Throughout the year, the company had published several forecasts. In the first year of Bitcoin acceptance, CEO Patrick Byrne mentioned expectations of USD 10-15 million, and even USD 20 million in 2014.
Bitcoin news generated sales of $3 million
Throughout the year, onlinebetrug had published several forecasts. In the first year of Bitcoin news, CEO Patrick Byrne mentioned expectations of $10-15 million, and even $20 million in 2014.
Judd Bagley, Communication and General Manager of Overstock Cryptocurrency Group, confirmed that the company had anticipated Bitcoin’s revenues to exceed $3 million:
„Even though we are proud of the sales figures and that customers are paying in Bitcoin, we still expected higher revenues.
Overstock recently announced that more than 11,100 customers paid in Bitcoin on the US and international websites.
The announcement comes in the midst of a period of bad headlines about Bitcoin’s price performance by major publishers. Currently, we are hearing more and more about the depreciation of Bitcoin against the US dollar in 2014.
Overstock became one of the largest Bitcoin accepting companies in the world in January. The acceptance on the part of Overstock aroused the interest of many other companies who followed suit and now accept Bitcoin.
Sluggish international sales figures of Bitcoin formula
Bagley pointed out that the overall lower than expected Bitcoin formula was due to international distribution. According to Overstock, international customers generate weekly „several thousand“ dollars. However, the company expected at least 7,000-8,000 US dollars, as is also the case on the US website about Bitcoin formula.
Nevertheless, Bagley stresses that individual international customers tend to spend more than the average US citizen.
„An interesting observation is that average purchases are unusually high at $400-500 per order,“ Bagley says. „So a few people on the international website make big purchases, even if they only do it four to five times a week.
Overstock did not say how much of the $3 million could be attributed to international business. However, the company had already reported a turnover of 1 million US dollars in just 2 months in March. At that time a payment with Bitcoin was only possible in the USA. These figures also suggest that the Bitcoin payment of „only“ $2 million over the next 10 months must have decreased over the year.
Strong metrics
Although Bitcoin’s sales did not fully meet expectations, Bagley stressed that Overstock had seen significant profits.50% of Bitcoin customers had never placed an order with Overstock.com before and there was no trace of the Bitcoin support tearing down.
„It’s impossible not to exaggerate how important Bitcoin is to the company. Just for winning new customers in this highly competitive market,“ says Bagley.
Bagley estimates that the average customer acquisition for a single customer in the e-commerce industry is approximately $20. With the integration of Bitcoin alone, the company has been able to save around USD 200,000 so far.