a crucial aspect as well. Accepting cryptocurrency is one thing, holding it is a level or two above that.
• “Over half (54%) of large retailers (with revenues of $500 million and up) have invested more than $1 million on enabling digital currency payments, while only 6% of small retailers (with revenues of under $10 million) did so.” As it should be, Delloite. As it should be.
• “Slightly more than a quarter (26%) of the organizations surveyed for this report have already begun integrating digital currency into their finance department functionality, but more than a third of respondents (39%) plan to begin integration within a year.” Considering holding cryptocurrencies is a high-risk maneuver, these are phenomenal numbers.

And that’s what Deloitte and the companies that they interviewed had for us. Here’s hoping they provide us with new mind-blowing material sooner than later.