Ecommerce powerhouse Rakuten will allow Bitcoin payments, the company announced. Customers will be able to choose Bitcoin as a payment option on Rakutken.com (formerly Buy.com), to be followed by Rakuten.de in Germany and Rakuten.at in Austria.
Rakuten said the advantage to merchants of using the digital currency includes “instant global reach with no cross-border fees, no price volatility, and no fraud, risk or chargebacks.”
And the advantage to shoppers, it said: “enhanced security, privacy, and convenience.”
Rakuten is integrating Bitnet’s payment processing platform, making Rakuten one of the largest ecommerce companies in the world to begin accepting Bitcoin. Rakuten had invested in Bitnet last year.
Ina Steiner is co-founder and Editor of EcommerceBytes and has been reporting on ecommerce since 1999. She's a widely cited authority on marketplace selling and is author of "Turn eBay Data Into Dollars" (McGraw-Hill 2006). Her blog was featured in the book, "Blogging Heroes" (Wiley 2008). She is a member of the Online News Association (Sep 2005 - present) and Investigative Reporters and Editors (Mar 2006 - present). Follow her on Twitter at @ecommercebytes and send news tips to ina@ecommercebytes.com. See disclosure at EcommerceBytes.com/disclosure/.
