Luxury E-Tailer Farfetch To Start Accepting Cryptocurrencies

Farfetch, a British-Portuguese luxury e-tailer, is all set to accept cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Binance Coin on its marketplace. The e-tailer said it plans to pilot with high-end private clients at stores located in Paris, Milan and London before expanding to the U.S. and more places in the U.K. and Europe from late 2022.

The crypto payment facility is already live at Farfetch-owned London retailer Browns. The feature will then be introduced to other countries.

“As a platform company, we are continually innovating to serve as the bridge for the luxury industry to new technologies and environments where the luxury customer is today, and where they’ll be tomorrow. With this move, we look forward to empowering our incredible boutique and brand partners to embrace cryptocurrency,” founder-CEO José Neves said.

Managing director Paul Brennan said, “As such, it was a natural next step for us to look at our cryptocurrency strategy. Giving our customers the opportunity to purchase with ease and confidence using their chosen cryptocurrency is an additional layer to this experience within our boutiques that we are proud to now introduce.”

The retailer has also announced a partnership with German crypto payment gateway provider Lunu in which the latter is expected to offer the relevant rails for accepting cryptocurrencies as well as point-of-sale terminals for in-store payments.

Luxury brands are increasingly getting into accepting Bitcoin and other forms of digital money. Gucci has also revealed that it would start a trial by initially accepting 12 cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Dogecoin, and Shiba Inu payments in some U.S. stores.

Other high-end brands such as Swiss watchmaker Tag Heuer, St. Louis-based jewellery store Continental Diamond have also joined the trend.