Gucci to Trial Cryptocurrency Payments in Select U.S. Stores

High-end luxury fashion house Gucci is all set to accept cryptocurrency in five stores in the US later this month, as part of the company’s Web 3 exploration.

The pilot is aimed to test the acceptance of Bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Ethereum (ETH), Wrapped Bitcoin (wBTC), Litecoin (LTC), Dogecoin (DOGE), Shiba Inu (SHIB), as well as five stablecoins pegged to the US Dollar in five of the luxury fashion house’s U.S. stores. If successful the plan is to extend the crypto payment functionality to all non-franchise North American shops, a report from Vogue Business detailed.

The five Gucci stores participating the trial are Wooster Street in New York, Rodeo Drive in Los Angeles, Miami Design District, Phipps Plaza in Atlanta and The Shops at Crystals in Las Vegas.

Marco Bizzarri, Gucci president and CEO, commented:

“Gucci is always looking to embrace new technologies when they can provide an enhanced experience for our customers. Now that we are able to integrate cryptocurrencies within our payment system, it is a natural evolution for those customers who would like to have this option available to them.”

In order to make the crypto payment, the store will send a QR code to the customer’s email, allowing customers to interact with their chosen wallet.

Gucci’s process will utilize an undisclosed service provider to pool bitcoin price values from multiple cryptocurrency exchanges in real time in an attempt to determine the most accurate BTC amount with which to charge the customer.

In case an item is returned by a customer, the Gucci has a process to pay them back with the cryptocurrency used at the time of purchase.

According to the report, a typical retailer setups enabling companies like Gucci to accept cryptocurrencies usually consist of the retailer automatically converting the cryptocurrency into fiat. It was not disclosed, if Gucci has plans to make an instant conversion to fiat or hold the cryptocurrecy received as payment.