A few months after announcing its entry into The Sandbox (SAND) metaverse, Gucci has announced that cryptocurrencies will now be accepted in some of its US outlets. This is a significant step into the world of Web 3.0, especially as the Italian brand hopes to eventually expand this payment method throughout its shops.
Gucci accepts cryptocurrencies as payment method
Some time after entering The Sandbox (SAND) metaverse, Gucci continues to show its interest in Web 3.0 and cryptocurrencies.
Starting at the end of May, the brand will accept more than a dozen cryptocurrencies in five of its shops in the United States, including the Wooster Street store in the heart of New York, the Rodeo Drive store in Los Angeles and the Miami Design District store.
The brand will accept leading cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Wrapped Bitcoin (wBTC), as well as five dollar-backed stablecoins, Dogecoin (DOGE) and Shiba Inu (SHIB).
For payments, when a customer makes a purchase in the shop, they will receive an email containing a QR code allowing them to validate the transaction directly from their own digital wallet.
The retailer is then free to keep the assets as cryptocurrencies or to transform them into fiat currency, such as the US dollar as far as these shops are concerned. According to the press release, Gucci hopes to eventually develop this new payment method in all its shops.
Gucci is not the first luxury brand to integrate cryptocurrency payments in its stores. Indeed, Virgil Abloh’s brand Off-White already accepts this type of payment in its eponymous shops in Paris, London and Milan.
We could also mention the brand Philipp Plein, which, in addition to having amassed more than 150 BTC in reserve, is going to open a gallery of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in one of its London shops. Both are high-end streetwear brands aimed at a relatively young audience
Luxury appeal of cryptocurrencies
Gucci’s interest in Web 3.0 is not new, as previously demonstrated by its “Gucci Garden” interactive experience that garnered no less than 19 million people.
The brand has also developed exclusive skins for video games such as Animal Crossing or Pokemon Go, as did the famous British brand Burberry for the game Honor of Kings.
To raise awareness of this new world, Gucci’s parent company Kering recently launched an in-house game in partnership with the Al Dente agency. According to one of the company’s spokespersons, the number of employees who showed interest was much higher than expected.
According to Marco Bizzarri, Gucci’s CEO, these are all new features that enhance the experience of its customers:
“Now that we are able to integrate cryptocurrencies into our payment system, it is a natural evolution for customers to have this option. “
We also recall LVMH’s collaboration with Microsoft and Consensys to develop a product traceability platform using blockchain technology, a project that dates back to 2019 already.
More recently, Hermès, one of the flagships of the French luxury industry, announced that the metaverse was a good communication tool. Its CEO, Axel Dumas, said on that occasion that he was “curious and interested” in these virtual worlds.
