Payment adoption involving cryptocurrency among large enterprises is gaining traction as more businesses seek to leverage the popularity of digital assets to attract more customers.
Walmart Hints at the Future with Crypto
The U.S.-based retail behemoth, Walmart, is considering a future with cryptocurrency. According to its Global Chief Technology Officer, Suresh Kumar, cryptocurrency is set to disrupt the global payment system. Consumers are becoming more open by embracing new products, ensuring digital asset payment becomes widely accepted.
He said:
“Part of the changes in the global financial ecosystem will happen in the Metaverse. A part will be on live streams, while a part will happen on numerous social media apps. Customers’ transactions will increasingly rely on cryptocurrency. We want to ensure that customers can transact and buy with as little friction as possible and that they can derive value from it.”
The Walmart CTO added that crypto assets would play a critical role in customers’ choices, whether physical goods transactions or virtual.
As a result, the Walmart executive believes that crypto tokens will disrupt the payment landscape by bringing in different options. He added that cryptocurrency will continue to play a vital part in transactions and that Walmart wants to be seen where customers want it to be.
Commenting on product discovery, Kumar noted that new ways of delivery arise as new services shoot up. In addition, a lot of disruption takes place when this happens.
Walmart is one of the few traditional e-commerce firms preparing to enter the virtual ecosystem. Already, the company has filed several trademark applications since last year in preparation for the digital economy. The trademarks applications filed involved cryptocurrency, NFT, and Metaverse.
Meanwhile, the retail giant announced its Metaverse entry in September following the launch of Walmart Land and Universe of Play on the Roblox ecosystem.
Crypto and the Retail Industry
Following the explosion of digital financial assets into the mainstream, many established businesses were not ready for the abrupt change. However, fast forward to 2021, and many traditional enterprises across different industries have embraced cryptocurrency.
The asset is gaining traction and is one of the most widely used methods of transactions. However, experts believe that crypto is still in its infancy, with just a handful of retail stores accepting it for payment.
What is glaring for all is that its acceptance is snowballing thanks to the increasing asset awareness. Moreover, industry analysts believe that crypto adoption is only a matter of when, not if, as Amazon paves the way for others to follow. The retail giant has already begun accepting payments in crypto. This implies a milestone has been reached in the retail sector.
The key here is the customer’s request to use crypto payment. Research has shown that businesses always grant their customers’ demands, which means it is only a matter of time before all retail payment gateways integrate crypto payment.
In the meantime, Walmart is yet to start accepting payments in digital currency.