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Being a cryptocurrency that is spreading throughout the world, these digital currencies have become a very important tool in the eCommerce sector.
Mexican e-commerce is positioned as the second most profitable in terms of retail sales in Latin America.
In Mexico there are already some 120 firms that accept cryptocurrencies as a means of payment, according to Bitso.
The popularity of cryptocurrencies and technologies such as Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) continue to expand with each passing day. That is why crypto currencies are currently being implemented in various sectors such as eCommerce.
According to data from Statista, investment in cryptocurrencies is quite popular in India, where in 2021 18 percent of respondents said they own bitcoins or altcoins.
Likewise, the statistics platform points out that currencies based on blockchain technology have also experienced an important boom in countries like South Korea, the United States or Germany. In Spain, 14 percent of respondents say they use or own cryptocurrencies in 2021, compared to 10 percent in 2019. In contrast, in the two Latin American countries included in the graph, Brazil with 16 percent and Mexico with 11%, percentages remain unchanged.
Accept cryptocurrencies in eCommerce?
Being a cryptocurrency that is spreading all over the world, These digital currencies have become a very important tool in the eCommerce sector.
Statista details that from the acquisition of digital books to the purchase of automobiles, online commerce has become the preferred purchase channel for millions of consumers worldwide. Such is the magnitude of this market that, in Mexico alone, its value amounted to approximately 14.5 billion US dollars in 2019.
In this sense, Mexican e-commerce is positioned as the second most profitable in terms of retail sales in Latin America, surpassed only by Brazil, one of the countries with the most online sales globally.
That is why digital currencies are not yet part of the common digital ecosystem of e-commerce. In Mexico there are already some 120 firms that accept cryptocurrencies as a means of payment, according to Bitso.
Given this, Carlos Segura, CMO for Latin America at Ecomsur, a company specialized in the comprehensive implementation of Ecommerce services for large companies, explained that “the reasons for this are several, such as the adaptation time of a new payment technology, the platforms around it and the very volatility that characterizes cryptocurrencies”.
Likewise, Ecomsur establishes that for this payment method to reach better numbers in the country, it highlights that as main points for and against setting up Ecommerce payment solutions in Mexico is permissive regulation, security in the transaction, irreversible transactions, lower fees, inflation and volatility.
As the main point to make use of cryptocurrencies in eCommerce, the importance of permissive regulation must be taken, where the Law to Regulate Financial Technology Institutions (Fintech Law) It is the regulations that regulate the use of cryptocurrencies in the country.
In the country, so far, there is no prohibition for businesses to accept them, but Banco de México does not recognize these assets as legal tender in Mexico.
“This means that, although the law is permissive to implement the use of cryptocurrencies in Ecommerce, their exchange is not subject to the country’s financial authority, so businesses that decide to accept it (as long as they are not financial institutions) they assume the responsibility and the risk of the transaction”, explains Segura.
As a second point to take into account is the security in the transaction that digital currencies must have. These digital currencies have a much stricter security support than any other currency in the world, since they are governed by block chain technology (Blockchain) that makes counterfeiting or fraud impossible.
This security means a positive point for the use of cryptocurrencies in eCommerce in Mexico, where according to the Mexican Association of Online Sales (AMVO), there is one of the highest fraud intention rates in the world, where 4 out of 10 transaction attempts hide potential fraud.
Transactions with cryptocurrencies also mean having irreversible transactions, so this challenge comes when the user requests a refund, forcing brands to generate a manual process to make the charge retroactive.
“The reversibility conditions for cryptocurrencies can become a headache for large businesses, since it would generate inefficiency in certain operations and an additional investment in work teams,” warns the manager.
In that same order, another point in favor is that the use of cryptocurrencies is of lower rates. Currently, merchants bear the transaction cost and the use of platforms, which differs between services such as PayPal, MercadoPago or bank cards.
When it comes to cryptocurrencies, the cost of the transaction fee is just 1 percent, which represents the lowest cost in the entire payment ecosystem.
“On the other hand, cryptocurrencies will tighten international trade, as they avoid currency exchange fees, as well as transaction validation time. They are an important window to speed up the internationalization of business”, adds Segura.
Carlos Segura indicates that “cryptocurrencies are alien to inflation, but they are extremely volatile.” So the change in value of a digital currency can vary more than 10 percent between a month and another, a factor that has prevented it from being seen as a reliable currency by many businesses, analyzes the expert.
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