How to Convince Big Chains like Burger King to Accept Crypto (And How GoCrypto Did It)

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Avatar for AkaneYokoo
3 years ago

Intro
At the virtual Bitcoin Cash meetup we hosted on April 29th, GoCrypto (Eligma Ltd.) CEO Dejan Roljic shared some tips for onboarding merchants. The tips he shared were interesting and I’d like to share them in this article. 

GoCrypto(gocrypto.com) is a global payment service for both physical and online merchants. They are around 40 staff and based in Slovenia. They currently enable payments in BTC, BCH, ETH, and their own token GoC with fiat settlement. They have onboarded more than 1300 merchants in 13 countries and have been ever expanding. I had a chance to meet the GoCrypto team before in Tokyo, and I was impressed with their passion, knowledge, and razor-sharp focus on merchant adoption.

Dejan Roljic, CEO of Eligma Ltd. (GoCrypto)

How GoCrypto Started

We first asked how they generally onboarded merchants. We often hear how individuals onboard merchants, but I was interested to hear how companies like GoCrypto did this. Half way through the meetup, I was surprised to find out that the tips he shared with us were very similar to what we as individuals have been doing.
Dejan explained that GoCrypto first started onboarding smaller merchants. They started with places such as a tattoo shop, bars and restaurants that they were going to often. Then they started building more merchants around these early use cases.

Be a Good Customer
I noticed that GoCrypto was doing something that I strongly believe is important, which is to be good customers for the merchants by using their service showing them the potential support they will get more once they start accepting crypto. GoCrypto team proactively had meetings at some of the restaurants with 10-15 people, and occasionally had meetups.

Be Transparent and Honest
Dejan emphasized that being fully transparent and honest to the merchants is essential. I agree with this too. The reality is that we are still at an early stage of adoption and we do not have many users and it is not like the merchants suddenly will get a lot of customers after deciding to accept crypto. GoCrypto makes this point clear to the merchants, but they would pitch other benefits. For example, they offer additional exposure on social media, explain to them that crypto is a borderless money, which means loyal users from all over the world will notice and support if the merchants start accepting.


How They Onboarded the Burger King Chain

This is how they onboarded Burger King, according to Dejan:
One guy from his enthusiastic sales team was a regular customer at BK and he told the clerk that he will keep buying things as long as they will accept crypto. He was also being a good customer, and bought a lot of items at Burger King. The CEO of the Burger King chain happens to be there and he got interested in what this crypto-enthusiastic GoCrypto employee had to say, and the CEO decided to hear him out. Then he decided to start accepting crypto for his Burger King chain in Slovenia! What a fun and encouraging story. 

I think it is usually harder for us individuals or small groups to onboard big merchants like chains of popular fast-food restaurants or supermarkets because it is usually rare for you to be able to meet the people who have the decision-making powers such as owners, CEOs or the managers, and also because of the large corporate size, it will be much harder for decisions like starting accepting new currency to go through.
This case of meeting the CEO of Burger King I do think is rare and fortunate, but that is actually just one of the steps and I do believe the enthusiasm of GoCrypto staff made this whole thing happen. To share my own experience too, I have helped onboard a medium size chain with 14 shops across Japan, and we were fortunate to be able to meet the owner because of Roger Ver’s connection, but we also worked hard to follow up to make sure they will actually start accepting crypto (though they were cooperative), so I know that being able to meet the owner was not everything.
Anyway, next time you run across a CEO of Starbucks chain in your country, maybe it may not be such a bad idea to take courage and ask them to accept crypto;) 

Other Ways to Onboard Big Businesses

GoCrypto also onboarded some big chains of supermarket which have more than 30 locations, without meeting the CEO first. This is how they made this happen for one chain: They first noticed that some of their users were sending emails to this particular supermarket chain, recommending GoCrypto service and saying they should start accepting crypto. GoCrypto quickly noticed what was happening, and they started asking more people to do the same. After many people sent emails to the chain, the marketing team of this supermarket asked GoCrypto to come and explain about their service. They decided to accept crypto after a successful pitch by GoCrypto! I think this is something we can all learn from and it’s what all of us can do. 

Lastly...
I hope you found these tips helpful and fun. I think in this early crypto adoption stage, onboarding any size merchants are important to lead our way to bigger adoption. Like GoCrypto and probably many other successful ‘BCH Cities’, adoption usually starts small. So go talk to that restaurant you often go to, or the cafe that your friend owns. And let’s also have hope and keep asking bigger companies to accept crypto! Someday maybe they will.  


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3 years ago

Comments

This experience shows the power of starting small and laser focused.

$ 0.00
3 years ago

That good food indeed, they will be very delicious when eating them.

$ 0.00
3 years ago

There is no harm in trying, Success comes to those who try, In these kinds of scenerio what worse can happen ? other then hearing NO , That two words cant demotivate any one from trying. really liked the story thanks for sharing

$ 0.10
3 years ago

GoCrypto does an excellent job. It is active at more and more locations in more and more countries. I know of no other company that allows BCH payments, which is expanding so quickly and in so many countries.

$ 0.10
3 years ago

if we really want to make BCH and cryptos in general more popular and increase the number of cyrptocurrencies users that's exactly what we need to do. we have to convince more brands to accept this kind of payments...nicely done guys!

$ 0.00
3 years ago

Eating burger king and spreading BCH mass adoption is a match made in heaven! Some great tips for the BCH community! Get out there!

$ 0.10
3 years ago

They first noticed that some of their users were sending emails to this particular supermarket chain, recommending GoCrypto service and saying they should start accepting crypto. GoCrypto quickly noticed what was happening, and they started asking more people to do the same. After many people sent emails to the chain, the marketing team of this supermarket asked GoCrypto to come and explain about their service. They decided to accept crypto after a successful pitch by GoCrypto!

I really enjoyed this part :) thank you for sharing this Akane. These are really indeed useful tips :)

$ 0.00
3 years ago

I do not see the benefit of it. I need to change the euro to BTC or something else (pay fee) and next pay my burger with it? It will only cost me extra plus I cannot say I like Burger King. It might be great if you earn a lot by trading but most of us do not belong to the group of these lucky people. It only costs us money.

There's no mass adoption, there are way too much cryptocurrencies and fees to make it work. The main problem if you ask me plus everything we have has a value. The value is gone if the price drops. A business lost it's income, profit.

$ 0.00
3 years ago

That's a good point @wakeupkitty. Trading and speculation is fine, but in Bitcoin Cash, we aim for global use as cash. Many of us use it every day for regular transactions and running our businesses. We earn and pay Bitcoin Cash without going back to the legacy financial system as much as possible. The same was true with the internet many years ago. It was hard and only accessible to a small group of people at first. @AkaneYokoo and others like her are working hard to make it accessible to everyone.

$ 0.01
3 years ago

After many people sent emails to the chain

I've been sending emails asking places I want to shop at to talk with bitpay, and have been doing this for years.

$ 0.00
3 years ago

Burger King adoption was one of the biggest moves in crypto during recent years. I also enjoyed the part mentioning you have to be clear with them that they are not gonna get a huge boost after accepting crypto. That's very true and I noticed it first hand how merchants get disappointed after not getting the sales they expected. The promise of loyal customers is a good offer tho!

$ 0.12
3 years ago

So can I pay for a burger at BK in the US with BCH?

$ 0.00
3 years ago

No, GoCrypto is currently available at these locations https://gocrypto.com/en/locations

$ 0.00
3 years ago

Oh nice! I will keep track of it. I was also on the Bitcoin.com app and it looks like there are some merchants around me in the US who accept BCH which is pretty cool.

$ 0.00
3 years ago

This is a very important write up which could be used in terms of the marketing strategies highlighted. "If the marketing gimmicks are well employed by BCH promoters, many big corporations could be enrolled in the BCH ecosystem sooner than expected". Keep doing the good job!

$ 0.00
3 years ago

Very insightful. Thank you.

$ 0.00
3 years ago

GoCrypto and Burger King fit well together as they both offer fast services to customers that want something different. GoCrypto’s instant fast payments, quicker than credit cards or cash, were a perfect solution for keeping the lines down and the customers happy. Another big selling point that convinced BK is that GoCrypto's scheme is easily integrated into existing POS systems and requires no crypto knowledge or additional staff training.

Thank you for the post!

If you are interested in more check out our webpage https://gocrypto.com/ and follow us on twitter https://twitter.com/eligmacom or our telegram group where we post regular updates. 🐘

$ 0.00
3 years ago

Very interesting. Thank you!

$ 0.00
3 years ago

Nice article please send me your whasapp number

$ 0.00
3 years ago

Next time I visit a city with a GoCrypto Burger King, I know what I'm eating.

$ 0.00
3 years ago

One of the great articles I have read. Keep the good works up

$ 0.00
3 years ago