Croatia’s biggest supermarket chain, Konzum, has announced that customers can now pay with cryptocurrencies to buy products from its online store.
Pay for groceries with encryption
The initiative was carried out in partnership with Croatian payment processor Paycek, developed by local financial technology company Electrocoin. With the new payment system, which started on December 1st, Konzum customers have the option to choose to pay with one of nine different cryptocurrencies on the store’s online retail platform. The cryptocurrencies accepted in the online store are Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Ripple (XRP), Stellar (XLM), Dai (DAI), EOS (EOS), Tether (USDT) and currency of USD (USDC).
PayCek integrates cryptocurrency payment service
To pay in encryption, customers can scan a QR code after adding their items to their online cart. A confirmation of the transaction, along with an invoice from Konzum, will be emailed to the customer shortly thereafter. To counteract fluctuating cryptocurrency prices, PayCek guarantees the buyer a fixed exchange rate at the start of the transaction and provides sufficient time for successful execution. PayCek is very experienced in integrating a cryptocurrency payment module into online stores, having previously provided the same service to Croatian electric bicycle company Greyp Bikes.
The cryptocurrency payment option at Konzum is currently limited to online purchases only. However, the conglomerate plans to introduce the service even in its physical stores.
Uroš Kalinić of Konzum’s management team noted that the initiative was an attempt to stay ahead of global trends.
“As the biggest minority chain in Croatia, which in its 65 years of history is a continuous leader in the national market in terms of commercial results and technological achievements, we are proud to be leaders in another area that is rapidly developing and dictating the future.”
Cryptocurrency Retail Payments
Despite a series of regulatory turmoil, cryptocurrencies are slowly but surely making their way into mainstream retail. For example, Newegg, a large California-based e-commerce company, had already started accepting BTC as payment in 2014. Then, in early 2021, Newegg began accepting payments from Dogecoin (DOGE), shortly thereafter by Litecoin (LTC). More recently, the company made the news again, this time for including the popular Shiba Inu (SHIB) memecoin in its list of acceptable cryptocurrencies.